See This Year's Best Photos of the Milky Way

“Path to the Past”

A castle under the arch of the Milky Way. Photo: Jose Manuel Galvan Rangel

In this fantastical photo, a 16th-century Spanish castle is squarely under the arch of the Milky Way. The castle is in Extremadura, a region of western Spain. The best view is the massive structure above the castle, far more ancient than anything Earth has to offer.

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Watch a Comet Get Torn Apart by the Sun and Become a Headless Ghost

Comet MAPS (C/2026 A1) didn't survive its close encounter with the Sun, ruining its chances of brightening up the night skies.

Space & Spaceflight Passant Rabie Apr 10

Perseids Radiant Credit Preston Dyches Cc By Nc 2 0

Scientist Spots New Meteor Shower Linked to a Disintegrating Asteroid

Astronomer Patrick M. Shober found a new meteor shower—and it comes from an asteroid getting broken down by the Sun.

Space & Spaceflight Patrick M. Shober, The Conversation Apr 10

The artistic rendering shows the center of the galaxy Markarian 501, from which two powerful jets emanate. The supermassive black hole at the centre, whose existence was already known, partially bends the light from the jet behind it into a so-called Einstein ring.

Unprecedented Observation Reveals 2 Supermassive Black Holes Locked in a Tight Death Spiral

New research describes an unexpected double jet in a distant galaxy, revealing a pair of supermassive black holes on the verge of colliding.

Space & Spaceflight Passant Rabie Apr 7

An illustration of a red giant star near the Milky Way.

Astronomers Found the Closest Thing Yet to the Universe’s First Stars

The pristine star formed outside the Milky Way and later drifted into our galaxy.

Space & Spaceflight Passant Rabie Apr 7

Asteroid Ryugu Contains All 5 DNA and RNA Building Blocks, Study Shows

A new study adds to a growing body of evidence that suggests asteroid impacts played a critical role in the emergence of life on our planet.

Space & Spaceflight Ellyn Lapointe Mar 16

An illustration of a group of stars in the Milky Way galaxy

Our Sun Was Born in a Hellish Part of the Milky Way. New Research Explains How It Escaped

Without the mass stellar migration, life may not have been able to form on Earth.

Space & Spaceflight Passant Rabie Mar 13