NASA's Deep Impact spacecraft struck a 4-mile-wide (6-km-wide) comet - called Tempel 1 - on July 4, 2005. This image was acquired 67 seconds after impact. Now a new impact mission is being planned. Image via ESA.
In what's being called humankind’s 1st planetary defense test, space scientists are planning to visit a double asteroid - Didymos and its tiny moon - and crash into the moon in attempt to change its orbit. Read more.
Everyone loves a good meteor shower, but what about an artificial one? A Japanese company plans to create one and has just launched hundreds of pellets to space. They'll ultimately rain down again in colorful displays. Read more.
In 1963, astronomer Maarten Schmidt had a sudden revelation that quasars are exceedingly distant and unimaginably luminous. His insight changed our notion of what the universe is like. Read more.
Your support means the world to us and allows us to keep going. At our store you'll find astronomy tools, EarthSky tees, hats, cool gadgets and even toys! Click here to shop
View larger at EarthSky Community Photos. | John Carter in Australia - where there's an ongoing heat wave - captured this image last weekend. He wrote: “Being a hot night, I couldn't sleep. So I got up, grabbed my camera gear, and drove out to a local swamp called Mullinger Swamp. This swamp, on a windless night, is always good for Milky Way reflections. Sometimes the water is so calm it's like a sheet of glass!” Thank you, John.
