"If you wish to make an apple pie truly from scratch, you must first invent the universe."

— Carl Sagan

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Trump administration reverses course on plan to dismantle ocean monitoring network

Scientific American.com - Thu, 06/18/2026 - 12:50pm

The effort to pull some 900 ocean-monitoring buoys and sensors from the water drew backlash from scientists and lawmakers

Categories: Astronomy

Ex-Google CEO Eric Schmidt’s Relativity Space selected for upcoming NASA Mars orbiter mission

Scientific American.com - Thu, 06/18/2026 - 12:15pm

This partnership marks the latest foray into space exploration for Relativity Space, which aims to build cheap, reusable rockets

Categories: Astronomy

Stages of Star Formation

NASA Image of the Day - Thu, 06/18/2026 - 12:14pm
This NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope Picture of the Month shows the giant molecular cloud Orion A, an area of the sky replete with star-forming clouds.
Categories: Astronomy, NASA

Stages of Star Formation

NASA - Breaking News - Thu, 06/18/2026 - 12:13pm
This NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope Picture of the Month shows the giant molecular cloud Orion A, an area of the sky replete with star-forming clouds.ESA/Webb, NASA & CSA, T. Megeath, M. Zamani (ESA/Webb) Acknowledgement: M. H. Özsaraç

This image, captured by NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope and released on June 5, 2026, shows just a small portion of one of the Orion Molecular Clouds, a long and massive filament of cold gas and dust beyond the Orion Nebula. Every stage of star formation — from the youngest stellar embryos to protoplanetary discs to newly-minted pre-main sequence stars — is contained within this scene which stretches 150 light-years across.

Read more about this image.

Image credit: ESA/Webb, NASA & CSA, T. Megeath, M. Zamani (ESA/Webb); Acknowledgement: M. H. Özsaraç

Categories: NASA

Stages of Star Formation

NASA News - Thu, 06/18/2026 - 12:13pm
This NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope Picture of the Month shows the giant molecular cloud Orion A, an area of the sky replete with star-forming clouds.ESA/Webb, NASA & CSA, T. Megeath, M. Zamani (ESA/Webb) Acknowledgement: M. H. Özsaraç

This image, captured by NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope and released on June 5, 2026, shows just a small portion of one of the Orion Molecular Clouds, a long and massive filament of cold gas and dust beyond the Orion Nebula. Every stage of star formation — from the youngest stellar embryos to protoplanetary discs to newly-minted pre-main sequence stars — is contained within this scene which stretches 150 light-years across.

Read more about this image.

Image credit: ESA/Webb, NASA & CSA, T. Megeath, M. Zamani (ESA/Webb); Acknowledgement: M. H. Özsaraç

Categories: NASA

Sophie Adenot's mid-mission highlights

ESO Top News - Thu, 06/18/2026 - 11:15am
Video: 00:02:03

Sophie is halfway through the εpsilon mission onboard the ISS, and she has already accomplished so much. Between hundreds of hours of scientific research and thousands of photographs taken from space, she has taken the time to share many unforgettable moments with us — inspiring millions along the way on social media.

Categories: Astronomy

How to watch August’s total solar eclipse live with Scientific American

Scientific American.com - Thu, 06/18/2026 - 10:30am

Even if you aren’t going to be within the path of totality, you can still watch the solar eclipse as it happens with Scientific American

Categories: Astronomy

Salty clouds discovered on pink puffball planet

Scientific American.com - Thu, 06/18/2026 - 10:20am

A cold, cherry-blossom-hued exoplanet supports bizarre clouds chock-full of salts

Categories: Astronomy

How one new telescope is going to change astronomy forever

Scientific American.com - Thu, 06/18/2026 - 9:45am

Construction of the Deep Synoptic Array is about to start in rural Nevada. It will reveal untold galaxies in stunning detail and help explain how they form and grow

Categories: Astronomy

Carl Sagan's The Demon-Haunted World is still supremely relevant today

New Scientist Space - Space Headlines - Thu, 06/18/2026 - 9:00am
Beautifully written, this guide to distinguishing between truth, misinformation and lies, first published in 1995, remains an essential read for anyone who considers themselves a critical thinker, says Leah Crane
Categories: Astronomy

Carl Sagan's The Demon-Haunted World is still supremely relevant today

New Scientist Space - Cosmology - Thu, 06/18/2026 - 9:00am
Beautifully written, this guide to distinguishing between truth, misinformation and lies, first published in 1995, remains an essential read for anyone who considers themselves a critical thinker, says Leah Crane
Categories: Astronomy

Complex life on Earth may last 500 million years longer than expected

New Scientist Space - Space Headlines - Thu, 06/18/2026 - 8:00am
As the sun expands over the coming billions of years, Earth will become inhospitable to any life more complex than a microbe – but that might take longer than we thought
Categories: Astronomy

Complex life on Earth may last 500 million years longer than expected

New Scientist Space - Cosmology - Thu, 06/18/2026 - 8:00am
As the sun expands over the coming billions of years, Earth will become inhospitable to any life more complex than a microbe – but that might take longer than we thought
Categories: Astronomy

“Shadow Blaster” Galaxy Might Have Sent High-Energy Neutrino to Earth

Sky & Telescope Magazine - Thu, 06/18/2026 - 8:00am

A star-forming galaxy in the early universe might have sent a ghostly particle known as a neutrino crashing into the ice at Earth’s South Pole, after an 11 billion-year journey through space.

The post “Shadow Blaster” Galaxy Might Have Sent High-Energy Neutrino to Earth appeared first on Sky & Telescope.

Categories: Astronomy

Hubble Glimpses Merging Galaxy Clusters

NASA - Breaking News - Thu, 06/18/2026 - 7:36am
Explore Hubble

2 min read

Hubble Glimpses Merging Galaxy Clusters This NASA Hubble Space Telescope image features a swarm of galaxies in the galaxy cluster called CL0016+1609 or MACS J0018.5+1626.NASA, ESA, H. Ebeling (University of Hawaii), D. Coe (STScI, ESA, JWST); Image Processing: G. Kober (NASA/Catholic University of America)

This NASA Hubble Space Telescope image features a galaxy cluster, called CL0016+1609 or MACS J0018.5+1626, that is very bright at X-ray wavelengths and is one of the most extensively studied clusters at X-ray and radio wavelengths. The X-ray observations of this cluster revealed that it is two clusters merging along our line of sight.

Researchers requested time to observe CL0016+1609 with Hubble’s Advanced Camera for Surveys because that data would help them accurately measure the cluster’s dark-matter distribution, which helps them study the merger and the role of CL0016+1609 in the large-scale structure of the universe. Hubble can’t directly see dark matter, but its infrared and visible light observations can detect dark matter’s gravitational lensing effects on the normal matter Hubble observes.

The data in this image also includes observations with Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3 taken as part of an observing program that obtained the first Hubble infrared images of 46 massive galaxy clusters and looked for distant galaxies gravitationally lensed by these clusters. Called RELICS (Reionization Lensing Cluster Survey), this survey found some 300 high-redshift candidate galaxies lensed by these clusters.

You can see the faint vertical arc of one of these distant galaxies in the image above. Look for it just to the left of the large elliptical galaxies in the center of the image. Another brighter, though shorter arc is visible just above and to the right of the large elliptical galaxies in the center of the image.

Facebook logo @NASAHubble @NASAHubble Instagram logo @NASAHubble

Media Contact:

Claire Andreoli
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight CenterGreenbelt, MD
claire.andreoli@nasa.gov

Share Details Last Updated Jun 18, 2026 EditorAndrea GianopoulosLocationNASA Goddard Space Flight Center Related Terms Keep Exploring Discover More Topics From Hubble Hubble Space Telescope

Since its 1990 launch, the Hubble Space Telescope has changed our fundamental understanding of the universe.

Hubble’s Galaxies

Hubble Science Highlights

Hubble Images

Categories: NASA

Hubble Glimpses Merging Galaxy Clusters

NASA News - Thu, 06/18/2026 - 7:36am
Explore Hubble

2 min read

Hubble Glimpses Merging Galaxy Clusters This NASA Hubble Space Telescope image features a swarm of galaxies in the galaxy cluster called CL0016+1609 or MACS J0018.5+1626.NASA, ESA, H. Ebeling (University of Hawaii), D. Coe (STScI, ESA, JWST); Image Processing: G. Kober (NASA/Catholic University of America)

This NASA Hubble Space Telescope image features a galaxy cluster, called CL0016+1609 or MACS J0018.5+1626, that is very bright at X-ray wavelengths and is one of the most extensively studied clusters at X-ray and radio wavelengths. The X-ray observations of this cluster revealed that it is two clusters merging along our line of sight.

Researchers requested time to observe CL0016+1609 with Hubble’s Advanced Camera for Surveys because that data would help them accurately measure the cluster’s dark-matter distribution, which helps them study the merger and the role of CL0016+1609 in the large-scale structure of the universe. Hubble can’t directly see dark matter, but its infrared and visible light observations can detect dark matter’s gravitational lensing effects on the normal matter Hubble observes.

The data in this image also includes observations with Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3 taken as part of an observing program that obtained the first Hubble infrared images of 46 massive galaxy clusters and looked for distant galaxies gravitationally lensed by these clusters. Called RELICS (Reionization Lensing Cluster Survey), this survey found some 300 high-redshift candidate galaxies lensed by these clusters.

You can see the faint vertical arc of one of these distant galaxies in the image above. Look for it just to the left of the large elliptical galaxies in the center of the image. Another brighter, though shorter arc is visible just above and to the right of the large elliptical galaxies in the center of the image.

Facebook logo @NASAHubble @NASAHubble Instagram logo @NASAHubble

Media Contact:

Claire Andreoli
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight CenterGreenbelt, MD
claire.andreoli@nasa.gov

Share Details Last Updated Jun 18, 2026 EditorAndrea GianopoulosLocationNASA Goddard Space Flight Center Related Terms Keep Exploring Discover More Topics From Hubble Hubble Space Telescope

Since its 1990 launch, the Hubble Space Telescope has changed our fundamental understanding of the universe.

Hubble’s Galaxies

Hubble Science Highlights

Hubble Images

Categories: NASA

Amazing Space | Space Videos - Thu, 06/18/2026 - 7:35am
Categories: Astronomy

1 in 3 psychologists say their patients use AI as a second therapist

Scientific American.com - Thu, 06/18/2026 - 7:00am

People are increasingly turning to AI for mental health support—but its design is “antithetical” to mental health care, experts say

Categories: Astronomy

The surprising science history behind New York City’s ticker-tape parades

Scientific American.com - Thu, 06/18/2026 - 6:00am

On Thursday Knicks fans are flocking to Manhattan for a ticker-tape parade. But where did ticker tape even come from?

Categories: Astronomy