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ASTRONOMY

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U.S. Navy Returns to Teaching Officers How to Navigate by the Stars

The Navy wants to reduce its dependence on GPS.

Jeremy Teaford, Vanderbilt University

Astronomers Discover an Eclipse That Lasts More Than 3 Years

When there's an eclipse, the newly discovered binary star system is shrouded in darkness for years.

ESA/Herschel/PACS/L. Decin et al.

Look Up! The Valentine's Day Star Is High in the Sky Tonight

The red supergiant even "pulses" as its atmosphere expands and contracts.

Sally Ride being interviewed by the media in 1983.

When Gloria Steinem Interviewed Sally Ride In 1983

"Everybody wanted to know about what kind of makeup I was taking up," Sally Ride said about the questions she was asked ahead of her historic flight into space. "They didn’t care about how well-prepared I was to operate the arm or deploy communications sa

Mathieu Ossendrijver in Science

Ancient Babylonians Used Geometry to Track the Planets

Calculations etched onto four stone tablets change the timeline of astronomy.

Gomez, et al., Bill Saxton, NRAO/AUI/NSF

Astronomers Capture Highest-Resolution Space Image Yet

The image is compiled from data collected by an orbiting radio satellite and 15 Earth-bound radio telescopes.

NASA / ESA / S. Beckwith (STScI) / Hubble Heritage Team

13 Tips for Stargazing From Astronomers

Even you city dwellers can see some celestial objects using these pro tips.

Wikimedia Commons // CC BY 4.0

Look Up Before Sunrise for the Next Month to See 5 Planets at Once

Like celestial Pokémon, this is your big chance to catch them all.

Penn State Flickr // CC BY-NC 2.0

5 of the World's Largest Telescopes—and Their Discoveries

You can visit all of them.

NASA

Look Up! The Geminid Meteor Shower Is Here

Sunday and Monday, the Geminid meteor shower rounds out 2015's offering of celestial wonders.

Danielle Futselaar // SETI International

There Is No Alien Megastructure in Our Galaxy After All

Theories that a flickering star was really a structure harnessing energy have been debunked.

iStock

Look Up Tonight! The Leonid Meteor Shower Will Blaze Across the Sky

The celestial show occurs every November.

See Saturn's Moon Enceladus From Just 30 Miles Up

While you were trick or treating, Cassini was sending to Earth images from the October 28 flyby of the Saturn moon Enceladus.

NASA

NASA Just Sampled an Alien Ocean on a Saturn Moon

Its mission: To make its deepest dive yet through the icy geysers (or “plumes”) of Enceladus’ south pole.

ESA/Rosetta/NAVCAM via Flickr // CC BY-SA IGO 3.0

Scientists Discover Oxygen in a Comet

This is the first time oxygen has been discovered in a cometary coma.

X-ray image of the remnants of SN 1006. Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons // Public Domain

Medieval Supernova Lit Earth’s Skies for Months

Astronomers around the world marveled at the brilliance of the “guest star.”

iStock

Astronomers Are Excited About a Strange Flickering Star in Our Galaxy

No one has ever seen a star behave this way before.

NASA

On Sunday You Will Be Able to See Uranus

NASA/JPL/University of Arizona

There's Liquid Water on Mars

It's salty and it's flowing right now, they say.

NASA

You Can See a Rare Total Eclipse of a Red Super Harvest Moon

The darkened terrestrial disk will be ringed by every sunrise and every sunset in the world, all at once.

NASA

Look Up Tonight! It's International Celebrate the Moon Night

Oohing and aahing are optional but recommended.

YouTube

How Neil deGrasse Tyson Got James Cameron to Edit Titanic—15 Years Later

When the famed astrophysicist pointed out an error in the Oscar-winning blockbuster, Cameron—ever the perfectionist—took action.

NASA's James Webb Space Telescope Releases First Images

10 Misconceptions About Space

No, the Sun isn't actually on fire. Here are a few more myths about space that are ready for debunking.

Smithsonian Institution, Wikimedia Commons // No restrictions

Meet the Woman Who Discovered the Composition of the Stars

When she first finished her revolutionary thesis, Payne was told that the results were "clearly impossible."