StarDate
Episodes
Iodine
09 Apr 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Iodine is special. It’s the heaviest element that’s commonly needed by living organisms. In humans, it’s used by the thyroid to prod...
Distant Visitor
08 Apr 2026
Contributed by Lukas
A long-distance visitor might put in a good showing in the early morning sky this month. And astronomers will be paying close attention. Comet C/2025 ...
Kepler’s Supernova
07 Apr 2026
Contributed by Lukas
In October of 1604, a brilliant “new” star blazed to life in the constellation Ophiuchus. It was bright enough to see in the daytime for w...
SMILE
06 Apr 2026
Contributed by Lukas
The Sun sprays Earth with a constant shower of charged particles – the solar wind. But the shower sometimes becomes a storm – a barrage th...
Moon and Antares
05 Apr 2026
Contributed by Lukas
If we could send a spacecraft to the supergiant star Antares, it could take a really close look. In fact, it’s not hard to imagine that we could...
Beta Monocerotis
04 Apr 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Eighteenth-century astronomer William Herschel described the star system Beta Monocerotis as “one of the most beautiful sights in the heavens.&#...
Stellar Interactions
03 Apr 2026
Contributed by Lukas
We never know everything there is to know about a person from the first glance – or anything else, for that matter. And that includes the stars....
Moon and Spica
02 Apr 2026
Contributed by Lukas
The stars of Spica may be headed for a breakup. One of the two stars is likely to explode as a supernova. That may send the stars careening into the g...
Morning Mercury
01 Apr 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Mercury is just peeking into view in the dawn sky. The little planet is in the east in the waxing twilight, and looks like a bright star. It’ll ...
Alioth
31 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
For skywatchers, tonight’s a time for old friends. There’s an almost-full Moon, so its glare overpowers most of the stars in the night sky...
Making Contact
30 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Astronomers have been trying to hear from other civilizations for two-thirds of a century. So far, not a peep. But finding E-T might be the easy part....
Moon and Regulus
29 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
The star Regulus leads the Moon across the sky tonight. The bright heart of the lion is close to the upper right of the Moon at nightfall, with the ga...
Greedy Planet
28 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
A young planet is getting greedy. It’s gobbling up gas and dust from its surroundings. And observations last summer showed that its appetite got...
Circumbinary Planets
27 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
If you’re looking for a world like Tatooine, good luck. Of the more than 6,000 known planets in other star systems, fewer than 20 orbit both sta...
Moon and Gemini
26 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
In the lexicon of astronomy, Pollux is known a class K-zero-3 star. That tells us that the star’s surface is a little cooler and redder than the...
Moon and Jupiter
25 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Jupiter is the “big boy” of the solar system. It’s more than twice the mass of all the other planets combined. In many other star sy...
Moon and Elnath
24 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Elnath has dual citizenship. Officially, it’s the second-brightest star of Taurus, so it’s known as Beta Tauri. It marks the tip of one of...
Hyades
23 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Just about every star is born in a cluster – a family of dozens to thousands of stars. Most of these families fall apart, with the individual st...
Solar Temple
22 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
For the kings of ancient Egypt, the Sun was much more than just a glowing orb in the daytime sky. It was the god Ra, one of the most important of all ...
The Astronomer
21 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
An astronomer greets visitors to a science museum in Canberra, Australia. He’s made of riveted iron plates, and he stands atop a wide ring, gazi...
Moon and Venus
20 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
The crescent Moon and the planet Venus team up in the evening twilight tonight. Venus is the brilliant “evening star.” It’s below th...
Vernal Equinox
19 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Spring arrives in the northern hemisphere tomorrow morning, when the Sun crosses the celestial equator from south to north – the vernal equinox....
Messier 87
18 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
The heart of the galaxy Messier 87 is a cosmic maelstrom. A disk of super-heated gas that’s hundreds of times the size of our solar system encir...
Virgo Cluster
17 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
A galaxy cluster is like a cosmic blender. It stirs up the galaxies and the space between them. Nothing is left undisturbed. A perfect example is the ...
The First Step
16 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Snow blanketed the launch pad, and the rocketeers sipped hot malted milk to ward off the chill. But the launch they conducted a century ago today turn...
Leo Triplet
15 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
A three-way tug-of-war isn’t a common sight – unless you look toward the constellation Leo. Three galaxies there are tugging at one anothe...
Pi Day
14 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
It sounds like a toddler’s attempt to say “Friday” or, even better, a day to gorge on apple crumb or coconut cream. Alas, “Pi ...
Adhara
13 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
To the eye alone, the brightest star in the night sky is Sirius, the leading light of Canis Major, the big dog. It’s well up in the south at nig...
Messier Highway
12 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
For Charles Messier, star clusters were a nuisance. The French astronomer was mainly interested in comets. In the 18th century, finding a comet could ...
Canis Major
11 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Winter brings out the big dogs – some of the most prominent constellations of all. And one of those really is a dog: Canis Major, the big dog. I...
Amazing Stories
10 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
A magazine that first hit newsstands 100 years ago today was unlike anything readers had seen before. Its cover featured a brightly-colored painting o...
Moon and Antares
09 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
A future super-giant “onion” perches close to the Moon at dawn tomorrow. It’s the star Antares, the bright heart of the scorpion ...
Bad Neighbor
08 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Canopus would be a terrible neighbor. The star is big, bright, and hot, so it might blow away any planet-making materials around nearby stars. Even wo...
Argo Navis
07 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
The tale of Jason and the Argonauts is one of the biggest and boldest stories in Greek mythology. And it involves some of the greatest heroes, many of...
Comet Armada
06 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
The first ship in a solar-system armada reached its target 40 years ago today. Over the following week, four others joined it. Their target was Comet ...
Ancient Visitor
05 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Visitors sometimes just drop in on us. But a visitor to a home in Georgia took the notion of “dropping in” a bit far. It smashed through t...
Long Death Cry
04 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Last July, a space telescope heard the death cry of a star billions of light-years away. It was the longest outcry of its type ever detected – a...
Venus and Saturn
03 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Two of the planets of the solar system are crossing paths in the early evening. But they’re quite low in the sky, so they can be a bit tough to ...
Lunar Eclipse
02 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Life is all about cycles: birth and death, the rise and fall of the seasons, Taylor Swift tour eras. Many cycles play out in the sky as well. One of t...
Moon and Regulus
01 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
The Moon stalks the heart of the lion tonight. And seen from Hawaii, it’ll catch it. The Moon will “occult” the heart, blocking it f...
Missing Planets
28 Feb 2026
Contributed by Lukas
The planets in our solar system fit into two groups. Four of the planets are small and rocky; Earth is the largest. The other four are big and bloated...
Moon and Gemini
27 Feb 2026
Contributed by Lukas
You might forgive Pollux if it feels disrespected. It’s the brightest star of Gemini – twice as bright as Castor, its “twin.” ...
Moon and Jupiter
26 Feb 2026
Contributed by Lukas
If you head for orbit around Jupiter, you might want to take along your dust mop. Wide but thin rings encircle the planet. And they’re made of t...
Dangerous Storm
25 Feb 2026
Contributed by Lukas
The first solar flare ever observed was also by far the biggest yet seen. But such a monster storm will happen again. And when it does, it’s unl...
Danger Zone
24 Feb 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Anything that’s in Earth orbit faces the constant threat of radiation – energy and charged particles from the Sun and beyond. It can cause...
Moon and Pleiades
23 Feb 2026
Contributed by Lukas
To the eye alone, the Pleiades cluster looks like a small dipper of about seven stars – a few more if you have nice, dark skies. But when Galile...
Cruel Star
22 Feb 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Stars aren’t always nice to their offspring – especially at the end. As a star dies, it expands. It can get big enough to engulf some of i...
Mystery Lights
21 Feb 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Things sometimes flash in the night sky. That includes some weird and wonderful astronomical objects. Some of them shine for a few minutes or even sec...
Deep Dives
20 Feb 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Long-term missions to the Moon and Mars will need a good understanding of the machines, the environment – and the people. Friction among crew me...
Moon and Saturn
19 Feb 2026
Contributed by Lukas
If you stepped off a spacecraft onto the surface of Titan, you might experience a little dj vu. Saturn’s largest moon has many of the same f...
Moon and Planets
18 Feb 2026
Contributed by Lukas
The planet Mercury is putting in a decent appearance in the evening sky now. It looks like a bright star low in the west during twilight. And tonight ...
Evening Mercury
17 Feb 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Car wrecks aren’t all alike, so there’s a wide range in the results. The same principle may apply to the bodies of the early solar system,...
Busy Merger
16 Feb 2026
Contributed by Lukas
There’s nothing like a merger to stir things up. That applies not only to companies and families, but to galaxies as well. One example is Messie...
Grandfather
15 Feb 2026
Contributed by Lukas
A celestial grandfather strolls low across the south on winter evenings. He’s represented by two stars. In the western world, they’re part...
Winter Milky Way
14 Feb 2026
Contributed by Lukas
On summer nights, Earth faces the heart of the Milky Way Galaxy. That part of the Milky Way features dense clouds of stars. Under dark skies, it’...
Friday the 13th
13 Feb 2026
Contributed by Lukas
If you walk under a ladder after breaking a mirror, does that make your day doubly unlucky? Since we’re a science program, we’ll say no. B...
Deep Ocean
12 Feb 2026
Contributed by Lukas
The surface of Ariel looks like a sheet of paper that’s been loosely crumpled. It’s covered with ridges, wrinkles, and gashes. That may be...
New Identity
11 Feb 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Ursa Major III is doomed. It’s falling apart, and may vanish completely in a couple of billion years. There’s not much to it even now. It&...
Pleiades Complex
10 Feb 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Stars are born from huge clouds of gas and dust. Many of the stars remain close together, forming clusters. But as a cluster moves through the Milky W...
Moon and Antares
09 Feb 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Antares is a rare star. It’s one of the few named for what it’s not. The name is Greek. It combines “anti,” which means “...
Distant Relative
08 Feb 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Family members don’t always stay close together – they can be separated by thousands of miles. But one member of the Milky Way Galaxy̵...
Lynx
07 Feb 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Alpha Lyncis is only about a third of the age of the Sun. Yet the star has already zoomed through the prime phase of life. Now, it’s nearing the...
Moon and Spica
06 Feb 2026
Contributed by Lukas
The Moon snuggles close to the bright star Spica late tonight. They climb into good view by about midnight, and are high in the sky at dawn. At their ...
Messier 79
05 Feb 2026
Contributed by Lukas
The star cluster M79 is messy. It’s shedding some of its stars, creating a “tail.” Over the eons, in fact, the cluster might have lo...
Seeing Red
04 Feb 2026
Contributed by Lukas
In 1845, British astronomer J.R. Hind saw an amazing star in the constellation Lepus, the rabbit. He wrote that the star looked “like a drop of ...
Rare Hare
03 Feb 2026
Contributed by Lukas
The brightest star of the rabbit is a member of a rare class. It’s a yellow supergiant – a star that’s about the same color as the S...
Moon and Regulus
02 Feb 2026
Contributed by Lukas
From parts of the U.S., the Moon will briefly cover the heart of the lion tonight. The Moon will pass directly between Earth and the bright star Regul...
Oddest Month
01 Feb 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Odd little February is the shortest month of the year. Historians aren’t exactly sure just why that’s the case. But tracing its evolution ...
Blue Skies
31 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Powerful cold fronts move across North America at this time of year. These blankets of dry, cold air push away the clouds and haze, providing some ama...
Moon and Companions
30 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
The constellation Gemini consists of two long lines of stars capped by two of the brighter stars in the night sky. Many cultures have seen these stars...
Back to the Moon
29 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Gene Cernan was the last American to walk on the Moon. As he prepared to leave it, he expressed optimism that his colleagues would return soon. CERNAN...
Moon and Taurus
28 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
The Moon is a tale of two faces. The side we see – the nearside – features giant volcanic plains and a fairly thin crust. The far side fea...
Chiron
27 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
In Greek mythology, Chiron was the wisest of the centaurs – creatures who were half human and half horse. He taught other centaurs about medicin...
Centaurs
26 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
The realm of the giant outer planets is like a transit station for some smaller bodies. They come from beyond the orbit of Neptune, the solar system&#...
Visiting Astronomers
25 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Many of the features on the Moon are named for astronomers. So are features on Mars and other planets and moons. And hundreds of asteroids are named f...
Medusa Nebula
24 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
When a dying Sun-like star exhales its final breath, it’s a doozy. The star blows its outer layers of gas into space. That surrounds the star...
Doubling Up
23 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
There just aren’t enough superlatives to describe the galaxy OJ 287. It’s a quasar – an especially bright object powered by two supe...
Moon and Saturn
22 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Saturn’s rings are among the most beautiful features in the solar system – and the most mysterious. Scientists continue to debate how and ...
Osiris
21 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Orion climbs high across the sky on winter nights. It’s in the east-southeast at nightfall, and it’s easy to pick out. Look for the conste...
Lambda Orionis
20 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Orion is a land of monsters. It’s packed with stars that are among the most impressive in the galaxy – they’re big, heavy, and brigh...
Doomed Companion?
19 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
For a while now, astronomers have suspected that Betelgeuse has a companion. And they might have found it. If it really exists, though, it won’t...
40 Eridani
18 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
A research paper published a couple of years ago featured an ominous title: “The Death of Vulcan.” A team of astronomers killed off a poss...
Epsilon Eridani
17 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Epsilon Eridani is the third-closest star system that’s visible to the unaided eye – just 10 and a half light-years away. It was among the...
Riding the Wave
16 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
The stars on the rim of the galaxy are going for a ride. They’re bobbing up and down like the horses on a merry-go-round. They’re also rip...
Informative Beads
15 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Almost 11 million years ago, a large asteroid slammed into Earth, somewhere around Australia. It could have gouged a crater more than 15 miles wide, a...
Stormy Future?
14 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Farmers in the American breadbasket are used to weather troubles: floods, droughts, hail, and more. But a storm in May of 2024 was something new. It c...
Moon and Antares
13 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Earth is getting fainter. For proof, just look at the Moon – something that scientists have been doing for decades. They’ve been looking a...
The Footstool
12 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Mighty Orion the hunter has a mighty resting spot for his tired feet: Cursa, the second-brightest star of Eridanus, the river. The star’s name c...
Jupiter Opposition IV
11 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Earth passed by Jupiter yesterday. Now, we’re beginning to leave the giant planet behind. We’ll loop past it again early next year. That p...
Jupiter Opposition III
10 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
The closer we look at the worlds of the solar system, the more places we see that could be homes for life. Some of those worlds orbit Jupiter, the lar...
Jupiter Opposition II
09 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Jupiter looks like it’s wearing zebra stripes. Bands of clouds that run parallel to the equator alternate between bright and dark – zebra ...
Jupiter at Opposition
08 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
If today is your birthday, then Happy Birthday! The next one is just one year away – 365 sunrises and sunsets. If today is your birthday and you...
Stellar Feedback
07 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Stars are born when giant clouds of gas and dust break apart and collapse. And if that’s all there was to it, the Milky Way Galaxy would give bi...
Switching Sides
06 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
The planet Venus is switching sides today – sides of the Sun. It’s crossing behind the Sun as seen from Earth, so it’s moving from t...
Moon and Regulus
05 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
The gibbous Moon soars across the sky tonight. It’s about three days past full, so the Sun lights up about 90 percent of the lunar hemisphere th...
Vampire Star
04 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
There’s no fountain of youth to make people look younger. But there is one for stars. It’s a process that sounds like something from a hor...
Moon and Companions
03 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
The Moon sometimes rumbles during “moonquakes.” And according to a recent study in China, those quakes may happen fairly often. The first ...
Wolf Moon
02 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Nothing symbolizes a cold, moonlit night like the howl of a wolf. The haunting sound can travel for miles. And if you live around wolf territory, you ...
Planetary Discovery
01 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
At the dawn of the 19th century, the celestial police were on patrol. They were looking for a planet between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. And on th...
Early New Year
31 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
By the time the ball drops in Times Square tonight, the people of the Line Islands will be almost a full day into 2026. The islands are in the Pacific...