A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket placed 26 Starlink internet broadband satellites into low Earth orbit, lifting off from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California on June 16, 2025.
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lifts off from Space Launch Complex 4 East at Vandenberg Space Force Base shortly after sunset on June 16, 2025, to begin the Starlink 15-9 mission. Image: SpaceX
Update June 17, 1:35 a.m. EDT: SpaceX confirmed deployment of the Starlink satellites.
Shortly after astronomers detected asteroid 2024 YR4 on December 27, 2024, they realized it posed no threat to Earth. But it still might impact the Moon in 2032. The impact debris could threaten satellites and trigger an extraordinarily stunning meteor shower.
Leaks aboard the International Space Station, as well as on SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket, delayed Axiom's next private astronaut mission, but the crew now has a target launch date of June 19.
Galaxies are vast systems of stars, gas, dust, and dark matter bound together by gravity. Astronomers classify them into several types based on their shape and structure. Here's a breakdown of the main types of galaxies:
There's a good reason the Lego Marvel Infinity Gauntlet has been around since 2021: Few sets are as striking as this.
Part of the closest star-forming region to us, known as the Chamaeleon Complex, has been illuminated by the light of young stars in this artwork by nature captured by the Dark Energy Camera.
The Fujifilm X-T50, with its powerful 40.2-MP sensor and excellent creative functionality, is a great beginner camera for astrophotography.
The first images of an artificial solar eclipse from ESA's Proba-3 mission have been unveiled.
LUNAA Journeys seeks to make the island of Saint Lucia the astronomy hub of the Caribbean.
In March 2025, NASA's Polarimeter to Unify the Corona and Heliosphere (PUNCH) mission launched into orbit to monitor the Sun's outer atmosphere to reveal more about solar wind. Developed and led by the Southwest Research Institute (SwRI), this constellation consists of four microsatellites that observe the Sun's corona and heliosphere using continuous 3D deep-field imaging. While completing its commission phase, the Wide Field Imagers (WFIs) aboard the four PUNCH spacecraft captured high-resolution images of a Coronal Mass Ejection (CME) in greater detail than any previous mission.
Very massive stars (VMSs), which typically has masses about 100 times that of our own Sun, are critical components in our understanding of the formation of important astronomical structures like black holes and supernovae. However, there are some observed characteristics of VMSs that don’t fit the expected behavior based on the best models we have of them. In particular, they hover around a relatively limited band of temperatures, which are hard to replicate with typical stellar evolution models. A new paper from Kendall Shepherd and their co-authors at the Institute for Advanced Study (SISSA) in Italy describes a series of new models based on updated solar winds that better fit the observations of VMSs in their natural environment, and might aid in our understanding of the development of some of the most fascinating objects in the Universe.
Send your birthday love to Planet Bob as we reminisce about this spirited post-apocalyptic gem.
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Proba-3 artificially created what is normally a rare natural phenomenon: a total solar eclipse.
Today, the European Space Agency’s Proba-3 mission unveils its first images of the Sun’s outer atmosphere – the solar corona. The mission’s two satellites, able to fly as a single spacecraft thanks to a suite of onboard positioning technologies, have succeeded in creating their first ‘artificial total solar eclipse’ in orbit. The resulting coronal images demonstrate the potential of formation flying technologies, while delivering invaluable scientific data that will improve our understanding of the Sun and its enigmatic atmosphere.
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Watch the replay of the ESA-CNES press conference held at the Paris Air Show 2025 (Le Bourget) on 16 June 2025, with Josef Aschbacher, Director General of ESA, and Lionel Suchet, Executive Vice President of CNES.
The M-class flare was accompanied by a coronal mass ejection currently forecast to land Earth with a glancing blow on June 18.
Dark matter "lampshades" could slip between Earth and distant stars, causing tiny amounts of dimming that may help explain one of the greatest puzzles in science.
The view of our home galaxy lit up the night sky at the U.S. National Science Foundation's Kitt Peak National Observatory in Arizona.
Rapid bursts of energy that last milliseconds but emit as much energy as the sun does in decades are helping astronomers pierce the cosmic fog between galaxies to find the universe's missing matter.
Amazon's Kuiper 2 mission is set to lift off on a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket today (June 16), and you can watch the launch live online.
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