The driving force behind our universe’s accelerated expansion remains one of the greatest mysteries in astronomy. While this force, which scientists refer to as dark energy, pervades our universe, we know almost nothing about it. Located on a remote mountain in Arizona’s Sonoran Desert, the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) has spent the past five
The proximity to the waning moon offers a good opportunity for spotting them. To the naked eye, they will appear as a small group of bright points next to the moon, as if they were diamonds. Binoculars will allow you to make out many more. The encounter will happen again on September 30, when the
Two mirrors, each small enough to fit in the palm of your hand, are set to change how we understand the cosmos. The launch window for NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope is about to open. The telescope’s primary instrument is due to inform practically every area of astrophysics, but also tucked inside the telescope
A team of astronomers has just detected the fastest star in the galaxy. Its anomalous speed has a more unsettling explanation: It orbits Sagittarius A*, the supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way, the mass of which is equivalent to four million times that of the sun. S301, as astronomers have named
Regions such as Galicia, Asturias, Castile and León, Madrid, Aragon, Catalonia, the Valencian Community, and the Balearic Islands experienced the path of totality, while the rest of the country saw a partial eclipse. The solar corona glows as the moon completely blocks the sun during the totality phase, as seen from San Asensio in the
In addition to a historic total solar eclipse, August also features one of the most spectacular meteor showers of the year. On the night of August 12 and into the early morning of August 13, astronomy enthusiasts in the northern hemisphere and parts of the southern hemisphere will be able to admire the Perseids during