Latest observations, tips, and discoveries from the cosmos
James Webb Space Telescope images M77 (NGC 1068) — revealing the active black hole, 6,000-light-year starburst ring, and hidden star formation of this Cetus Seyfert galaxy.
The CME from the May 16 solar flare has arrived — geomagnetic storming is now underway on 19 May. A G1 (minor) storm is in effect with a chance of G2 (moderate) conditions tonight. Scotland and northern England should watch the skies after dark — this is your window.
A newly discovered space rock will skim past Earth at just 90,000 km tonight — closer than a quarter of the Moon's distance. Here's exactly how to watch from the UK.
The universe isn't scattered randomly — it's built on a vast hidden skeleton of dark matter filaments. James Webb just gave us our best look at it yet.
The US just released 160+ declassified UAP files. Japan is already scanning them for local sightings. Here's why British UAP watchers should be paying very close attention.
On Friday 15 May, NASA's Psyche probe will swing just 4,500 km from the surface of Mars in a gravity assist that will fling it toward one of the most mysterious objects in the solar system: a metal world that may be the exposed core of a dead planet.
Six annotated NASA photographs from Apollo 12 and Apollo 17 show luminous anomalies above the lunar surface. They appear in declassified government documents. Nobody has officially explained them.
Saturn makes its first morning appearance of 2026, Venus closes the gap on Jupiter through Taurus, and a New Moon opens up the darkest skies of the month — your UK stargazing guide for May 10–16.
Newly released government slides describe six federal law enforcement agents, in three independent teams, watching an orange 'mother' orb repeatedly launch smaller red orbs into the sky at dusk over the western US — at least five times across two days.
The US government has published its first-ever batch of complete UAP case files — covering Apollo moon missions, military infrared footage, FBI witness interviews and incidents spanning eight decades. We've gone through them all.
Venus and Jupiter are closing in on each other in the evening sky, heading for a spectacular conjunction on June 9. You can track their approach with the naked eye starting tonight.
FBI Director Kash Patel told Sean Hannity that the Bureau has delivered its 'first tranche' of UFO-related documents to a White House interagency committee — and that public release is coming 'very soon'.
A new free tool on WatchTheStars lets you scroll through the entire Solar System at logarithmic scale — complete with a speed-of-light animation, auto-tour mode, and every planet rendered with its real surface features.
Astronomers have detected a thin atmosphere around a 500-kilometre Kuiper Belt object — far too small and cold to hold one. The discovery, published in Nature Astronomy, could rewrite what we know about the outer Solar System.
A massive, dust-choked galaxy discovered just 400 million years after the Big Bang is challenging everything astronomers thought they knew about how galaxies form.
Halley's Comet debris lights up the predawn sky, Venus and Jupiter put on an evening show, and Vesta is still at its best — your UK stargazing guide for May 4–10.
Steven Spielberg's 'Disclosure Day' opens June 12. He says it has more truth than fiction, was sparked by a real Navy UAP report, and may answer questions posed by Close Encounters in 1977. Here's the real-world backdrop that makes this film unlike any UFO movie before it.
Vesta is at opposition — its closest and brightest of 2026. At magnitude 6.5 it's visible through binoculars in Libra tonight. Here's exactly how to find it, and why Vesta is one of the most extraordinary objects in the solar system.
Eta Aquariid meteors peak before dawn on 5–6 May — fragments of Halley's Comet hitting the atmosphere at 150,000 mph. Here's your complete UK guide to where, when and how to watch, including tips for beating the moonlight.
For three years, astronomers have been baffled by hundreds of mysterious red objects in JWST's images. Now Chandra has detected X-rays from one — and the explanation is unlike anything in the known universe.
NASA's moon astronauts stood in the Oval Office as the agency confirmed Artemis III for late 2027 and a crewed lunar landing in 2028 — with the SLS rocket already at Kennedy Space Center.
Congresswoman Anna Paulina Luna has personally reviewed classified materials of 'nonhuman origin' and is promising a public press conference once declassification completes. Here's exactly what she claimed — and what it means for UAP disclosure.
Kacey Musgraves watched three glowing orbs trail her flight from Texas to Nashville, changing colour, forming triangle patterns and keeping pace for 45 minutes. When she landed, both pilots told her: 'We see these every single night.'
Two independent research teams have found the strongest evidence yet for Population III stars — the very first generation of stars to form after the Big Bang — hiding in a tiny clump of gas 13.4 billion light-years away.
SpaceX's triple-core beast roars back to life today, hurling a 6.6-ton satellite toward geostationary orbit and sticking a double booster landing at Cape Canaveral.
The Full Flower Moon rises on May 1, Venus blazes through Taurus, Jupiter dominates Gemini, and the Eta Aquariid meteors start building toward their peak — your UK stargazing guide for April 27 to May 3.
Blue Origin reused a New Glenn booster for the first time on 19 April — but an upper-stage engine failure put the customer's satellite in a useless orbit. The FAA has grounded the rocket.
The James Webb Space Telescope has captured the first detailed image of the planetary nebula where cosmic buckyballs — hollow spheres of 60 carbon atoms — were originally discovered. The structures are breathtaking.
NASA celebrated Hubble's 36th anniversary by revisiting the Trifid Nebula — and by comparing the new image with one taken 29 years ago, astronomers can see a stellar nursery evolving on human timescales.
A chemistry experiment never before performed beyond Earth has revealed 21 organic molecules in 3.5-billion-year-old Martian rock — seven of them detected on Mars for the first time, including a DNA precursor.
The Lyrid meteor shower peaks tonight under near-perfect conditions. The Moon sets early, the skies are dark, and fireballs are on the menu. Here's your hour-by-hour BST guide for the night of April 22/23.
The Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope is fully assembled and ready for its journey to space. With 200 times Hubble's field of view, it will map billions of galaxies, discover thousands of exoplanets, and probe the mystery of dark energy.
Astronomers have captured a supermassive black hole reawakening after 100 million years of silence, blasting plasma jets nearly a million light-years across space in one of the most dramatic 'reborn' black hole events ever recorded.
Blue Origin launched a previously-flown New Glenn booster for the first time today — a milestone that closes the gap with SpaceX and could reshape how we think about the cost of getting to space.
The Lyrid meteor shower peaks on the night of April 22–23 with dark skies guaranteed, Venus snuggles up to Uranus and the Pleiades, and a crescent Moon puts on a three-way show with Venus and Jupiter — here's your UK guide for April 20–26.
NASA has formally greenlighted its support for ESA's Rosalind Franklin Mars rover, confirming a SpaceX Falcon Heavy launch no earlier than late 2028 — and making it SpaceX's first-ever mission to Mars.
Speaking at a public event in Phoenix on April 18, President Trump confirmed the Pentagon's UFO file review has turned up 'many very interesting documents' — and promised the first batch will be released 'very, very soon'.
The Lyrid meteor shower has been watched by humans for 2,700 years. This week it peaks under near-perfect conditions — dark skies, a slim crescent Moon, and the chance of bright fireballs. Here's your complete UK guide.
The April 14 deadline for 46 classified UAP videos has passed with nothing released. Rep. Luna says 'nobody passed the letter to the appropriate authorities — how convenient.' The Pentagon says it's working on it. The pattern continues.
Comet PanSTARRS is now visible to the naked eye and approaching perihelion. A razor-thin Moon meets Venus and the Pleiades on Friday. The Lyrids are building. And the darkest skies of the month start tonight. Here's your complete guide to the best week of stargazing in 2026 so far.
Rep. Tim Burchett has introduced a bill to permanently abolish AARO — while Rep. Anna Paulina Luna's demand for 46 classified UAP videos expires tomorrow. Two colliding congressional actions are putting the Pentagon's UFO programme under the most pressure it has ever faced.
A brightening comet before dawn, Venus and Jupiter dominating the evening sky, and the Lyrid meteor shower building toward its peak — this is one of the best weeks for amateur astronomers in 2026.
Comet C/2025 R3 (PanSTARRS) reaches perihelion on 19 April and could become visible to the naked eye. Here's everything you need to know — including when, where, and how to spot it from the UK.
After 10 days in space, a record-breaking lunar flyby, and the furthest distance any humans have ever travelled from Earth, the Artemis II crew splashes down in the Pacific tonight. Here's the full reentry timeline and how to watch.
NASA has released the first official photos from the Artemis II lunar flyby — including a 54-minute solar eclipse from deep space, a new Earthrise, and the far side of the Moon in stunning detail.
The lunar flyby is complete. Orion has swung around the Moon, broken the human distance record, witnessed Earthrise over the far side, and is now coasting back toward Earth. Splashdown: April 11.
The Artemis II crew will fly within 4,070 miles of the Moon this evening, break Apollo 13's distance record, witness Earthrise over the far side, and see a solar eclipse from lunar orbit. Here's the full schedule and how to follow along live.
Comet C/2026 A1 (MAPS) disintegrated six hours before perihelion on 4 April, reaching magnitude –0.6 before breaking apart. The hoped-for Easter Comet display will not happen — here's what the SOHO data tells us.
The Artemis II crew has crossed the halfway mark to the Moon, sent back stunning aurora photos of Earth, practised CPR in zero gravity, and dealt with a temperamental toilet. The historic lunar flyby is 48 hours away.
Congress gave the Pentagon a hard deadline to release 46 classified UAP videos — Lake Huron shootdown footage, Coast Guard Tic Tac recordings, and a spherical craft filmed near a US submarine. The deadline passed. Here's what the videos show and why they're still hidden.
Comet C/2026 A1 (MAPS) reaches perihelion tomorrow, skimming just 161,000 km above the Sun's surface. SOHO is already watching. Here's how to follow the action — and how to spot it if it survives.
It happened. At 6:24 p.m. ET on April 1, 2026, NASA's SLS rocket lifted off from Kennedy Space Center carrying four astronauts on humanity's first crewed voyage to the Moon in 54 years.
NASA has scrapped the Lunar Gateway after a decade of work, switching to a $20 billion Moon surface base. But Europe already delivered a €1 billion module — what happens to it now, and what does this mean for future Moon missions?
It's happening — Artemis II launches tonight at 11:24 PM BST, sending four astronauts around the Moon for the first time in 54 years. Here's everything you need to know about today's events and where to watch live.
A sungrazing comet discovered in the Atacama Desert is about to skim just 161,000 km above the Sun's surface. If it survives, Comet MAPS could light up the evening sky in time for Easter.
The Moon occults Regulus on Sunday, the Pink Full Moon rises on Thursday, and Artemis II blasts off for the Moon on Wednesday — the most eventful week in the sky this year.
Tonight the waxing gibbous Moon slides right past Jupiter high in the evening sky — a gorgeous naked-eye pairing framed by the twin stars of Gemini. Here's exactly when and where to look from the UK.
AARO's caseload has surged past 2,000 reports. A secret workshop brought 40 government, academic, and civilian researchers together. And a new whitepaper reveals the Pentagon is using AI to hunt for patterns in decades of sighting data.
Scientists re-examining 1950s Palomar Observatory sky survey photographs have found mysterious objects that appeared and vanished before any human satellite existed. Their peer-reviewed conclusions are impossible to dismiss.
Astronomers have quietly announced the discovery of 15 new moons — 11 for Saturn and 4 for Jupiter. It brings Saturn's total to 285 and Jupiter's to 101, and the solar system's combined moon count to 442.
On the morning of 17 March 2026, a 7-ton asteroid blazing at 45,000 mph lit up the skies from Wisconsin to Maryland before exploding above Ohio with the force of 250 tons of TNT — and dropping real meteorites into a field south of Cleveland.
The US government quietly registered two new .gov domains — alien.gov and aliens.gov — on March 18, 2026. The White House's only response: a smiling alien emoji and 'Stay tuned.'
A solar flare from active region AR4392 launched a coronal mass ejection directly at Earth — it arrives tomorrow evening. Scotland and northern England have a genuine shot at seeing the northern lights.
Astronomers have used the James Webb Space Telescope to confirm a new type of planet that shouldn't be able to exist — a world where the entire surface is a permanent ocean of molten rock, kept alive by a sulphurous atmosphere.
Retired Maj. Gen. William Neil McCasland — who commanded the Air Force Research Laboratory at Wright-Patterson and briefly worked with Tom DeLonge's UAP research group — has been missing for three weeks. The FBI is involved, clothing has been found in Colorado, and a US congressman says he 'has a lot to say' about UFOs.
NASA has confirmed April 1, 2026 as the launch date for Artemis II — the first crewed mission to the vicinity of the Moon in 54 years. Here's everything you need to know.
With Artemis II weeks away and a major programme restructure announced in February 2026, here is the definitive guide to every Artemis mission — what each one does, when it launches, and how the plan has changed.
A whistleblower report delivered to Congress alleges the Pentagon has been running a secret programme called Immaculate Constellation for years — hoarding thousands of high-resolution UAP images and videos that the public has never seen.
Only the third interstellar object ever detected, 3I/ATLAS has stunned scientists with alien water, extraordinary levels of methanol, and deuterium ratios unlike anything in our solar system. And this Sunday, it passes Jupiter.
A metallic sphere with no welds, unknown etchings, and nine internal microspheres landed in Buga, Colombia in March 2025. Is it alien technology, an art project, or something else entirely?
NASA has identified the culprit behind the helium flow issue that forced Artemis II off the launch pad — a dislodged seal in a quick disconnect fitting. With repairs complete and additional work underway in the VAB, a rollout later this month puts an April launch back in reach.
NASA has fundamentally redesigned Artemis III — the mission will no longer land on the Moon. Instead, astronauts will dock with commercial landers in Earth orbit as a test run, with the first actual lunar landing now planned for 2028.
Trump's UAP disclosure order is real and recent. But claims that religious fundamentalists inside the Pentagon are currently blocking the release deserve careful scrutiny. Here's what's verified — and what isn't.
Just days after a successful wet dress rehearsal raised hopes for a March launch, a helium flow anomaly in the rocket's upper stage has forced NASA to roll Artemis II back to the Vehicle Assembly Building. March is now ruled out — so when will four astronauts finally fly to the Moon?
There's been a massive surge in public interest surrounding UFOs and UAPs, alongside renewed rumours that the U.S. government may finally be ready to disclose what it knows. We unpack what's real, what's rumour, and what Trump's announcement actually means.
NASA continues preparations for the historic Artemis II mission, addressing technical challenges as the agency targets a March 2026 launch for humanity's first crewed lunar flyby in over 50 years.
Don't miss the spectacular planet parade of 2026! Learn when and how to see multiple planets align in the night sky, plus tips for photographing this rare celestial event.
Complete month-by-month guide to observing Jupiter in 2026, including opposition dates, best viewing times, and what you can see through binoculars and telescopes.
Mars, the Red Planet, offers a challenging but rewarding observing experience in 2026. Unlike Jupiter, Saturn, or Venus which have favorable oppositions or e…
Mercury, the swift messenger of the gods, is one of the most challenging planets to observe due to its proximity to the Sun. But for those who successfully s…
Neptune, the solar system's most distant major planet, presents the ultimate planetary observing challenge. Invisible to the naked eye and appearing as a tin…
Saturn, the jewel of the solar system, offers spectacular viewing in 2026 as the planet's magnificent rings continue opening up after their near edge-on pres…
Uranus, the seventh planet from the Sun, offers a unique observing challenge in 2026. As one of the ice giants, Uranus appears as a tiny blue-green disk that…
Venus, the brilliant evening and morning star, is impossible to miss when it graces our skies. In 2026, Venus treats observers to both spectacular evening an…
Mercury offers excellent viewing opportunities this month for amateur astronomers looking to spot this elusive planet.
Learn how moon phases work, why they occur, and when to observe them for the best views.
Discover the wonders of winter stargazing with this comprehensive guide for amateur astronomers.