October will bring us the first of three supermoons for 2016. On October 16, the full moon will take place unusually close to the time of the month when the Moon also makes its closest approach to the Earth – called its perigee. This near coincidence between a…
Astronomers have again imaged what may be water vapor plumes erupting off the surface of Jupiter's moon Europa, bolstering other observations suggesting the icy moon erupts with high altitude water plumes. The observation increases the possibility that missions…
A very bright flash followed by a sonic boom was reported across central Queensland, Australia around 10:27 UTC (20:27 AEST) on September 26, 2016. Many witnesses said the bright light was followed by a tremor, leading media and public to speculate whether it was a…
After about six years in space, China's first prototype space station — Tiangong-1 — is expected to fall into the Earth's atmosphere in the latter half of 2017, Chinese officials said at a press conference last week. Tiangong-1 (Chinese for "Heavenly…
Chandra X-ray Observatory was aimed several times at Pluto from February 2014 through August 2015 and made a surprising detection of X-rays being emitted from this largest and best-known object in the Solar System's outermost regions. The observations offer new…
Hubble Space Telescope has captured one of the sharpest, most detailed observations of a comet breaking apart, which occurred 108 million km (67 million miles) from Earth. Hubble took the images over a three-day span in January 2016 and revealed 25 building-size…
The Sun, Earth and Moon will align in almost perfect line on September 16, 2016, treating observers in Europe, Africa, Asia and Australia with a penumbral lunar eclipse. The eclipse will last 3 hours and 59 minutes and will be the last of three lunar eclipses in…
A rare daylight meteor was seen over North Carolina around 18:03 EDT on September 8, 2016 (22:03 UTC). At around the same time, a bright meteor exploded over Cyprus and parts of it are believed to have fallen north of the island. The American Meteor Society received…
A bright meteor exploded over Cyprus and was observed across a wide area of the south of the island around 00:45 local time on Friday, September 9, 2016 (21:45 UTC on September 8). The phenomenon was followed by a sonic boom, prompting hundreds of calls to the…
NASA's first-ever asteroid sample return mission, OSIRIS-REx (Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security-Regolith Explorer), was launched September 8, 2016 from Cape Canaveral, Florida. The spacecraft thus started its two-year 193…
