A new ultra-bright X-ray source has awakened after 26 years near our galactic neighbors the Magellanic Clouds. This is the second-closest ultra-bright X-ray source to date, with brightness more powerful than a million suns. The object, called RX J0209.6-7427, was…
Researchers from China have proposed a new concept for understanding Sun and the inner heliosphere, which entails deploying six spacecraft in three elliptical orbits between the Earth and Venus and around the Sun to study the star from a 360-degree perspective. The…
A bright fireball was seen streaking through the night sky over Tennessee, U.S., at around 01:41 UTC on June 8, 2020. The American Meteor Society (AMS) received 174 reports from witnesses, including those as far north as Ontario, Canada. The fireball was primarily…
A newly-discovered asteroid designated 2020 LD flew past Earth at a distance of 0.80 LD / 0.00205 AU (306 675 km / 190 559 miles) at 08:25 UTC on June 5, 2020. This is the 45th known and the largest asteroid to flyby Earth within 1 lunar distance since the start of…
ESA's Solar Orbiter spacecraft passed through the ion tail of Comet C/2019 Y4 (ATLAS) on May 31 and June 1, 2020, and through its dust tail on June 6. This is the 7th space mission to fly through the tail of a comet, and the first one whose upcoming crossing was…
Astronomers have detected a new type of cosmic explosion that has the characteristics of a supernova and a gamma-ray burst– two of the most powerful outbursts in the universe. In 2018, astronomers spotted a cosmic blast that has a strange behavior– dubbed the…
NASA's MAVEN spacecraft has created a map of electric currents around Mars, five years after it entered into its orbit. These currents hold crucial clues in the atmospheric loss that made the red planet incapable of supporting life. "These currents play a…
Astronomers at the University of Hawaii's Institute for Astronomy (UH IfA) have spotted a new asteroid with a comet-like tail moving in the same orbit as Jupiter. These objects are usually called Trojan asteroids, but this one was described to be the first one…
The European Space Agency (ESA) announced that its Solar Orbiter probe will have a rare encounter with the Comet C/2019 Y4 (ATLAS), passing through the object's ion tail on May 31, 2020 into June 1. Solar Orbiter’s upcoming crossing is the first to be…
A newly-discovered asteroid designated 2020 KC5 will flyby Earth at a distance of 0.96 LD / 0.00248 AU (371 002 km / 230 530 miles) at 20:46 UTC on May 29, 2020. This is the 44th known asteroid to flyby Earth within 1 lunar distance since the start of the year and…
