Tag: astronomy
-
Night sky events at Florissant Fossil Beds
The National Park Service and the Colorado Springs Astronomical Society are offering a series of night sky events at Florissant Fossil Beds this year. An International Dark Sky Park since 2021, Florissant Fossil Beds provides an excellent setting for viewing night sky wonders including the Milky Way, galaxies, planets, comets, satellites and much more. This…
-
‘It’s not a secret anymore’: Mitchell High School unveils upgrades to 1960s-era planetarium
The historical relevance of Mitchell High School’s planetarium wasn’t lost on those in attendance during a Monday afternoon ribbon-cutting ceremony. When it first opened in 1967, the U.S. was in the midst of the space race against the former Soviet Union and man had yet to set foot on the moon. Now, in 2026, the…
-
LIFE | Chasing stars in rare, dark skies beyond Colorado Springs
Two years ago, the International Dark Sky Association added Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument to a list that today includes just 114 other parks on the planet deemed worthy of the designation. When conditions allow, the Colorado Springs Astronomical Society hosts these gatherings at the national monument once a month. (Video by Skyler Ballard/ The…
-
Pikes Pick: Learning to decipher the night sky with website
Facebook Twitter WhatsApp SMS Email Print Copy article link Save Facebook Twitter WhatsApp SMS Email Print Copy article link Save I’m a sucker for the stars, moon and anything that soars through our night skies. I’ve found a website that caters to that thirst: timeanddate.com/astronomy/night. You can see what planets will be out that night,…
-
Pikes Pick: Learning to decipher the night sky with website
I’m a sucker for the stars, moon and anything that soars through our night skies. I’ve found a website that caters to that thirst: timeanddate.com/astronomy/night. You can see what planets will be out that night, when eclipses are happening or what phase the moon is in. My favorite part: fast-forwarding through the night to see…
-
NASA’s Mars helicopter takes flight, 1st for another planet
NASA’s experimental Mars helicopter has taken flight
-
Chinese spacecraft carrying lunar rocks lifts off from moon
BEIJING (AP) — A Chinese spacecraft lifted off from the moon Thursday night with a load of lunar rocks, the first stage of its return to Earth, the government space agency reported. Chang’e 5, the third Chinese spacecraft to land on the moon and the first to take off from it again, is the latest…
-
This galaxy has almost no dark matter—and scientists are baffled
An unusual galaxy far, far away is stumping astronomers not because of what’s there, but because of what’s missing. What is this thing? About 65 million light-years away, the galaxy called NGC1052-DF2 is dim and diffuse, coming in at about one two-hundredths the mass of our Milky Way. Normally, not all of a galaxy’s mass…
-
A Chinese space station will plummet to Earth within a week. It could land just about anywhere
Sometime between Thursday and the middle of next week, the Chinese space station known as Tiangong-1 is expected to fall out of the sky. Most of the 18,740-pound space lab likely will burn up in the atmosphere, experts said. But not all of it. Between 10 percent and 40 percent of the station’s mass probably…
-
An alien star sideswiped our solar system and sent comets reeling, scientists say
Some 70,000 years ago, when humans and Neanderthals shared the planet, an alien star streaked through the outer edges of our solar system and jostled its contents, astronomers say. In a study of hundreds of solar system objects with unusual orbits, the scientists also noted eight comets that may also have interstellar origins. This idea…