View at EarthSky Community Photos. | Andrea Iorio in Rome and Fernando Linsalata in Rimini, Italy, combined their data for this image of the Pinwheel galaxy (M101) on April 13. Andrea wrote: “The Pinwheel galaxy is a face-on spiral galaxy 21 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Ursa Major. The Pinwheel is a large galaxy, with a diameter of 170,000 light-years and around a trillion stars. It has many hydrogen-alpha regions (red spots in this image), created by large numbers of extremely bright and hot young stars.” Thank you, Andrea! See more of our editor’s picks from March’s de ..read more

View larger. | ESA’s Mars Express orbiter captured this view of Martian spiders at the South Pole on October 4, 2020. The “spiders” form when sunlight causes deposits of carbon dioxide ice to warm up and turn to gas, which then builds up and breaks through slabs of overlying ice. The gas and dark dust fall back to the surface, creating the spider-like formations. Image via ESA/ TGO/ CaSSIS. The European Space Agency (ESA) released more images of the enigmatic “spiders” and Inca City at the South Pole of Mars. The “spiders” are dark patches resembling spiders. They’re created by geysers of car ..read more

On April 28, 2024, a Falcon 9 rocket delivered 23 more SpaceX Starlink satellites to low-Earth orbit. Image via SpaceX.Upcoming SpaceX Starlink launches in May 2024 Starlink Group 6-55: May 2, 2024, 9:17 pm – 1:48 am EDT Falcon 9 Block 5 | Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida | DATE/TIME MAY CHANGE Starlink Group 8-2: May 3, 2024, 7:59 pm – 12:30 am PDT Falcon 9 Block 5 | Vandenberg Space Force Station, California | DATE/TIME MAY CHANGE Starlink Group 6-56: May 6, 2024, 11:34 am – 3:34 pm EDT Falcon 9 Block 5 | Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida | DATE/TIME MAY CHANGE Starlink ..read more

A long-necked sauropod made these dinosaur tracks (looping round impressions) in Colorado some 150 million years ago during the Jurassic Period. The land is now part of the Grand Mesa, Uncompahgre and Gunnison National Forests in Colorado. Image via USDA Forest Service.Dinosaur tracks now part of national forest Some 150 million years ago, a long-necked dinosaur known as a sauropod took 134 steps that are now etched across a landscape in Colorado. The dinosaur made a loop, tracking back over its prints as if it had taken a look at where it was headed and then changed its mind. Today, these tra ..read more

Held every April 28, Save the Frogs Day is a global conservation effort to slow the decline of amphibian populations and their habitats. The 2024 event is today. According to the US Geological Survey (USGS), the loss of amphibians is not due to a single cause, and solutions will require a range of responses. Image via savethefrogs.com. Help! EarthSky needs your support to continue. Our yearly crowd-funding campaign is going on now. Donate here. Save the frogs … save the humans? Our froggy friends are in big trouble and need our help. The Amphibian Survival Alliance pulls no punches in describi ..read more

View larger. | Artist’s concept of a magnetar, a type of neutron star but with vastly more powerful magnetic fields. Scientists saw a giant magnetar eruption in the galaxy M82, located only a hop and a skip away at 12 million light-years from Earth. It’s the 1st time we’ve seen such a powerful magnetar burst outside our own galaxy. Image via ESA. Scientists found a massive outburst of gamma rays from the galaxy M82, 12 million light-years away. The observation didn’t fit with typical gamma ray bursts, and astronomers found no afterglow in visible light to X-rays. Plus, they didn’t detect any ..read more

Large destructive tornado crossed I-80 on the north side of Lincoln, Nebraska moments ago captured by @JordanHallWX #newx pic.twitter.com/hTk26Q28E4 — MyRadar Weather (@MyRadarWX) April 26, 2024 Jordan Hall captured this shocking footage of a tornado crossing Interstate 80 near Lincoln, Nebraska, on Friday afternoon. Read more about Friday’s tornadoes and Saturday’s outlook, below. Severe storms for the central US Severe weather – including tornadoes – churned up the Great Plains on Friday. And meteorologists predict more severe weather for Saturday and into Sunday. Nebraska was the focus o ..read more

This is your global invitation to go exploring at home The LA County Natural History Museum wants the entire world to go outside and have a good look around this weekend. They’d like us all to take a close gander at the biosphere in our neighborhoods. And they want us record what we find from now through Monday, April 29, 2024. The annual event isn’t just a great opportunity to experience wildlife at home. It’s also a chance to provide critical scientific data about our ever-changing biosphere. From the City Nature Challenge website: The City Nature Challenge is an international effort to do ..read more

Meet the lunar crater Giordano Bruno. It’s 13 miles (21 km) wide and located on the moon’s far side. This mosaic image of the crater is from NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera (LROC)/ NASA/ GSFC/ Arizona State University.Something knocked a chunk off the lunar surface For a while, starting in the year 2016, it looked as if Earth might have a second, much-smaller moon. But, after preliminary studies of the object’s orbit, astronomers labeled 469219 Kamo’oalewa as a near-Earth asteroid (NEA) and a quasi-satellite to Earth. So we know that, like our moon, Kamo’oalewa stays close to Earth ..read more

View larger. | Artist’s concept of the brown dwarf W1935. Using the James Webb Space Telescope, astronomers have detected an emission of methane. That is the 1st time astronomer found methane emitting light instead of absorbing it on a brown dwarf. Auroras may create the methane emission in the brown dwarf’s atmosphere, as seen here. Image via NASA/ ESA/ CSA/ Leah Hustak (STScI). For the 1st time, astronomers have detected a methane emission on a brown dwarf. That is where methane is emitting light instead of absorbing it. Researchers say that auroras in the brown dwarf’s atmosphere may creat ..read more