Stories by Phil Plait

Supermoons are popular in the media, but are they really so different from how our extraordinary moon ordinarily appears?

Wispy whorls on the moon’s surface are as lovely as they are strange. Scientists are starting to unravel their origins

Even Earth’s mightiest telescopes aren’t up to the task of imaging Apollo lunar landing sites. A lack of resolution is the biggest reason why

Andromeda and the Milky Way may collide or they may safely swing past each other. Time will tell

Surging solar activity means enormous sunspots are in the space-weather forecast. Here’s how to view them safely

Early risers get a double sky treat: a Mars and Jupiter conjunction and the Perseid meteor shower will occur at once

Reports of Earth-orbiting astronauts glimpsing the Great Wall of China and many other artificial structures are wildly exaggerated, but humanity’s planetary influence isn’t entirely invisible from afar

There’s more than one way for a star to die. Some go with a whimper, and some go with a very, very big bang

It’s possible to see celestial objects during the day, but it’s not always easy

Claims of alien starships visiting Earth always fall short, but people still fall for them

Material from the moon’s far side collected by China’s Chang’e 6 spacecraft could solve a long-standing lunar mystery

New research suggests the Great Red Spot we see on Jupiter today is an entirely different giant storm from the one astronomers observed more than three centuries ago

Almost everything we know about the cosmos is conveyed by photons traveling across vast distances

The human brain loves seeing patterns, even when they aren’t really there

Cosmic happenstance and biological evolution come together to create a road map to the stars

The latest images from Euclid, a European mission studying dark matter and dark energy, are spectacularly beautiful—and scientifically promising

We should—and must—take careful measure of what we name cosmic objects and the terms we use throughout science

The next time you snap a selfie, consider thanking an astronomer for your phone’s camera

The iconic star Polaris appears to be much younger than its true age. The secret: it’s eating another star

A supernova showering Earth with radioactive debris is a surprisingly common cosmic occurrence

How do astronomers find the darkest objects in the universe?

An exploding star is a catastrophe on a cosmic scale, but here on Earth we’re safe from such astral disasters—for now

The solar system’s outer limits aren’t as clear-cut as you might think

Someday an unlucky outburst from our sun could strike Earth and fry most of our electronics—and we’ve already had some too-close-for-comfort near misses