Iain Todd

4 days ago | skyatnightmagazine.com | Iain Todd

Some stars twinkle and some stars pulse like cosmic lighthouses, but astronomers have just discovered a new class of star behaving in a way they've never seen before. The object is known as ASKAP J1832−0911 (ASKAP J1832 for short) and is located 15,000 lightyears from Earth. Observations are giving astronomers new clues about this strange, previously-unseen class of cosmic object. ASKAP J1832 is one of a class of objects called 'long period radio transients'.

5 days ago | skyatnightmagazine.com | Iain Todd

Aurora chasers were treated to displays of the Northern Lights and Southern Lights on Sunday 1 June 2025, and the displays could continue into tonight. The UK Met Office says Earth is being affected by a coronal mass ejection from the Sun that arrived on Sunday morning, 1 June, and which led to increased aurora displays.

1 week ago | skyatnightmagazine.com | Iain Todd

Mars used to be a lot more like Earth than it is today: it was once much warmer and wetter. Billions of years ago, Mars had liquid water on its surface, but Mars's water has been lost to space along with the planet's atmosphere. So where did its atmosphere go? A NASA spacecraft has collected data that has enabled scientists to see this process in action.

1 week ago | skyatnightmagazine.com | Iain Todd

The full Moon and the new Moon are polar opposites, each at either end of the monthly lunar cycle, yet each beautifully illustrating the clockwork, predictable nature of the Sun-Earth-Moon system. While a full Moon is big, bright and clearly visible in the sky, a new Moon is dark, shadowy and unobservable. The differences between full Moon and new Moon are a result of where the Moon, Earth and the Sun are positioned relative to each other at these key stages in the lunar cycle.

1 week ago | skyatnightmagazine.com | Iain Todd

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory has called time on remote working, telling its employees they will be required to return to the office full time. 'Work from home' has been a key feature in many of our working lives since the COVID pandemic, and NASA scientists are no exception. But in an email to employees, JPL says it is going to transition to "fully onsite work".