Universe Explorer
To see the world with new eyes — Live data from space, curated links and cosmic discoveries. Since 2001.
NASA Picture of the Day
APOD
Perseids from Perseus
2026-08-18
This was a good year for the Perseids meteor shower. A key reason was the Moon was absent from lighting up Earth's night sky so that more meteors were visible than usual. Where was the Moon? It was…
© Jakub Kuřák
Space News
NASA
ESA
ESO
UT
- Universe Today Mars Curiosity Rover Discovers Massive Field of Polygons 2026-08-18 03:25
- Universe Today MOTHRA Shows Us A Star Being Recycled in the Helix Nebula 2026-08-18 02:18
- NASA Curiosity Blog, Sols 4975-4981: Happy 14th Landing Anniversary 2026-08-17 23:10
- Universe Today Webb Captures Clearest Image Yet of the Lion Nebula 2026-08-17 22:29
- Universe Today Massive Exoplanets Could Form Around Supermassive Black Holes 2026-08-17 21:40
- Universe Today NASA's SkyFall Mars Helicopters Will Feature a Revolutionary Antenna Design 2026-08-17 21:00
- NASA NASA Selects Companies to Provide Payload Processing Services 2026-08-17 20:17
- Universe Today The JWST Little Red Dots Could Be 'Black Hole Stars' 2026-08-17 19:35
- Universe Today Nuking An Asteroid on Short Notice Could Save Us 2026-08-17 17:50
- NASA Colorful Collage of Tarantula Nebula 2026-08-17 16:03
Rocket Launches
LL2-
16h 1minZhuque-3 | Flight 2Go
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20h 11minFalcon 9 Block 5 | Starlink Group 17-50Go
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2d 7hFalcon 9 Block 5 | Starlink Group 10-39Go
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3d 23hFalcon 9 Block 5 | Starlink Group 15-20Go
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5d 16hLong March 5 | Chang'e 7TBC
Space Weather
NOAA
AIA 193 A (Corona) (SDO)
Earth (EPIC/DSCOVR) — 2026-08-15
Moon Phase
☾🌒
Waxing Crescent
28.9% illuminated
Next Full Moon
27. Aug (9d)
Next New Moon
11. Sep (24d)
Meteor Showers
IMO-
Draconids 51dPeak: 8. Oct 2026 ZHR: ~10 20 km/s21P/Giacobini-Zinner
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Orionids 64dPeak: 21. Oct 2026 ZHR: ~20 66 km/s1P/Halley
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Leonids 91dPeak: 17. Nov 2026 ZHR: ~15 71 km/s55P/Tempel-Tuttle
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Geminids 118dPeak: 14. Dec 2026 ZHR: ~150 35 km/s3200 Phaethon
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Ursids 126dPeak: 22. Dec 2026 ZHR: ~10 33 km/s8P/Tuttle
Near-Earth Asteroids
CNEOSNext 14 days, < 0.1 AU
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2026 PX2026-Aug-23 20:5 2.4 LD 939.826 km 6.8 km/s
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2026 PB92026-Aug-20 20:5 4.4 LD 1.704.662 km 11 km/s
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2017 RH162026-Aug-31 21:0 8.7 LD 3.335.900 km 12.1 km/s
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2025 DU72026-Aug-19 21:3 8.7 LD 3.350.065 km 2.9 km/s
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2214552026-Aug-28 15:4 9.3 LD 3.584.833 km 19 km/s
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2026 PP2026-Aug-28 15:2 9.8 LD 3.766.709 km 6.7 km/s
LD = Lunar Distances (384.400 km)
New Papers
arXiv- Unveiling Neutrino Nature with the Diffuse Supernova Background
- JWST/NIRSpec Spectra for Three Ultracool Brown Dwarfs Detected in Extragalactic Surveys: Further Evidence for Phosphine Absorption
- Mixing stochasticity relinquishes evidence for magnetorotational hypernovae
- The Enceladian crater production function
- X-ray thread/Nonthermal Radio Filament associations: Evidence for Interstellar Magnetic Reconnection
- An open-source data processing pipeline for Keck / NIRC2-Polarimetry
Astronomer's Telegrams
ATel- #17983 Insight-HXMT observed the Galactic transient EP260812c/EP J175003.0-324244/MAXI J1750-327 and detected a low-frequency quasi-periodic oscillation signal
- #17982 Spectroscopic Classification of Astrophysical Transients with the Lick Shane Telescope
- #17981 Gaia22dbc: a new SU UMa-type dwarf nova during its ongoing superoutburst
- #17980 Detection of the dwarf nova GK Persei with SVOM/ECLAIRs
- #17979 Discovery of the radio counterpart of MAXI J1750-327 with MeerKAT
- #17978 Archival Chandra Upper Limit on the Pre-outburst X-ray Emission of MAXI J1750-327 / EP J175003.0-324244
Current Comets
Heavens-Above| Comet | Mag | Constellation | Alt |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10P Tempel 2 | 8.0 | Piscis Austrinus | -41.1° |
| 220P McNaught | 9.9 | Cetus | 34.3° |
| 169P NEAT | 11.4 | Ursa Major | 27.6° |
| C/2014 UN271 Bernardinelli-Bernstein | 13.8 | Volans | -30.9° |
| 63P Wild | 13.8 | Leo | 6.3° |
| 88P Howell | 13.8 | Aries | 39.6° |
| C/2024 T5 ATLAS | 14.4 | Lepus | 25.5° |
| 29P Schwassmann-Wachmann 1 | 14.5 | Leo | 1.0° |
Live Services
Latest Publications (peer-reviewed)
- ApJ Impact of Sub–2.5 MeV 12C+12C Resonances on the Production of Elements from C to Pd in Core-collapse Supernovae Lorenzo Roberti, Sara Palmerini, Agnese Falla, Luca Boccioli
- ApJ Data-based Magnetohydrodynamic Simulation of a Flare Eruption in Active Region 13663 Associated with a Tilted Coronal Mass Ejection Nian Liu, Satoshi Inoue, Ju Jing, Keiji Hayashi and Haimin W
- ApJ Indication for Decreasing Dispersion Measure in the Population of Repeating Fast Radio Bursts and Connection to Young Supernova Remnant Expansion Xiang-han Cui, Cheng-min Zhang, Di Li, Pei Wang, Erbil Güger
- ApJ Assessing the Impact of Varying HSO Cross Sections on Photochemical Models: Implications for the Spectral Characterization of Terrestrial Exoplanets Alexandre Branco, Clara Sousa-Silva, Wynter Broussard, Edwar
- ApJ The Diverse Outcomes of Binary White Dwarf Mergers and Connections to Galactic LISA Sources Kyle Kremer, Katelyn Breivik and Claire S. Ye
- ApJ Gaia’s Promise to Detect Compact-object Binaries: Where We Stand with the Third Data Release Chirag Chawla, Sourav Chatterjee and Katelyn Breivik
- ApJ CSST Large-scale Structure Analysis Pipeline. IV. Cosmic Voids Identified from Galaxy Group Samples as Probes of the Large-scale Structure Yingxiao Song, Xiaohu Yang, Yan Gong, Yizhou Gu, Qingyang Li
- ApJ Ongoing Morphological Transformation from Elliptical to Spiral Galaxies Induced by Gas Accretion from Neighboring Galaxies Gene Yun, Sang Hyeok Im, Ho Seong Hwang, Changbom Park and H
- ApJL No Model-independent Evidence for a Peak in Binary Black Hole Spin (Mis)alignments Noah E. Wolfe, Salvatore Vitale, Michael Zevin, (Society of
- ApJL A Climate-constrained Bayesian Inverse Method for JWST Rocky Exoplanet Eclipse Spectra: Case Study of LTT 1445A b Nicholas F. Wogan, Natasha E. Batalha, Jegug Ih, Jacob Lusti
- ApJL Alfvénic Motions in a Stratified Open Flux Tube: Transition from Propagating to Locally Standing Motions and Implications for the Kelvin–Helmholtz Instability Mingzhe Guo, Bo Li, Yuhang Gao and Yao Chen
- ApJL Timing Gravity with Pulsars in the Strong Field Riccardo Della Monica and Ivan De Martino
Data from: NASA (APOD, News, CNEOS, SDO), ESA, ESO, NOAA SWPC, Launch Library 2, Universe Today, arXiv.org, ApJ, ApJL, AJ, A&A, MNRAS, Nature Astronomy, SILSO, ATel, COBS, IMO. Updated every 20 minutes.