Stories by Phil Plait

Barnard 68 is often mistaken for a hole in space, but it’s actually a dense, opaque cloud of dust—for now

“Twilight rays” are but one of several viewing treats for the liminal time between day and night

Called Olbers’ paradox, the seemingly simple mystery of the sky’s darkness is something that stumped astronomers for centuries

Finding a perfect sphere is actually pretty difficult

The Martian new year arrives with the Red Planet’s vernal equinox. Explaining why requires a deep dive into celestial mechanics and Earth’s calendrical history

At dusk and dawn, the sky dances with three phases of in-between light

If you’ve ever seen faces in clouds, these heavenly entities will leave you haunted

The rising moon looks huge on the horizon, but it’s all in your head

The famous exploding star T Coronae Borealis is due to detonate any day now, but it’s running a little late

The night sky isn’t perfectly dark—instead it glows faintly, and the source isn’t exactly local

Comet C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan-ATLAS) could soon shine very bright in Earth’s skies

Scientists are putting a new spin on the creation of binary asteroids

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