Do the movies get it right? Well, not actually. Most of them depict messy, explosive endings, or other dramatic events. The truth is while being in space without a spacesuit WILL kill whoever is unlucky enough to be in that situation (unless…

Dozens and dozens of people have done it, and more will in the future! It turns out that, aside from the low gravity, higher radiation hazard, and other dangers of space, it’s a lifestyle and a job. 

We often think of space as the absence of matter, but actual space is not really all that empty. The stars and planets are scattered throughout the galaxies, and between them is a vacuum filled with gas and dust. The gases between…

The Moon’s shape appears to change throughout the month, and its shapes are called the phases of the Moon. They are a result of our orbit around the Sun combined with the Moon’s orbit around Earth. 

Compared to humans, stars live incredibly long lives. The shortest-lived ones can shine for tens of millions of years while the old-timers can last for many billions of years. The study of stars’ lives and how they are born, live, and…

The children’s nursery rhyme about “Twinkle, twinkle little star” actually poses a very sophisticated science question about what stars are. The short answer is: the stars themselves don’t twinkle. Our planet’s atmosphere causes starlight to waver as it passes through…

Astronomers classify stars and assign “types” to them. They do this according to their temperatures and colors, along with some other characteristics. Generally speaking, there are stars like the Sun, which live their lives for billions of years before swelling up and…

That depends on many factors, including how dark the skies are where. In light-polluted areas, people see only the brightest stars and not the dimmer ones. Out in the countryside, the view is better. Theoretically, with the naked eye and…