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Composite photograph of a deep blue night sky above a grove of dark pine and deciduous trees beside a small pond on a grassy, golf-course-like landscape. Nearly a dozen thin green-teal Orionid meteors streak across the sky, most angled diagonally from upper left to lower right. The constellation Orion, including its Belt and the glowing Orion Nebula, appears at left of center. A pale glow of light pollution along the horizon, with a few orange and white lights reflecting on the pond, brightens the sky behind the trees.

The Sky This Week from October 16 to 23: The Orionid meteor shower peaks

$Photograph of a spiral galaxy tilted diagonally across the frame, with a glowing golden-tan core threaded with brown dust lanes and pink star-forming regions. Blue-white spiral arms and clusters of young stars extend outward from the core toward the upper right and lower left. A bright blue-white star with prominent diffraction spikes sits just below the core, and several other foreground stars with spikes are scattered across the dark background, along with a few small orange background galaxies.$

Galaxies, Science

Uncovering M96’s violent past

$Annotated astrophotograph of the Triangulum Galaxy (M33), a face-on spiral with a pale blue-white core, dark dust lanes, and sweeping blue spiral arms dotted with red and pink star-forming regions, set against a dark star field. A bright blue star with diffraction spikes appears at left. Small white labels with leader lines point to star clusters labeled C20, C27, C38, C39, H10, H38, M9, R12, R14, U49, U62, U77, and U137.$

Astrophotography, Deep-Sky Objects

Imaging star clusters in other galaxies

Science

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This artist’s conception illustrates one of the most primitive supermassive black holes known (central black dot) at the core of a young, star-rich galaxy. Astronomers using NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope have uncovered two of these early objects, dating back to about 13 billion years ago. The monstrous black holes are among the most distant known, and appear to be in the very earliest stages of formation, earlier than any observed so far. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech.

Science

Explore the science of space, from the astrophysics of stars to the ultimate fate of the universe.

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Observing

Learn about upcoming observing events such as eclipses, meteor showers, comets, conjunctions, and more.

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This 2016 Curiosity rover selfie shows the vehicle at the “Okoruso” drilling site on Mount Sharp’s Naukluft Plateau. The Martian scene is a mosaic of images taken with the arm-mounted Mars Hands Lens Imager (MAHLI). Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS.

Space Exploration

Human and robotic missions are helping humanity explore our solar system and beyond.

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October 2026

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Sky This Week

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The Sky This Week from October 16 to 23: The Orionid meteor shower peaks

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Photograph of Saturn against a dark background, seen nearly edge-on with its ring system stretching horizontally across the globe and casting a thin shadow band on the planet. The pale gold and tan cloud bands are visible, with a bright white storm feature swirling in the planet's southern hemisphere.

Observing

October 2026: What’s in the sky this month?

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A tall, roughly oval ring of tangled, thread-like clouds fills the frame against a dark red haze sprinkled with tiny stars. The strands glow red with streaks of pale blue and white, brightest along a curved arc at upper left, a long sweeping arc at right, and a pair of thin, nearly straight streaks running diagonally through the middle, while a fainter, looser loop trails off toward the bottom.

Thrown for a loop

Ionut Nedelcu from Central Bedfordshire, England

The Cygnus Loop (Sharpless 2-103), a supernova remnant whose brightest arcs form the Veil Nebula, lies about 2,400 light-years away. Its glowing filaments trace gas heated by the blast wave of a massive star that exploded roughly 10,000 years ago. The imager took 17 hours of exposure in Hα/OIII/RGB filters with a 2.6-inch refractor at f/4.8.