In the early morning hours, the 94%-illuminated moon will be hanging about halfway up the western sky, nestled within the constellation Taurus the Bull. Just a short hop — about five degrees to its upper left (that’s roughly the width of your three middle fingers held at arm’s length) — you’ll find a faint, misty patch of light. That’s the Pleiades open cluster, a dazzling collection of young, hot blue stars born together roughly 100 million years ago.

Now, with the moon shining so brightly, the Pleiades will be fighting a bit of glare — but don’t give up! Grab a pair of 10×50 binoculars and you’ll easily make out their sparkle. You’ll spot the seven brightest jewels of the cluster — Merope, Electra, Maia, Taygete, Asterope, Alcyone, and Celaeno — surrounded by a swarm of fainter suns, part of a cosmic family numbering over a thousand.

If you want to stretch your observing skills even further, look just a little below and to the left of the Pleiades — about the same five-degree distance — to find the spot where the planet Uranus hides in the background stars. With a magnitude of +5.6, it’s far too faint to see without optical help, but through a telescope with at least an 8-inch aperture, you’ll be rewarded with a delicate bluish dot. It may look small and unassuming, but that tiny speck is a gas giant four times wider than Earth, sitting 1.7 billion miles (2.8 billion kilometers) away.

So, before the sun rises and the sky brightens, take a few quiet minutes to soak in this moonlit encounter between our familiar satellite and one of the most enchanting clusters in the heavens.

And if this cosmic view leaves you wanting more, check out my full line of my picks for beginner friendly stargazing gear to help you make the most of every starry night.

Clear skies!

The Celestron FirstScope, is a fantastic little tabletop Dobsonian that makes for a great first telescope for kids of all ages! Its 76mm reflector delivers surprisingly sharp views of the Moon — the craters and maria really pop, and the labeled lunar artwork on the tube makes it extra fun for beginners. The setup couldn’t be easier: just place it on a table, aim, and start exploring. It’s lightweight, sturdy, and super portable, perfect for spontaneous stargazing sessions. Whether you’re introducing kids to astronomy or just want a grab-and-go backyard scope, the FirstScope is a charming, affordable gateway to the night sky.

NOTE: Affiliate links support my stargazing education mission by earning me a small commission on any sale, and it doesn’t cost you any more! My opinions are completely my own, and this content is not sponsored.

$74.95 USD / Buy Here

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Science writer, Andrew Fazekas, The Night Sky Guy, author of National Geographic Backyard Guide to the Night Skyand National Geographic’s Stargazer Atlas: The Ultimate Guide To The Night Sky, is back to talk about among other things, how the “Devil Comet” contains the strongest evidence yet that comets delivered water to Earth; Bennu contains stardust that’s older than the solar system; and can we safely deflect a killer asteroid without making it worse?
(Patreon Stuph File Program fans, there is a Patreon Reward Extra where we discuss  interstellar invader comet, 31/Atlas; a fleet of helicopters on Mars; how in death Einstein still helps the Hubble telescope and more).

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A brand new comet has been spotted, and it’s officially known as C/2025 R2 (SWAN), and it’s getting brighter by the day.

This cosmic wanderer was first discovered by the Solar Wind Anisotropies (SWAN) instrument on a spacecraft called SOHO. It’s already shining at a magnitude of 7, which means you can spot it with a good pair of binoculars or even a camera from your own backyard.

Right now, our friends in the Southern Hemisphere have the best seats in the house for this celestial show. But don’t worry, my northern skywatching friends, as the comet pulls away from the sun’s glare, it’s expected to become a more visible sight for us, especially for those of you in the southern United States.

Comet SWAN is on a truly epic journey. Early analysis suggests it’s on a 22,554-year orbit around the sun. That means this is a “once-in-a-lifetime” opportunity to see this icy visitor! Its closest approach to Earth is expected to be around October 12-19, 2025, and it might get as bright as a magnitude of 5.8, making it even easier to spot with both binoculars and small backyard telescopes.

So, how do you find it? Get out your binoculars and start your star-hop! The comet is currently cruising between the Red Planet, Mars, and the bright star Spica in the constellation Virgo. It’s a great opportunity to get a close-up view of the comet’s impressive tail as it glides through our cosmic neighborhood.

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The T Coronae Borealis star, also known as the ‘Blaze Star’ will be visible to the naked eye for perhaps only for a few hours and up to a couple of days, and those with binoculars will probably enjoy the view for just over a week before it fades away again for up to 80 years .

This stellar bright light will appear in the Corona Borealis constellation, a semicircular arc of faint, naked-eye stars nestled between the more familiar superbright stars in the southwest skies – Vega and Arcturus visible after darkness falls in late summer.

For skywatchers across most of Northern Hemisphere the constellation rides near the overhead skies during late evenings around spring and summer seasons.  It takes the shape of a crown. 

Weather permitting skywatchers will be able to spot the nova at its peak brightness for at least a few days in a row.

What is the T Coronae Borealis Nova?

The T Coronae Borealis nova is a rare event, one of just ten recurring novas in our galaxy.

This spectacular phenomenon occurs in a binary system made up of two stars: a “white dwarf” (the remains of a dead star) and a “red giant” (a dying star that has exhausted its core’s hydrogen supply).

Credit: NASA

Due to their close orbit, the red giant’s material gets pulled by gravity onto the surface of the white dwarf. Over time, this accumulation heats up enough to trigger a runaway “nuclear fusion eruption,” causing the star to brighten by hundreds of times.

When exactly will we see the star explode? All we know is that it is following historical patterns of brightness fluctuations that it has before previous explosion occurring back in 1866 and 1946. So expectations are that it will happen between now and September.

So my suggestion is to become familiar with the constellation Corona Borealis, where it is in the sky and what it normally looks like without the Blaze star visible. That way you will be prepared for when it does explode. Of course I will be on the look out with a regular vigil and so make sure to follow my social feeds and sign up for my newsletter and I’ll let you know when the Blaze star does explode.

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The upcoming June 3 planet parade, where multiple neighbouring worlds in our solar system will align in the early morning sky, has received a lot of media buzz. However, the excitement is unfortunately exaggerated for a few reasons.

First the facts of what this sky event is about.

1. Six planets will appear lined up in Earth’s sky above the east and southeastern horizon at dawn the first few days of June 2024.
2. From east to south, the planets will be Jupiter, Mercury, Uranus, Mars, Neptune and Saturn.
3. All the planets will appear strung along a line called the ecliptic – the pathway all the planets follow in our skies. It represents the plane of our solar system and appears as an imaginary line running east to south to west .

And here is why it is overhyped…

1. Spread Across the Sky: Unlike a tightly packed formation, the planets will be spread out across a large portion of the sky – from east to south. This means you won’t see them all lined up in a single, dramatic view. Instead, they’ll appear more dispersed, making the event less visually striking than some media reports suggest.
2. Visibility Issues: The best time to view this alignment is just before dawn, which requires early rising and clear skies. Also the planets Jupiter, Mercury and Uranus in early June will be huddled very close to the rising sun, making them near impossible to hunt down due to the bright glare at dawn. The planets Uranus and Neptune can only be spotted at least an hour before sunrise while it is still dark enough to see these super-faint planets. At that same time however, it is too early to try spotting Jupiter, Mercury and Uranus because they have not risen above the horizon yet. So it’s impossible to see all 6 worlds at the same time. Additionally, light pollution in urban areas can significantly diminish visibility, making it difficult for many to see the planets clearly.
3. Not a Rare Event: While planet parades are interesting, they’re not as rare as total solar eclipses or other major astronomical events. Similar alignments happen every few years, so this isn’t a once-in-a-lifetime occurrence.
4. Astronomical Expectations: People might expect a dramatic spectacle, but the reality is more subtle. Without the aid of telescopes or binoculars, planets Uranus and Neptune are invisible, and so the parade may not live up to the heightened expectations set by some media outlets.

So while the June 3 planet parade is a noteworthy observing challenge for astronomy enthusiasts, the media hype is leading to unrealistic expectations for the unsuspecting general public not experienced with skywatching. In short, yes the planets will technically be visible, but the spectacle will be much more serene than the buzz suggests.

Patience Brings Rewards

While the early June ‘Planet Parade’ may not be the best for observers, the end of June/early July offers a much better vantage point in catching sight of more planets in the sky.

Jupiter and Uranus will both be better placed, higher in the eastern sky at dawn. Also the Moon will be hopping from one planet to the next from day to day, making it a great guidepost in finding each planet – especially the super-faint ones like Uranus and Neptune – which require binoculars and telescopes.

Key Dates

June 27 Moon and Saturn

June 28 Moon and Neptune

July 1 Moon and Mars

July 2 Moon and Uranus

July 3 Moon and Jupiter

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An international team of scientists led by the Astrobiology Center (ABC) in Japan, the University of Tokyo, the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, and Tokyo Institute of Technology found and characterized the planet, called Gliese 12 b, based on data from NASA’s TESS space telescope, MuSCAT2 and MuSCAT3 cameras, and three Maunakea Observatories on Hawaiʻi Island: Subaru Telescope, Gemini Observatory, a Program of NSFʻs NOIRLab, and W. M. Keck Observatory.

The planet’s characteristics point to the possibility that the newly-discovered planet may have retained a certain amount of atmosphere, which makes it one of the most suitable targets out of all of the planets discovered thus far to investigate the atmosphere of a Venus-like planet.

Gliese 12 b, which orbits a cool, red dwarf star located just 40 light-years away, promises to tell astronomers more about how planets close to their stars retain or lose their atmospheres. In this artist’s concept, Gliese 12 b is shown retaining a thin atmosphere.

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/R. Hurt (Caltech-IPAC)

The research is published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters.

The study of life in the universe is difficult because we have only one example of a planet where life has been confirmed: Earth. It is difficult to say which characteristics of Earth are required for life to appear, and which are irrelevant. Until we find an “Earth twin” where the conditions for life also appeared, the best astronomers can do is study “evil twins”- planets with initial conditions similar to Earth that turned out very differently, with environments unsuitable for life.

In our solar system, Venus and Mars provide two examples of lifeless “evil twins.” But with only two examples, there is still much uncertainty about how stringent or lax the conditions for life may be. Since the 1990s, more than 5,500 planets orbiting around stars other than the Sun have been discovered. However, most of these planets are hundreds of light years away from Earth, making it challenging to study them in detail.

Credit: Gliese 12 b’s estimated size may be as large as Earth or slightly smaller — comparable to Venus in our solar system. This artist’s concept compares Earth with different possible Gliese 12 b interpretations, from one with no atmosphere to one with a thick Venus-like one.

NASA/JPL-Caltech/R. Hurt (Caltech-IPAC)

Gliese 12 b, on the other hand, is close to our solar system, located only 40 light-years away. This makes Gliese 12b an ideal target to study with the James Web Space Telescope (JWST) and next generation ground-based telescopes.

“Follow-up observations with JWST and future ground-based observations with 30-meter class telescopes for transit spectroscopy are expected to determine whether Gliese 12 b has an atmosphere and whether the atmosphere contains molecular components associated with life such as water vapor, oxygen, and carbon dioxide,” says Masayuki Kuzuhara, a project assistant professor of ABC and lead author of the study. 

Although Venus currently does not retain liquid water on the surface, it might have in the past. Likewise, it cannot be fully ruled out that liquid water is present on Gliese 12 b’s surface.

Data from Subaru Telescope’s infrared spectrograph (IRD), Keck Observatory’s second generation Near-Infrared Camera (NIRC2) and Gemini North telescope archive data played an important role in confirming that Gliese 12 b is in fact a planet; the data ruled out a false positive scenario in which the object Kuzuharaʻs team detected might be a companion star thatʻs part of a binary system where two stars revolve around each other. 

Furthermore, the team determined that Gliese 12 b is so close to its host star, an M-class red dwarf, that one year on the planet – the time it takes to complete one orbit – lasts only 12.8 Earth days. Its radius is only 4 percent smaller than Earth’s radius, and is less than 3.9 times the mass of our planet. Gliese 12 b receives 1.6 times more radiation from its host star than Earth receives from the Sun. For comparison, Venus receives 1.9 times more radiation than Earth.

Based on this data, the team believes that Gliese 12 b is an “evil twin,” more like Venus than like Earth. But they cannot rule out the possibility that Gliese 12 b is an “Earth twin” with liquid water on its surface. Further observations will determine if Gliese 12 b is an “evil twin” or an “Earth twin.” In either case, studying Gliese 12 b in finer detail will give a better idea of the prerequisites for a life-friendly environment to develop on a planet.

Press Release Credit: W. M. KECK OBSERVATORY

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(Press Release) Astronomers have found what is likely the largest planet-forming disk ever seen, which appears like a giant, cosmic butterfly in the night sky. This discovery offers new insight into the environments where planets form.

Officially known as IRAS 23077+6707 (IRAS 23077, for short), this giant cosmic butterfly is about 1000 light-years from Earth and was initially discovered in 2016 by Ciprian T. Berghea from the US Naval Observatory using the Panoramic Survey Telescope and Rapid Response System (Pan-STARRS). However, for years it remained uncharacterized.

Two new papers have now revealed the true nature of IRAS 23077. One paper, led by Berghea and accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal Letters, reports the discovery that IRAS 23077 is a young star located in the middle of what looked like an enormous planet-forming disk. In the second paper, published yesterday in The Astrophysical Journal Letters, researchers confirm the discovery of a large planet-forming disk, using the Submillimeter Array (SMA). 

The SMA is an array of telescopes in Hawaii jointly operated by the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory (SAO) at the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian (CfA) and the Academia Sinica Institute of Astronomy and Astrophysics (ASIAA) in Taiwan. It detects light at millimeter wavelengths, a type of radio wave.

“After finding out about this possible planet-forming disk from Pan-STARRS data, we were keen to observe it with the SMA, which allowed us to understand its physical nature”, explains Kristina Monsch, an SAO astrophysicist and a postdoctoral fellow at the CfA, who led the SMA campaign. “What we found was incredible – evidence that this was the largest planet-forming disk ever discovered. It is extremely rich in dust and gas, which we know are the building blocks of planets”.

Planet-forming disks – called “protoplanetary disks” by astronomers – are planetary nurseries in which rocky planets like Earth and Mars, and giant planets like Jupiter and Saturn form around young stars. They are rich in dust and gas, and rotate with a specific signature that astronomers can use to infer their sizes, and the masses of their central stars. 

Some planet-forming disks are ‘edge–on’, meaning they are oriented such that their own dust and gas–rich disks entirely obscure the light emitted from their parent star, as is the case with IRAS 23077. While their stars may be shrouded, the dust and gas signatures of their surrounding disks can still be bright at millimeter wavelengths, as obtained by the SMA.

“The data from the SMA offer us the smoking–gun evidence that this is a disk, and coupled with the estimate of the system’s distance, that it is rotating around a star likely two to four times more massive than our own Sun,” said Monsch. “From the SMA data we can also weigh the dust and gas in this planetary nursery, which we found has enough material to form many giant planets – and out to distances over 300 times further out than the distance between the Sun and Jupiter!”. 

“The discovery of a structure as extended and bright as IRAS 23077 poses some important questions,” said co-author Joshua Bennett Lovell, an SAO astrophysicist and an SMA Fellow at CfA. “Just how many more of these objects have we missed? Further study of IRAS 23077 is warranted to investigate the possible routes to form planets in these extreme young environments, and how these might compare to exoplanet populations observed around distant stars more massive than our Sun.”

“In addition to gaining brand new data on IRAS 23077, we must also continue the hunt for other similar objects if we are to unlock the story of how extrasolar planetary systems develop in their earliest years,” said co-author Jeremy Drake, Astrophysics Chief Scientist at Lockheed Martin’s Advanced Technology Center.

IRAS 23077 was initially termed “Dracula’s Chivito” by Ciprian Berghea, who grew up in the Transylvania region in Romania, close to where Vlad Dracula lived. In analogy to the famous object “Gomez’s Hamburger”, which is another enormous planet-forming disk that is seen edge-on, they followed the suggestion of Ana Mosquera, Berghea’s co-author, to name it after her country’s national dish the “chivito”, a hamburger-like sandwich from Uruguay. 

credit: The Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian

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The NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope has captured the sharpest infrared images to date of one of the most distinctive objects in our skies, the Horsehead Nebula. These observations show a part of the iconic nebula in a whole new light, capturing its complexity with unprecedented spatial resolution.

The first image (left), released in November 2023, features the Horsehead Nebula as seen by ESA’s Euclid telescope. Euclid captured this image of the Horsehead in about one hour, which showcases the mission’s ability to very quickly image an unprecedented area of the sky in high detail. You can learn more about this image here.

ESA/Euclid/Euclid Consortium/NASA, image processing by J.-C. Cuillandre (CEA Paris-Saclay), G. Anselmi, NASA, ESA, and the Hubble Heritage Team (AURA/STScI), ESA/Webb, CSA, K. Misselt (University of Arizona) and A. Abergel (IAS/University Paris-Saclay, CNRS), M. Zamani (ESA/Webb)

This image showcases three views of one of the most distinctive objects in our skies, the Horsehead Nebula. This object resides in part of the sky in the constellation Orion (The Hunter), in the western side of the Orion B molecular cloud. Rising from turbulent waves of dust and gas is the Horsehead Nebula, otherwise known as Barnard 33, which resides roughly 1300 light-years away.

The second image (middle) shows the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope’s infrared view of the Horsehead Nebula, which was featured as the telescope’s 23rd anniversary image in 2013. This image captures plumes of gas in the infrared and reveals a beautiful, delicate structure that is normally obscured by dust. You can learn more about this image here.

The third image (right) features a new view of the Horsehead Nebula from the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope’s NIRCam (Near-InfraRed Camera) instrument. It is the sharpest infrared image of the object to date, showing a part of the iconic nebula in a whole new light, and capturing its complexity with unprecedented spatial resolution. You can learn more about this image here.

Webb’s new images show part of the sky in the constellation Orion (The Hunter), in the western side of the Orion B molecular cloud. Rising from turbulent waves of dust and gas is the Horsehead Nebula, otherwise known as Barnard 33, which resides roughly 1300 light-years away. 

The nebula formed from a collapsing interstellar cloud of material, and glows because it is illuminated by a nearby hot star. The gas clouds surrounding the Horsehead have already dissipated, but the jutting pillar is made of thick clumps of material that is harder to erode. Astronomers estimate that the Horsehead has about five million years left before it too disintegrates. Webb’s new view focuses on the illuminated edge of the top of the nebula’s distinctive dust and gas structure.

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