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When a committee meeting on AI 'best practices' turns into something else entirely, one mathematician learns that two small words might open more doors than any amount of expertise.

Here's what's launching May 11–17: SpaceX's upgraded Starship V3 is targeting its first flight Friday, while a busy week also features a cargo run to the space station and a flurry of Chinese missions.:What's Launching This Week | tags:Robotic Spaceflight

Today in the history of astronomy, JAXA begins its historic sample-return mission.

Benjamin Starkel, taken from El Chaltén, Patagonia, Argentina The aurora australis shimmers above Patagonian mountains, as the Milky Way and the Magellanic Clouds wheel overhead.…

A crescent Moon guides the way to the Red Planet as galaxies glow and Venus stands between the horns of the Bull in the sky this week.

Rodney Pommier from Portland, Oregon The Iris Nebula (NGC 7023), also known as LBN 487, lies some 1,400 light-years away in Cepheus, reflecting the blue light of its central star.…

From Mathematical Association of America: The Tool/Weapon Duality of Mathematics

Gerald Rhemann, taken from Farm Tivoli, Namibia Comet C/2025 R3 PanSTARRS has survived its close pass of the Sun and while decreasing in magnitude, it is now on display in the evening sky for Southern Hemisphere observers.…

Angel Fux, taken from Dent d’Hérens on the Swiss-Italian border Both the Milky Way’s winter and summer arches are captured rising above the Alps in this time-blended composite of two panoramas March 19, 2026, when the winter arch was visible during the…

Here's what's launching May 5–10: SpaceX has two Starlink missions from Vandenberg, and China will send a resupply ship to the Tiangong space station.

Today in the history of astronomy, a trailblazing mission on the Moon’s surface ends.

David Cowland from Hamilton, Victoria, Australia RCW 86 lies about 8,000 light-years away in the southern constellation Circinus. Catalogued as an emission nebula, it is the result of an expanding shell of gas and dust expelled by the explosion of a…

Today in the history of astronomy, one of the oldest recorded eclipses occurs (maybe).

May opens with a Full Moon days before our satellite meets Antares in Scorpius and the Eta Aquariid meteor shower peaks in the sky this week.

Allen Hwang from Deming, New Mexico Before slipping into the morning twilight, Comet PanSTARRS put on a show April 18 as its ion tail took on a smoky, billowing appearance, likely due to a passing solar storm.…

Tunç Tezel from Bursa, Turkey Across 2025 and early 2026, Saturn and Neptune traced near-synchronous retrograde loops in Pisces and Aquarius, with their oppositions falling just two days apart (Sept. 21 and 23, respectively).…

Douglas J. Struble from Taylor, Michigan NGC 1501, often called the Oyster Nebula, is a planetary nebula around 5,600 light-years away in Camelopardalis, formed from the cast-off outer layers of a dying star.…

Ondrej Králik, taken from Považská Bystrica, Slovakia The winter Milky Way arches above the Slovakian peak of Veľký Manín as low clouds trap artificial light in the valley at right.…

The ringed planet is growing easier to view in the sky as the Moon, Jupiter, and Venus pass close to stars in the sky this week.