Skywatching

Smart telescope buying made easy: Your guide to Unistellar, ZWO, Celestron, Dwarflab, and Vaonis

By Gemma Lavender published

Our expert gives you a rundown of the main smart telescope brands and models.

Skywatching Kit
graphic with night sky in large font and silhouettes of people below looking up at the night sky.

Night sky tonight (March 9): The moon meets Antares in the predawn sky

By Jamie Carter last updated

Find out what you can see in the night sky for tonight, from planets and stars to dazzling meteor showers.

Stargazing

Aurora forecast March 9: Northern lights could dance tonight as solar winds linger

By Daisy Dobrijevic last updated

The latest aurora forecast for tonight helps you make sure you're in the right place at the right time to see the northern lights.

Auroras
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Spaceflight

Graphic illustration with 'space calendar' in large blue neon letters and 2023 below it in smaller white letters. Below the title are four neon images depicting a meteor or comet, a telescope, a rocket launch and an astronaut's helmet. There is a starry background to the entire image.

Space calendar 2026: Rocket launches, skywatching events, missions & more!

By Space.com last updated

Reference Keep up with all the rocket launches, astronomical events and mission milestones for 2026 with our space calendar.

Reference
a triple-core rocket blasts off under a sunny, partly cloudy blue sky. smoke expands below next to an obscured launch tower, near a long white hanger with SPACEX written on the side. To the left, a bird flies away.

Rocket launch today: Is there a rocket launch and what time?

By Josh Dinner, Tariq Malik last updated

Follow Space.com's rocket launch blog for the latest on when the next rocket launch will be and how to follow it live.

Launches & Spacecraft
a mostly-blue vintage postage stamp depicting a rocket and a dog next to a photo of a test mannequin in an orange flight suit.

On this day in space: March 9, 1961: Soviet Union launches dummy, dog and guinea pig into space

By Hanneke Weitering last updated

On March 9, 1961, the Soviet Union launched Sputnik 9.

Space Exploration
a rocket lifts off into the night sky, lighting up the area around its launch pad

SpaceX springs forward with another Starlink launch from California (video)

By Robert Z. Pearlman published

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying 25 Starlink satellites launched from Space Launch Complex 4 East at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California on Sunday, March 8, 2026.

Launches & Spacecraft

A Plan B for space? On the risks of concentrating national space power in private hands

By Svetla Ben-Itzhak published

Private companies are no longer peripheral participants in U.S. space activities. They provide key services, including launching and deploying satellites, transporting cargo and astronauts to the International Space Station, and even sending landers to the Moon.

Space Exploration
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Science & Astronomy

What is the moon phase today? Lunar phases 2026

By Tariq Malik, Daisy Dobrijevic last updated

Reference See what moon phase it is tonight and find out when you can see the rest of the moon phases for 2026.

Reference

The universe is humming with ripples in spacetime: Scientists just doubled our catalog of black hole and neutron star collisions

By Robert Lea published

The catalog of gravitational waves "heard" by LIGO, KAGRA and Virgo has doubled with detections of spacetime ripples.

Black Holes
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Space Photo of the Day

An image of RCW 36 in which the Milky Way nebula appears like a vast cosmic bird of prey

Cosmic Hawk spreads its wings| Space photo of the day for March 6, 2026

By Robert Lea published

The Milky Way nebula RCW 36 resembles a stunning cosmic bird of prey in an incredible Very Large Telescope image.

Galaxies
an impressive red spiral structure with a bright point of light at the very center.

Spectacular spiral galaxy revealed by James Webb Space Telescope | Space photo of the day for March 4, 2026

By Daisy Dobrijevic published

The James Webb Space Telescope captured a stunning spiral galaxy 65 million light-years away, revealing glowing dust clouds and stellar nurseries.

James Webb Space Telescope
The spiral galaxy NGC 941 looks like a spinning cosmic wheel in new image from the Subaru Telescope

Spiral galaxy is a stunning cosmic wheel in head-turning image | Space photo of the day for March 3, 2026

By Robert Lea published

The galaxy NGC 941 was imaged by the Subaru Telescope at the summit of Maunakea, Hawai'i.

Galaxies
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Entertainment

This Week In Space podcast: Episode 200 — Our 200th Episode Listener Special!

This Week In Space podcast: Episode 200 — Our 200th Episode Listener Special!

By Space.com Staff published

On Episode 200 of This Week In Space, Rod Pyle and Tariq Malik celebrate their 200th episode with their annual listener special!

Space Movies & Shows

Bungie explains Marathon's 'graphic retro futurism' aesthetic and the 'live narrative' lessons it learned from 'Destiny' (Interview)

By Fran Ruiz published

As "Marathon" finally launches, we grill a trio of Bungie developers about the world, aesthetic, and ambitions of this sci-fi extraction shooter.

Space Games
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What's Up In Space Today

Search For Life

The SETI Institute's Allen Telescope Array in Northern California searches for radio signals that could have been generated by intelligent alien life.

Where are all the aliens? Maybe space weather is scrambling their transmissions

By Keith Cooper published

We may be missing alien radio signals because they have become smeared beyond the narrowband detectors that SETI utilizes, a new study suggests.

Search for Life
The average distance between Earth and Marsthe two planets is 140 million miles (225 million km). The distance between the two planets affects how long it would take to travel between the two.

Did Earth life actually begin on Mars? Asteroid impacts could let microbes planet-hop, study suggests

By Sharmila Kuthunur published

"Life might actually survive being ejected from one planet and moving to another."

Search for Life
a rust orange yellow sky and landscape features a rocky surface in the foreground, with a large pointed hill beyond.

'War of the Worlds' in reverse? Mars dirt could help fight off a microbial invasion from Earth

By Keith Cooper published

Tests conducted with tardigrades suggest that there is something in Martian dirt that dramatically reduces biological activity.

Search for Life
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Technology

A hand is holding a mobile phone with a VPN on while a laptop with the same VPN screen is in the background, on a plain surface.

Best VPN services we recommend 2026

By Alexander Cox last updated

The best VPN services provide improved online safety for streaming, surfing, downloading and more, so we've rounded up the top six options available.

Technology
A mountain top with a white three quarter circle encompassing it sits above the word "NordVPN" and is glowing on a blue planet background with the space.com logo in the top left corner.

Enjoy 'For All Mankind' spinoff series 'Star City' anywhere with these VPN deals — save 74% off and a bonus free $50 Amazon voucher

By Paul Brett published

Deals NordVPN comes recommended as the best VPN service, and offers online security and convenience, now with a $415 discount and a $50 Amazon voucher.

Deals
a swarm of missiles with wings fly above the ocean while firing other, smaller missiles

The US Air Force's latest X-plane looks like a missile  —  that shoots other missiles

By Julian Dossett published

The U.S. military is developing a new experimental aircraft known as the X-68A and looks a lot like a cruise missile that is also capable of launching its own missiles.

Aerospace
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