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For close on a century, researchers have hypothesized that the Universe appears to contain more matter than can be directly observed. This idea of missing matter was kicked off in 1933 when Swiss astronomer Fritz Zwicky made a discovery that left the scientific world speechless -- There was, claimed Zwicky, substantially more matter in the Universe than we could actually see. Astronomers called this unknown matter "Dark matter," a concept that took on more importance in the 1970s, when the US astronomer Vera Rubin called on this enigmatic matter to explain the movements and speed of the stars. Scientists have subsequently devoted considerable resources to detecting Dark Matter -- in space, on the ground, and even at CERN -- but without success. Clearly, such a discovery, if achieved, would be worthy of a Nobel Prize in Physics. However, new research recently released at the University of Bonn, along with work at many other universities across the world, is concluding that the movement of the stars in galaxies and other anomalies can be explained without drawing on the concept of dark matter... In fact, much of this work is pointing to a very inconvenient conclusion – Dark matter may not actually exist at all. It is a figment of the imagination that has been used to explain away something that we simply do not fully understand. This is not the first time something like this has happened. History provides us with many examples where scientists have simply invented ideas out of thin air to help explain away things that were just not understood at the time. In some ways, dark matter bring to mind another imaginary concept -- the so called "Aether Wind" of the 1800s. Back then, everybody just "knew" that space was filled with an "Aether Wind." The problem was that no one had ever seen it nor measured it. In 1887, Albert Michelson and Edward Morley set out to prove the existence of Aether Wind once and for all. Their experiment failed spectacularly in its attempt to detect any Aether Wind, but in the process they showed that the whole concept of Aether Wind, which most scientists at the time simply accepted as fact, was flawed -- There was no such thing. Albert Michelson eventually won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1907 for this work and became the first American to do so. Will the concept of dark matter meet the same fate as the Aether Wind of the 19th century? Time will tell.

Welcome to the night sky report for July 2026 -- Your guide to the constellations, deep sky objects, planets, and celestial events that are observable during the month. This month brings a predawn meetup between the Moon and planets, a returning comet, dark skies for the Milky Way, and Saturn's unusually thin rings. Before sunrise on July 11 and 12, look east/southeast for the waning crescent Moon, Mars, and Saturn. Uranus is in the same part of the sky, but you will need binoculars or a telescope to spot it. Around July 14, use binoculars or a telescope to find Comet 10P/Tempel 2 under dark skies of the New Moon. July is also a prime time to view the Milky Way in all its glory. Find the constellation Scorpius to identify the reddish supergiant star Antares, which will lead you to the globular star cluster M4 (NGC 6121). M22 (NGC 6656) in the constellation Sagitarius is one of the brightest globular clusters in the sky and is visible to the naked eye. Keep observing around the group of stars commonly known as the Teapot and you’ll be looking toward the center of the Milky Way. In that direction, you can see the Lagoon Nebula (M8, NGC 6523), the Omega Nebula (M17, NGC 6618), and the Trifid Nebula (M20, NGC 6514). Two open star clusters, the Butterfly Cluster (M6, NGC 6405) and the Ptolemy Cluster (M7, NGC 6475), can be found on the end of the constellation Scorpius, just above the stinger.

New research at Curtin University in Australia has used a radio telescope that spans the Earth to snap images that measure the immense power of jets from black holes, confirming scientists’ theories of how black holes help shape the structure of the Universe. Researchers found the power of the jets in Cygnus X-1 – a system comprised of the first confirmed black hole and a supergiant star – was equivalent to the power output of 10,000 Suns. To record the measurement, researchers used an array of linked up telescopes separated by large distances to observe the black hole jets being buffeted by the winds of the star as the black hole moved around its orbit.

From birth to death, stars generally slow by 100 to 1000 times their initial rotation rates. In other words, they spin down. Astronomers at Kyoto University in Japan have theorized that the interaction between magnetic fields and plasma flow may be the most efficient way to spin down stars. Why and how this happens has long interested astronomers, and recently an observational technique that measures a star's natural oscillation frequencies has made it possible to measure the internal rotation rates and magnetic fields of stars in our galaxy. From this huge population, a picture of how stellar rotation decreases with stellar age has emerged -- One that suggests that current theory is insufficient to explain the dramatic decreases in rotation that have been observed.

Welcome to the night sky report for June 2026 -- Your guide to the constellations, deep sky objects, planets, and celestial events that are observable during the month. This month, Venus and Jupiter meet after sunset, the Moon passes in front of Venus, and Summer begins. Once the sky gets dark, Summer brings some favorite targets for telescope users and astrophotographers. First, look for the Summer Triangle, formed by the bright stars Vega, Altair, and Deneb. Inside and around this region are deep sky objects like the Dumbbell Nebula (M27, NGC 6853), the Ring Nebula (M57, NGC 6720), the North America Nebula (C20, NGC 7000), and the East and West Veil Nebulae (East -- C33, NGC 6992 and West C34, NGC 6960). The Dumbbell Nebula was the first planetary nebula ever discovered. These objects are not bright like planets, but with telescopes or long exposure photography, they reveal glowing gas, dying stars, and stellar nurseries in our galaxy. The bright central bulge of our home galaxy, the Milky Way, is visible all night in June, continuing through August. It is best observed from dark sky locations far from bright city lights and appears as a faint, cloud-like band arching across the sky toward the south. During the month, look for the Hercules constellation, which will lead you to a globular star cluster with hundreds of thousands of densely packed stars. Globular cluster M13 (the Great Hercules Globular Cluster, NGC 6205) is best observed with a telescope, but binoculars will reveal it as a fuzzy spot. You can also spot Draco the dragon, which will point you to the Cat’s Eye Nebula (C6, NGC 6543). The night sky is truly a celestial showcase. Get outside and explore its wonders from your own backyard.

Two University of Miami astrophysicists believe a recent unusual signal detected by a powerful ground-based observatory could provide solid evidence that primordial black holes, thought to have formed in the cosmic soup just after the Big Bang, really do exist. A primordial black hole weighing the mass of Earth would have an event horizon (the point of no return for infalling objects) about as wide as a US dime coin. If the Universe is full of these dime-sized black holes, how can they be detected?

For decades, astronomers have struggled to differentiate giant planets from brown dwarfs, a class of objects more massive than planets but too small to ignite nuclear fusion like true stars. Through a telescope, these cosmic look-alikes can have overlapping brightness, temperatures, and even atmospheric fingerprints. The striking similarity leaves astronomers unsure if they have observed an over-sized planet or an undersized star. In our Solar System, Jupiter is the largest planet, being about 318 times as massive as the Earth and lying about five times farther from the Sun than does the Earth. Brown dwarfs are similar in many ways to Jupiter-like gas giants, but range from 13 to 90 times the mass of Jupiter… And while they can be up to a tenth the mass of the Sun, they lack the nuclear fusion in their core to burn as a star, so they lie somewhere between a diminutive star and a super-planet. Now, a Northwestern University-led team has uncovered a crucial clue that separates the two: how fast they spin.

Welcome to the night sky report for May 2026 -- Your guide to the constellations, deep sky objects, planets, and celestial events that are observable during the month. This month, the Eta Aquarid meteor shower brings shooting stars before dawn, the Moon meets brilliant Venus after sunset, and May wraps up with a rare Blue Moon, meaning it is the second full moon in a single calendar month (but it will not actually look blue). In May, we are looking away from the crowded, dusty plane of our own galaxy toward a region where the sky is brimming with distant galaxies. Locate Virgo to find a concentration of roughly 2000 galaxies and search for Coma Berenices to identify many more. Coma Berenices is a great target for binoculars. Look for galaxies like M104 (Sombrero Galaxy), M87 (Virgo A Galaxy), and M64 (Black Eye Galaxy). The night sky is truly a celestial showcase. Get outside and explore its wonders from your own backyard.

Meteor impacts may have helped spark life on Earth, creating hot, chemical-rich environments where the first living cells could take shape, according to new research at Rutgers University. Deep-sea hydrothermal vents have long been considered a possible birthplace of life. Discovered in the deep ocean in the late 1970s, these systems host entire ecosystems that thrive without sunlight. Instead of photosynthesis, microbes use chemical energy from compounds released by vent fluids, such as hydrogen sulfide, in a process known as chemosynthesis. The implications extend beyond Earth -- Hydrothermal activity is thought to exist on the ocean floors of icy moons such as Jupiter’s Europa and Saturn’s Enceladus. If these environments on Earth can support the chemistry of life, they could become key targets in the search for life elsewhere.

Welcome to the night sky report for April 2026 -- Your guide to the constellations, deep sky objects, planets, and celestial events that are observable during the month. This April, Mercury shines extra bright, the Lyrid meteor shower peaks, and Comet C/2025 R3 soars into view. Then hunt for the ancient ball of stars known as globular cluster M3 (NGC 5272). The night sky is truly a celestial showcase. Get outside and explore its wonders from your own backyard.

An invisible companion consuming material from the famous naked-eye star gamma- Cassiopeia has been revealed as the culprit for curious X-rays coming from the stellar system. This closes the case on a mystery that has puzzled astronomers for more than fifty years. Unique high-resolution observations made by the X-Ray Imaging and Spectroscopy Mission (XRISM) revealed that the X-rays are linked to the orbital motion of a companion white dwarf star, enabling astronomers to finally solve the mystery. The star gamma-Cas (γ-Cas) is visible to observers in the northern hemisphere. It makes up the central ‘point’ of the distinctive ‘W’-shaped constellation Cassiopeia.

Gemini VIII, the sixth crewed Earth-orbiting mission of the Gemini series, was flown by astronauts Neil Armstrong and David Scott. On March 16, 1966, the first day of their mission, the astronauts completed the first docking in space between the Gemini VIII capsule and the Agena target vehicle. But the triumph quickly became an in-flight emergency when, upon the capsule’s disengagement from the Agena, the Gemini VIII capsule began spinning uncontrollably due to a life-threatening malfunction of one of the spacecraft’s thrusters. Disaster was narrowly averted by Armstrong’s quick thinking and piloting instincts, as he slowly gained control of his spacecraft. NASA immediately aborted the mission and implemented an emergency procedure to bring the astronauts safely home.

Welcome to the night sky report for March 2026 -- Your guide to the constellations, deep sky objects, planets, and celestial events that are observable during the month. During March, look for the constellations Gemini and Cancer to spot interesting celestial features like star clusters M35, the Beehive Cluster (M44), and NGC 3923 -- an oblong elliptical galaxy with an interesting ripple pattern. Find the Y-shaped constellation Taurus the bull, high in the southwest. The Hyades star cluster forms the bull's face. The night sky is truly a celestial showcase. Get outside and explore its wonders from your own backyard.

Earth’s magnetic field is generated by the churn of its liquid nickel-iron outer core, but it is not a constant feature. Every so often, the magnetic north and south poles swap places in what are called geomagnetic reversals. The record of these flips is preserved in rocks and sediments. Over the past 170 million years, the magnetic poles have reversed 540 times, with the average reversal process typically taking around 10,000 years to complete each time. Now, a new study by University of Utah geoscientists and colleagues from France and Japan has upended this scenario after documenting instances 40 million years ago where the process took far longer to complete -- upwards of 70,000 years. These findings offer a new perspective on the geomagnetic phenomenon that envelops our planet and shields it from solar radiation and harmful particles from space.