https://www.ancientskies.org/ Space news with a twist, Today in Space History, weekly stargazing guides and the stories behind the Ancient Skies videos. en-us https://www.ancientskies.org/articles/escapade-mars-twins-earth-flyby-slingshot-burn-november-2026 https://www.ancientskies.org/articles/escapade-mars-twins-earth-flyby-slingshot-burn-november-2026 Tue, 03 Nov 2026 12:00:00 +0000 Spaceflight NASA's twin ESCAPADE probes return to Earth Nov. 7 and 9 for a slingshot engine burn that sends them to Mars. Here's how it works and how to spot them. https://www.ancientskies.org/articles/mariner-10-launch-first-mission-to-mercury-venus-gravity-assist-november-3-1973 https://www.ancientskies.org/articles/mariner-10-launch-first-mission-to-mercury-venus-gravity-assist-november-3-1973 Tue, 03 Nov 2026 12:00:00 +0000 Space History On Nov. 3, 1973, NASA launched Mariner 10, the first probe to visit Mercury and the first to use one planet's gravity to reach another. https://www.ancientskies.org/articles/beta-pictoris-cats-tail-hubble-dark-dust-collision https://www.ancientskies.org/articles/beta-pictoris-cats-tail-hubble-dark-dust-collision Mon, 02 Nov 2026 12:00:00 +0000 Stars Hubble finally spots the Beta Pictoris 'cat's tail' Webb found: ultra-dark carbon dust from a crash between two Ceres-sized worlds. https://www.ancientskies.org/articles/stardust-asteroid-annefrank-flyby-november-2-2002 https://www.ancientskies.org/articles/stardust-asteroid-annefrank-flyby-november-2-2002 Mon, 02 Nov 2026 12:00:00 +0000 Space History On Nov. 2, 2002, NASA's Stardust flew past asteroid Annefrank to practice for Comet Wild 2, and found the asteroid was twice as big as expected. https://www.ancientskies.org/articles/whats-up-in-the-sky-this-week-november-2-2026 https://www.ancientskies.org/articles/whats-up-in-the-sky-this-week-november-2-2026 Sun, 01 Nov 2026 12:00:00 +0000 Night Sky Nov. 2–8 stargazing: the Moon joins Mars, Jupiter and Regulus at dawn, a thin crescent meets Venus and Spica, and the Southern Taurids peak. https://www.ancientskies.org/articles/what-if-you-fell-into-jupiter https://www.ancientskies.org/articles/what-if-you-fell-into-jupiter Sun, 01 Nov 2026 12:00:00 +0000 Planets What happens if you fall into Jupiter? There's no surface. Ride down through the clouds, helium rain and metallic hydrogen to its fuzzy core. https://www.ancientskies.org/articles/white-dwarf-wd-j1328-1450-double-debris-disc https://www.ancientskies.org/articles/white-dwarf-wd-j1328-1450-double-debris-disc Sun, 01 Nov 2026 12:00:00 +0000 Stars The VLT found a white dwarf with two debris rings, not one, likely shaped by two surviving planetary bodies. A preview of our Solar System's end? https://www.ancientskies.org/articles/chiron-first-centaur-discovered-charles-kowal-november-1-1977 https://www.ancientskies.org/articles/chiron-first-centaur-discovered-charles-kowal-november-1-1977 Sun, 01 Nov 2026 12:00:00 +0000 Space History On Nov. 1, 1977, Charles Kowal found Chiron, a strange icy world between Saturn and Uranus that is part asteroid, part comet and may even have rings. https://www.ancientskies.org/articles/expedition-1-first-space-station-crew-october-31-2000 https://www.ancientskies.org/articles/expedition-1-first-space-station-crew-october-31-2000 Sat, 31 Oct 2026 12:00:00 +0000 Space History On Oct. 31, 2000, Expedition 1 launched the first crew to live on the International Space Station, starting 26 years of people in space every day. https://www.ancientskies.org/articles/algol-demon-star-halloween https://www.ancientskies.org/articles/algol-demon-star-halloween Sat, 31 Oct 2026 12:00:00 +0000 Stars Algol, the Demon Star in Perseus, dims on Halloween night 2026. What makes it fade, why it's named for a demon, and exactly when to look. https://www.ancientskies.org/articles/hera-dimorphos-didymos-first-image-dart https://www.ancientskies.org/articles/hera-dimorphos-didymos-first-image-dart Sat, 31 Oct 2026 12:00:00 +0000 Spaceflight ESA's Hera has seen Didymos and Dimorphos as two separate asteroids for the first time, weeks before it arrives to inspect DART's crash site. https://www.ancientskies.org/articles/cats-head-nebula-hubble-webb-carina https://www.ancientskies.org/articles/cats-head-nebula-hubble-webb-carina Fri, 30 Oct 2026 12:00:00 +0000 Stars Just in time for Halloween, Hubble and Webb reveal the Cat's Head Nebula, a cat-shaped dust pillar in the Carina Nebula with a mysterious glowing eye. https://www.ancientskies.org/articles/send-your-name-to-titan-nasa-dragonfly https://www.ancientskies.org/articles/send-your-name-to-titan-nasa-dragonfly Thu, 29 Oct 2026 12:00:00 +0000 Spaceflight Send your name to Titan on NASA's Dragonfly rotorcraft. How to sign up before the Jan. 15, 2027 deadline, and why this drone mission is so wild. https://www.ancientskies.org/articles/rubin-dwarf-planet-candidate-2026-ed138 https://www.ancientskies.org/articles/rubin-dwarf-planet-candidate-2026-ed138 Wed, 28 Oct 2026 12:00:00 +0000 Dwarf Planets The Rubin Observatory's first dwarf planet candidate was hiding in front of the Milky Way. Here's what we know about 2026 ED138, and what's still hype. https://www.ancientskies.org/articles/japan-mmx-phobos-sample-mission-launch https://www.ancientskies.org/articles/japan-mmx-phobos-sample-mission-launch Wed, 28 Oct 2026 12:00:00 +0000 Mars JAXA's MMX is headed for Phobos, the Martian moon that's slowly falling. If it works, it'll be the first sample ever returned from the Mars system. https://www.ancientskies.org/articles/artemis-i-moon-radiation-surprise https://www.ancientskies.org/articles/artemis-i-moon-radiation-surprise Wed, 28 Oct 2026 12:00:00 +0000 Moon Crystals that rode inside Artemis I's test dummies show radiation near the Moon is higher than in Earth orbit, but by far less than expected. https://www.ancientskies.org/articles/nasa-swift-telescope-mission-ends https://www.ancientskies.org/articles/nasa-swift-telescope-mission-ends Wed, 28 Oct 2026 12:00:00 +0000 News After 22 years catching the universe's biggest explosions, NASA's Swift has ended its mission. Here's how the first rescue of its kind fell short. https://www.ancientskies.org/articles/starliner-stranded-astronauts https://www.ancientskies.org/articles/starliner-stranded-astronauts Sat, 24 Oct 2026 12:00:00 +0000 Spaceflight A one-week test flight turned into 286 days in orbit. Here's what really went wrong with Boeing's Starliner, why the astronauts couldn't just fly home, and what NASA's own investigation called the real mistake. https://www.ancientskies.org/articles/could-we-survive-in-a-parallel-universe https://www.ancientskies.org/articles/could-we-survive-in-a-parallel-universe Sun, 18 Oct 2026 12:00:00 +0000 Cosmology "Parallel universe" isn't one idea, it's four. In most of them you'd be dead before your back foot left the floor. In one, you'd be completely fine, and you can never get there.