The European spacecraft known as Gaia has unveiled this new view of the Milky Way. ESA/Gaia/DPAC hide caption
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astronomy
Artist's rendering of how the first stars in the universe may have looked. N.R.Fuller/National Science Foundation/Nature hide caption
The Tarantula Nebula is home to many stars. Scientists were astonished by the number of super-massive stars they found inside the nebula. NASA, ESA, E. Sabbi (STScI) hide caption
The moon rises beyond the University of Kansas campus in Lawrence, Kan., Nov. 13, 2016. The 2017 supermoon will appear Dec. 3. Orlin Wagner/AP hide caption
A technician examines the mirror on the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope. Scientists at two national laboratories are currently building the components for an enormous digital camera that will capture images from the telescope. Joe McNally/Getty Images hide caption
David Reitze of the California Institute of Technology and the executive director of the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory, or LIGO, speaks at the National Press Club in Washington on Oct. 16. He talks of one of the most violent events in the cosmos, the collision of neuron stars, that was witnessed completely for the first time in August. Susan Walsh/AP hide caption
Until it was surpassed recently by a similar instrument in China, the Arecibo radio telescope in Puerto Rico, completed in 1963, was the world's single largest. Seth Shostak/AP hide caption
Eclipses aren't just natural marvels - they're still teaching us a lot about the universe. Adam Cole/NPR's Skunk Bear hide caption
On Nov. 13, 2012, a narrow corridor in the southern hemisphere experienced a total solar eclipse. The corridor lay mostly over the ocean but also cut across the northern tip of Australia where both professional and amateur astronomers gathered to watch. Romeo Durscher/NASA Goddard Space Center/Flickr hide caption
A total solar eclipse is visible through the clouds as seen from Vagar in the Faroe Islands in March 2015. Eric Adams/AP hide caption
Scientists Prepare For 'The Most Beautiful Thing You Can See In The Sky'
Scientists used the National Radio Astronomy Observatory's Very Large Array near Socorro, N.M., to detect fast radio bursts. Patrick Semansky/AP hide caption
Humans have pointed their telescopes toward the heavens, and in the process they've managed to figure out a few things about the universe. ESO/B. Tafreshi (twanight.org) hide caption
The Japanese Subaru Telescope on Mauna Kea in Hawaii has the right attributes for searching for Planet Nine. National Astronomical Observatory of Japan hide caption
Astronomers Are On A Celestial Treasure Hunt. The Prize? Planet Nine
Carolyn Porco's design of the inscription that was etched onto the capsule of Gene's remains sent to the moon. Courtesy of Carolyn Porco hide caption