Photographer catches a 'once in a blue moon' shot

See a lunar eclipse share the night sky with the Milky Way

Photos taken at the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Chile in March 2025 captured a blood moon and the Milky Way galaxy within the same field of view. The moon appears red from the bluer parts of its reflected sunlight being scattered by Earth's atmosphere.

Firefly Blue Ghost lands private craft on the moon

On March 2, 2025, Firefly Aerospace landed its Blue Ghost craft on the Moon. The private company then operated the craft for two weeks, conducting surface operations and becoming the first private space company to have a fully successful mission on the Moon. This short video captures pristine, dramatic footage of the mission's successful touchdown.

The crew of Artemis II captured a photograph of Earth setting as they orbited the moon

On April 6, 2026, the Artemis II astronauts captured a striking image of Earth setting as their spacecraft orbited the Moon, echoing the iconic Earthrise photo taken by Apollo 8's Bill Anders 58 years earlier.

Photographer catches stunning shot of an aurora over an Icelandic waterfall

Photographer Cari Letelier captured a stunning shot of the aurora borealis over the Godafoss waterfall in Iceland, a composite image pulled from nearly three dozen exposures. The aurora phenomenon is typically visible in Earth's northern latitudes...

Rare chance for US states to see Northern Lights

A solar storm in July 2023 offered people in 17 American states, as well as Canada, an unusual chance to witness the Northern Lights, or aurora borealis. The 11-year solar cycle, reaching its peak in 2024, made the lights visible in places further south than usual. Read up on the announcement from the Geophysical Institute at the University of Alaska at Fairbanks here.

Double rainbow appears in New York City on 9/11 anniversary

On the evening of the 9/11 anniversary in 2023, a double rainbow appeared after a thunderstorm across Manhattan, providing inspiration 22 years after the terrorist attacks there. Peruse several amateur images taken of the phenomenon which were shared on social media, including shots from up high in condos overlooking Central Park and from across the Hudson River in New Jersey.

Astrophotographer Vincent Bouchama's stellar photo archive

Astrophotographers specialize in collecting as much light from celestial objects as possible while minimizing the movement of the object they're capturing. It's a unique skillset—requiring unique tools—but the results are often universally...

Voyager 1 captured Earth as a 'Pale Blue Dot' from 6 billion kilometers away

On Feb. 14, 1990, NASA's Voyager 1 space probe took the farthest photo of Earth ever captured. Earth appears so small in the image that it takes up less than a single pixel out of 640,000 in the photo's frame.

Deep Blue is the largest great white shark ever caught on camera

In 2019, Deep Blue was one of three huge great whites spotted off the coast of Oahu, Hawaii, an uncommon place for sightings of white sharks. The unique series of sightings aroused curiosity and amazement from islanders and scientists alike.

Images of Jupiter in unprecedented detail

Jupiter has never seemed closer and clearer than it does in these images gathered by the James Webb Telescope. Behold beautiful auroras, hazy clouds, and more. This may not be the classic image of Jupiter (and its stormy Great Red Spot) you're used to, but it tells scientist, and us, more about the largest planet in our solar system.

Stratospheric balloons: a visual guide

In late January 2023, a Chinese high-altitude balloon, believed to be for surveillance purposes, traversed the US and caused a diplomatic stir. The technology itself is established—though typically used for atmospheric measurements. This visual...

Stellar photos from around the world of the 2020 Perseids

The annual Perseids meteor shower occurs in the Northern Hemisphere's summer, peaking usually around mid-August. The phenomenon is caused by the Earth's passing through a comet's debris trail of ice and dust, providing a weekslong spectacle for...

Photobombing bird nabs best wedding photo of the year

Just as groom-to-be started in on his vows in the beautiful setting of wild Whistler, Canada, a curious bird alighted upon his dear love's head, and photographer Tara Lilly captured what would become the year's best wedding photograph. See the shot and read the story here.

See February 2026's best science images, including raining iguanas.

'I don't know what you can say about a day when you see four beautiful sunsets.'

- Astronaut John Glenn (1921–2016)

The Event Horizon Telescope captured the first photo of a black hole in 2019

Predicted by Einstein in 1916, these invisible objects can be indirectly seen through their accretion discs and X-ray bursts. Over 40 million trillion black holes may be scattered throughout the universe.

Why some people say the moon is made of cheese

Mental Floss digs into the history behind the fable, which dates back as far as the 1500s, when it was mentioned in "The Proverbs of John Heywood." Even NASA has gotten in on the joke, tweeting a (supposedly) doctored photograph showing the moon's expiration date.

Gaming out how our solar system might catch a new planet

If Pluto's downgraded status to a dwarf planet has got you down, consider this: Scientists think there's a chance our solar system could catch a new planet. The first ever observed so-called Interstellar Object was reported in 2017, a reddish, cigar-shaped rock astronomers named Oumuamua. Although it left in 2022, scientists believe an object with the right mass and trajectory might take a seat at the planetary table. Learn how it would work here.

See the most iconic photos from four decades of LIFE magazine

Hear the story behind 11 iconic Super Bowl photos, told by the photographer who shot them

Sports Illustrated legend Walter Iooss Jr. revisits 11 unforgettable Super Bowl images—including Namath, Montana, and Taylor—explaining how light, access, and timing captured moments that defined the game’s visual history.

See the 25 of the best photos of auroras from around the world.

A nuclear reactor's characteristic blue light is produced from superluminal particles

When light travels through water, its effective speed is 25% lower than its speed in a vacuum. Just as sound waves bunch up and produce a sonic boom when objects move faster than the speed of sound, particles moving faster than this reduced speed generate a shock wave of light, visible as a blue hue.

A 94-year-old stumbles upon a photo of herself from 1947 at an airport

Earlier this year, Gwendolyn Bruhn, who worked for Hawaiian Airlines in the 1940s, spotted herself in a photo blown up on an airport wall. Here's her story.

Massive blooms of microscopic plankton called dinoflagellates produce the neon blue light seen in glowing tides.

See photos of rare spotless giraffe born at zoo

A spotless giraffe was born at a zoo in Tennessee in the summer of 2023, with experts claiming the specimen is the only solid-colored animal of the species with genes for "reticulation," or the normal patchwork look. The phenomenon is so rare many...

Journalist Payne Lindsey examines reports on UFOs

The Pentagon made a splash in recent years with revelations of videos showing fighter pilots observing unknown aerial objects. Lindsey uncovers stories of still-unverified UFO sightings and addresses the likely possibility of life beyond Earth.

Understanding ball lightning remains an area of active research

Observations of glowing orbs of light that appear during or after thunderstorms have been documented since at least the 12th century, but their rarity and short lifetimes have made their study challenging. Some theories suggest they form when lightning vaporizes pockets of gases in the air or certain materials on the ground.

The first image of a black hole was captured by creating an Earth-sized virtual observatory from a network of eight radio telescopes.

Listen to 'Now and Then,' the Beatles' final song

The Beatles released their final song, "Now and Then," in October 2023, featuring a previously hidden John Lennon vocal. The track was initially shelved due to poor audio quality but was revived with the help of AI to enhance Lennon's performance....

After NASA's Voyager 1 captured Earth as a single pixel as it left the solar system in 1990, astronomer Carl Sagan used the image to reflect on humanity's fragility and the responsibility to protect 'the only world we've ever known.'

While atoms are normally made of protons, neutrons, and electrons, exotic ones have been built with antimatter—alternate versions of normal matter that live for fractions of a second and are about a billion times as rare.

All rainbows are 'raincircles' caused by water droplets separating white sunlight into a spectrum of colors, but Earth's surface blocks the bottom half of the circle from our line of sight.

Apollo astronauts left items in the moon's 'toss zone,' including golf balls, family photos, and bags of human waste, to make room for lunar rocks.

SpaceX's S-1 or 'prospectus' revealed many previously unknown details about the company, including its unprofitability despite doing $18.7B in revenue in 2025, exactly how many voting shares Elon Musk will have in the company (roughly 85%), and more.

Shooting stars, or meteors, are fragments of asteroids and comets that burn up as they enter Earth's atmosphere, creating streaks in the sky called meteor showers.

Exploring the Larry Bird punch that almost changed March Madness

In 2009, the nation was gripped by the story of a missing young boy who was believed to be floating over Colorado in a homemade balloon, until it was revealed that he was at home the whole time.

Fireworks-related ER visits are on the rise—in 2024, they increased by 52% as compared to the prior year.

A 2019 Facebook event called on attendees to "Storm Area 51, They Can't Stop All of Us," resulting in countless memes, the creation of a music festival, and eventually the arrests of those who did try to approach the area.

Tattoos remain visible on your skin thanks to immune cells called macrophages

This real-time tracking of the hantavirus cruise ship outbreak in May 2026 offers a unique glimpse into the global reach of the outbreak and whether the virus sickened passengers and their communities around the world.

One disco producer saw 'Star Wars' four times on its opening weekend and was so inspired that he recorded the album 'Star Wars and Other Intergalactic Funk,' which produced a chart-topping single.

Dorothy's famous entrance into Oz in 'The Wizard of Oz' relied on analog tricks, including a body double and sepia-toned paint, as much as it did on technology

Discover the catastrophic consequences of a failure of the US electrical grid—something that is more likely than many Americans think.

Crows are believed to have intelligence on par with a seven-year-old child and demonstrate complex behaviors, from problem-solving with tools to recognizing human faces.

For centuries, Niagara Falls has been a magnet for daredevils seeking to conquer one of nature's most powerful wonders, with its 200-foot drop and water rushing at 32 feet per second with 280 tons of force.

For centuries, it was common to sleep in two shifts: a few hours at the beginning of the night, and a longer period beginning around midnight

Lesser-known phobias include turophobia, or the fear of cheese, and nomophobia, the fear of being without your cell phone.

'Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone,' a work by American painter Thomas Moran, inspired Congress to establish Yellowstone National Park.

Budweiser stores yeast derived from the original 1800s strain in a secret bunker, which only the Head of Yeast Management can access—not even the CEO