compiled by Arlene & David Kaplan

1919 solar eclipse, observed in Sobral, Brazil. Photo: Arthur Eddington

The Eclipse That Revealed the Universe
In 1919, British astronomers photographed a solar eclipse and proved that light bends around our sun — affirming Einstein’s theory of general relativity. Few eclipses have had more impact on modern history than the one that occurred on May 29, 1919, more than six minutes of darkness sweeping across South America and across the Atlantic to Africa…more

1925 painting by Howard Russell Butler

How Do You Paint an Eclipse? Work Fast in the Dark
PRINCETON, N.J. — A third of the way through “Macbeth,” right after the antihero murders the king of Scotland, two noblemen look up into the sky and behold a celestial horror. “By the clock, ’tis day,” says the Thane of Ross, “And yet dark night strangles the traveling lamp.”..more

Cassini skims Saturn’s atmosphere
The Cassini probe has begun the final phase of its mission to Saturn. The satellite has executed the first of five ultra-close passes of the giant world, dipping down far enough to brush through the top of the atmosphere. It promises unprecedented data on the chemical composition of Saturn…more

Auroral Crown – Yulia Zhulikova

In pictures: Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2017
From the northern lights to noctilucent clouds, the range of subjects in this year’s competition covers all things astronomical. Here is a selection of the shortlisted images…more

An artist’s rendering of the Kuiper belt object 2014 MU69 – NYT

Chasing Shadows for a Glimpse of a Tiny World Beyond Pluto
This summer, scientists crisscrossed two oceans, braved wind and cold and deployed two dozen telescopes — all for five blinks of starlight that lasted a second or less. For the team working with NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft, which made a spectacular flyby of Pluto two years ago, those smidgens of data provide intriguing hints about the spacecraft’s next destination…more

Larry Zottarelli, recently retired. – NYT

The Loyal Engineers Steering NASA’s Voyager Probes Across the Universe
As the Voyager mission is winding down, so, too, are the careers of the aging explorers who expanded our sense of home in the galaxy. In the early spring of 1977, Larry Zottarelli, a 40-year-old computer engineer at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, set out for Cape Canaveral, Fla., in his Toyota Corolla. A Los Angeles native, he had never ventured as far as Tijuana, but he had a per diem, and he liked to drive…more

Gamma ray bursts from a dying star. Credit: A Roquette/Bath University

Massive star bursts caught in one in 10,000 chance encounter
A detailed picture of the most powerful type of explosion in the universe has been captured in what was described as a one in 10,000 chance event. Light from gamma ray bursts (GRBs) was captured by an orbiting telescope developed in part by Bath University…more