Astronomy Essentials
Tonight
Visible planets and night sky guide for March
Visible planets and night sky guide. Tonight themoon shines in the west. Look for Venus in twilight as it climbs away from the sun over the next weeks.
Earth
Will the Ohio meteor fall yield a bonanza of space rocks?
The meteor that shook parts of Ohio and Pennsylvania on St. Patrick's day dropped meteorites on the landscape. See a strewn field map and some meteorites.
Earth

U.S. heatwave breaks multiple all-time highs

An early season U.S. heatwave has spread across a wide swath of the country. Many all-time high temp records for March have fallen. How hot will it get?
Space

More moons for Jupiter and Saturn! New totals here

The Minor Planet Center announced 4 more moons for Jupiter and 11 for Saturn on March 16, 2026. Their new grand totals? Saturn has 285 and Jupiter has 101.
Astronomy Essentials

Equinox sun above horizon all day at the poles

We know the equinox sun rises due east and sets due west. But what happens at Earth's poles? Does the sun look exactly the same at both poles?
Astronomy Essentials

March equinox 2026: Here’s all you need to know

Happy equinox! The 2026 March equinox falls on March 20 at 14:46 UTC (9:46 a.m. CDT). All you need to know about the March equinox here.
Tonight

The equinox sun rises due east and sets due west

The 2026 September equinox occurs on 14:46 UTC (9:46 p.m. CDT) on March 20. And the equinox sun rises and sets due east and due west.
Space

New kind of searing, molten super-Earth exoplanet revealed

L 98-59 d is a molten super-Earth exoplanet, with a deep subsurface global ocean of magma. The study's results come from new analysis of data from Webb.
Astronomy Essentials

Are day and night equal on the equinox? Not exactly

Are day and night equal at an equinox? No. Earth's atmosphere and our sun team up to give us more day than night during an equinox.
Constellations

Pyxis the Compass shines in the March night sky

Pyxis the Compass is a constellation lying in southern skies. But Northern Hemisphere viewers can get a glimpse of in March.

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