Is the sun due for a cosmic family reunion?

To celebrate Earth Day (April 22) this year, NASA invites everyone to share views of Earth with the world — and to tack up artists' perspectives of our home planet on their walls.

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency announced a prize competition April 18 to demonstrate the ability to rapidly launch small satellites, a competition whose regulatory challenges may tower over its technical ones.

On April 22, 2010, the U.S. Air Force launched the super-secret X-37B space plane on its first spaceflight. See how it happened in our On This Day in Space video series here.

NASA's new exoplanet satellite launches successfully, Saturn played a part in the formation of Jupiter's four largest moons and the Senate finally confirms the new NASA administrator. These are just some of the top stories this week from Space.com.

A mini-satellite demonstrates exoplanet-hunting technology, a superconducting camera tests its abilities to image exoplanets, and bad news for life on Proxima Centauri b.

The post 60-Second Astro News: Tech Advances for Exoplanet Hunters appeared first on Sky & Telescope.

Friday, April 20 • This evening the dark limb of the crescent Moon will occult 4th-magnitude multiple star Nu Geminorum, in the feet of Gemini, for parts of the southern U.S. and points south. For rough time estimates at your location, interpolate between the time predictions in the April Sky & Telescope, page 48. Saturday, April 21 • It's Spring Astronomy Day! Check for local public events near you. • […]

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Meet the brightest stars near Earth. Next up: Polaris, the North Star, the star within a degree of the north celestial pole.

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