Ground-based astronomy is a research area focused on observing celestial objects and phenomena using instruments located on Earth’s surface, typically at high-altitude, low-humidity sites optimized for atmospheric transparency and stability. It encompasses optical, infrared, submillimeter, and radio observations employing telescopes, interferometers, and advanced detector arrays. Research addresses topics such as stellar and galactic structure, exoplanets, cosmology, and transient events, while contending with atmospheric turbulence, absorption, and light pollution. Adaptive optics, interferometric techniques, and sophisticated data reduction pipelines are central to mitigating atmospheric effects and enhancing spatial and spectral resolution, making ground-based facilities critical complements to space-based observatories.
Allen Schnibben's interest in space started when he was a child. "I picked up some books about the solar system when I was in elementary school. In middle school, I got a telescope and I started observing the night sky as ...
Astronomy
20 hours ago
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A NASA-led team hopes to take a shortcut to direct imaging of extrasolar Earth-like planets. The idea is to use what they call a hybrid telescope composed of an orbital starshade coupled with the next-generation extremely ...
Space Exploration
Aug 24, 2026
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I'll admit to using AI for things it was probably never designed for. When my van threw a fault I couldn't immediately figure out—one that seems notorious for trips back and forth to a repair shop—I ended up in a long (but ...
Astronomy
Aug 11, 2026
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Before any major telescope commissioning, there are dozens of papers that attempt to define what we can expect from it. We're starting to see some come through for the Extremely Large Telescope (ELT), which hopefully will ...
Astrobiology
Jul 31, 2026
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Every night, astronomers must carefully assess changing weather, the intensity of moonlight and shifting atmospheric conditions before deciding where to point a telescope. It's a constant balancing act designed to squeeze ...
Astronomy
Jul 31, 2026
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Every year, thousands of satellites are launched into orbit around our planet. The result is an increasingly congested "space" above Earth populated by equipment that provides services to the surface. At the same time, these ...
Space Exploration
Jul 30, 2026
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Scientists have reacted with alarm to news that the British government will cut funding to the world-famous radio telescope at the Jodrell Bank Observatory, a UNESCO World Heritage Site in northwest England that has been ...
Astronomy
Jul 28, 2026
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The worlds of the solar system are exciting and, so far, mostly pristine places for planetary scientists to study. As space missions continue to travel to Mars, Europa, asteroids and other worlds, questions arise about keeping ...
Astronomy
Jul 24, 2026
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A new simulation study suggests that the Antarctic 12-m Terahertz Telescope (ATT12), a next-generation facility led by University of Tsukuba, could uncover between 1 and 10 million dusty star-forming galaxies throughout cosmic ...
Astronomy
Jul 21, 2026
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Are we alone in the universe? For scientists working on NASA's proposed Habitable Worlds Observatory, that question is no longer purely philosophical. It is increasingly becoming an engineering problem.
Astrobiology
Jul 20, 2026
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