The Northern Lights seen near Hallbankgate in North Cumbria, on Feb. 27, 2014. (Stuart Walker/Caters News Agency) People in Illinois, Oregon and other northern states may catch a glimpse of colorful aurora Wednesday as a brews in Earth's magnetosphere. The Space Weather Prediction Center has issued a , expecting a G3 storm to arrive in conjunction with a coronal mass ejection impact. A coronal mass ejection impact is likely on Dec. 30, which is expected to cause geomagnetic storming with...

If you were to go outside on a clear night, equipped with only a moderately powerful backyard telescope, you could spot something that has perplexed physicists for centuries: a black hole. The black hole in question is nearly 8,000 light-years away, in the Cygnus constellation, and normally would be invisible, except this particular black hole has quite the appetite. It's swallowing nearby stars and emitting flashes of light in the process. But wait, aren't black holes all-consuming? How can any...

In 2015, with glad Christmas tidings come with the full moon. This year, December's moon reaches peak size on Christmas Day, at , but the fullest nighttime moon might be best viewed on Christmas Eve throughout the U.S. The big question, though, is will the evening sky be clear enough for you to see it? On Christmas Eve day, "a cold front will slide into the Northeast with showers lingering from New England to the Appalachians and Gulf Coast, and...