Space, Spaceflight, and the Science Worth Wondering About

Plain-language breakdowns of rockets, missions, and the universe’s strangest questions, since 2020.

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Latest Articles

Fresh off the launchpad.

SpaceX’s Starship atop its Super Heavy booster beside the launch tower at Starbase, Texas, before its first flight test.

Spacex’s Successful Failure

SpaceX’s Starship cleared the pad on its first test flight in April 2023 before tumbling and exploding; here’s what happened and why it mattered.

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Artist’s concept comparing Earth with Kepler-452b, an exoplanet about 60% larger, shown side by side.

The Second Earth

Nicknamed Earth 2.0, Kepler-452b orbits a Sun-like star in its habitable zone; here’s why this distant world still captures our imagination.

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Northern lights over a snowy landscape with trees and a cloudy sky.

Finding the Northern Lights

A trip from Fairbanks to the Arctic Circle to chase the Northern Lights, with the photos, timing, and camera tips I learned along the way.

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Explore by Topic

Choose your trajectory.

Image of Earth from space, viewed through a circular window or porthole.

Astronomy

Black holes, exoplanets, and the night sky above us.

Spaceflight

Rockets, launches, and the missions pushing us farther.

Silhouette of a space shuttle against the colorful gradient of Earth’s atmosphere during sunset or sunrise.
A solar eclipse showing the moon covering the sun, creating a bright ring around the darkened sky.

Scientific Curiosities

The weird and wonderful side of science.

Start Here

New to Astron Analytics? Begin with these reader favorites.

AN INFINITE TUNNEL
LIGHT POLLUTION
MY TUCSON SKY ADVENTURES
A glowing orange ring around a dark central shadow, the first-ever image of a black hole, in galaxy M87.

An Infinite Tunnel

From dying stars to singularities, event horizons, and relativistic jets, here’s a plain-language look at how black holes work.

The Mayall 4-meter Telescope dome on Kitt Peak at night, with Tucson’s light pollution glowing on the horizon behind it.

Light Pollution

Tucson’s night sky is a wonder and a punishment: here’s how to escape the city glow, stay safe, and catch satellite flares and meteor showers.

A bright fireball streaks across a blue-green dawn sky above Kitt Peak, with Orion rising over the 2.1-meter Telescope.

My Tucson Sky Adventures

From the yellow glow over Tucson to rare satellite flares and meteor showers, here’s what light pollution hides and why it’s worth looking up.

White geometric cube outline on a black background.

About

Astron Analytics is a personal blog about space, spaceflight, and the scientific curiosities that don’t fit neatly anywhere else. I dig into the data behind launches and discoveries and explain what it actually means, for anyone who’s ever looked up and wondered.