As of Monday, Jan. 19, the Moon phase is Waxing Crescent. According to NASA's Daily Moon Guide, 1% of the Moon will be lit up tonight. There's still too little Moon illuminated for us to spot anything, but it's only a few more days before the crescent will appear slightly bigger in the sky.

Unfortunately for planet hunters, Mercury, Venus and Mars are all too close to the sun to observe; they will come out of the solar glare in the weeks following the new moon. Mercury will emerge as an " evening star " in February and Venus will do so in March. Mars will emerge into the predawn skies in March.

On Earth, deep-sea vents may have given rise to the planet’s first life. But nothing of the sort seems to be happening at the bottom of Europa's ocean, a study suggests

The first new moon of the year peaks on Sunday, marking one of January’s final major skywatching events and the reset of the lunar calendar.

A Blue Moon is a rare occurrence that depends on the timings of full moons during the year. The moon is not blue during a Blue Moon.

The U.S. space agency and the Department of Energy will work together to build a fission reactor on the lunar surface in the next four years