Latest science news in Astronomy & Space
NASA to Pay $1.6 Billion for Private Space Taxi Flights
NASA needs private spaceships to launch Americans into orbit on space station trips.
Just Declassified: Spy Satellite Gambit
The National Reconnaissance Office just released video from codename Gambit, a Cold War era spy-sat photo program. 38 of these satellites were launched, giving the United States ground resolution of...
NASA's Dawn collects a bounty of beauty from asteroid Vesta
A new video from NASA's Dawn spacecraft takes us on a flyover journey above the surface of the giant asteroid Vesta. The data obtained by Dawn's framing camera, used to...
ISS crewmembers return to Earth
BAIKONUR, Kazakhstan, Sept. 16 (UPI) -- Two Russian cosmonauts and a U.S. astronaut landed in Kazakhstan, ending a nearly 5 1/2-month stay at the International Space Station, officials said.
Pluto May Be Hiding Oceans Underneath Its Frozen Exterior
Pluto, With Charon in the Foreground NASA According to some tricky calculations from Guillaume Robuchon and Francis Nimmo at the University of California, Santa Cruz, Pluto may actually have a...
Look Skywatcher! Twin Suns of Real-Life 'Tatooine' Planet Visible in Binoculars
The Kepler 16 system is just 200 light-years away, in the constellation Cygnus (the Swan).
Bright Green Fireball Amazes Skywatchers in Southwest US
A fiery green fireball streaked across the sky over the southwestern United States last night.
Video: Partial scare for retuning space crew members
Three crew members from the International Space Station gave mission control a scare when they lost radio communications on the way back to earth. Jeff Glor reports.
Astronomer: 'Beware of the Wildlife, Even in Apparently Quiet Galaxies'
Iowa State's Curtis Struck wrote a commentary -- "Astrophysics: Rough times in the Galactic countryside" -- published in the Sept. 15 issue of Nature. He notes the Milky Way's past...
No conspiracy here, JPL expert says of greenish meteor
Wednesday's meteor wasn't aliens or a spacecraft burning up during reentry, says a JPL expert who runs NASA's Near Earth Object Program. It was probably a chunk of asteroid.As word...
Meteorites linked to asteroids
Meteorites on land are linked to the asteroids in space, say scientists who collected the dust on the Hayabusa space capsule.
Large black holes found in small galaxies
SANTA CRUZ, Calif., Sept. 15 (UPI) -- U.S. astronomers say finding supermassive black holes in surprisingly small galaxies suggests central black holes form at an early stage in galaxy...
How to Spot Giant Asteroid Ceres in Telescopes
The dwarf planet Ceres is in opposition this Friday September 16 in the constellation Cetus.
Tropical Storm Roke closing in on Kadena Air Base: Infrared NASA satellite imagery
Tropical Storm Roke is showing some signs of intensification on NASA infrared satellite imagery, as areas of strong convection and very cold cloud tops were spotted. Kadena Air Base in...
NASA's TRMM satellite reveals heaviest rainfall in Maria's northwestern quadrant
NASA's TRMM satellite peers through clouds and can decipher the rate rain is falling within a tropical cyclone, and data from the satellite shows that the heaviest rainfall is occurring...
My 2 Suns: Bounty of New Exoplanet Discoveries Includes a World Orbiting a Binary Star
The hundreds of distant worlds, some large and some small, that are known to dot the galaxy provide plenty of intrigue for the scientists who hunt them. But the catalogued...
How single stars lost their companions
(PhysOrg.com) -- Not all stars are loners. In our home galaxy, the Milky Way, about half of all stars have a companion and travel through space in a binary system....
Astronomers hope to find alien signals within next 15 years
Rrecent boom in exoplanet discoveries has revived hope about possibility of alien contact in near future
Hunt Is on for Ticking 'Time Bomb' Stars
Thousands of stars in the Milky Way are ticking time bombs that could explode at any moment.
'Nation's Icebox' Sets Record With Early Chill
International Falls, Minn., hits 19 degrees F this morning.
Ariane rocket to hoist Europe-Japan Mercury mission
An unmanned European-Japanese mission to Mercury will be launched by Ariane 5 rocket in July 2014 under a contract announced on Thursday by Arianespace.
Winners of the 2011 Astronomy Photographer of the Year Contest
Earth and Space Winner: Galactic Paradise Turkish photographer Tunç Tezel took this photo in a small village on the west coast of Mangaia in the Cook Islands. It shows dust clouds that...
Seeking Water in the Desert? Use Mars Tech
Using technology from missions that mapped ice in the Red Planet's subsurface, researchers have been able to map the water table far under deserts on Earth. This will help us...
Seven days: 9–15 September 2011
Seven days: 9–15 September 2011Nature 477, 254 14092011 doi: 10.1038/477254aThe week in science: Arctic sea ice drops to record low; protein biochemists win Lasker Award; and NASA's Moon-mapping GRAIL mission...
Video: What was that streaking light in sky over SW?
A mysterious streaking light in the sky had people in Southern California and Arizona buzzing. Scientists say it was likely a fireball, up to the size of a basketball. Jeff...
Virgin aims for first space launch within a year
British business magnate Richard Branson hopes to launch a vessel into space within the next 12 months, kicking off an era of commercial space travel.
NASA unveils plan for space vehicle to go beyond low-Earth orbit
NASA officials have discussed a trip to circle the moon without landing, a trip to an asteroid and a journey to Mars. But those discussions are far from a concrete...
The SKA: an eye on the makings of the universe
Southern Africa is taking on Australia in a bid to become home to a massive network of radio telescopes designed to answer fundamental questionsChristine Oliver