Latest science news in Astronomy & Space
Rare 'Midnight' Partial Solar Eclipse Amazes Northern Skywatchers
See stunning photos of the rare "midnight" partial solar eclipse of the sun on June 1 and 2.
Keeping the power on in space
All space missions have one inescapable dependency: the electricity flowing through their systems to keep them alive. Take away its power and a spacecraft is nothing more than space debris...
Man-Size Meteor From Comet Lights Up Georgia Sky
A brilliant meteor blazed through the sky above Georgia recently, and two NASA fireball-monitoring cameras caught the display on video.
News in Brief: Atom & Cosmos
NASA’s new old design for a shuttle replacement, plus Mars’ growth spurt, the most remote object and more in this week’s news
Camera duo on Mars rover mast will shoot color views
Two digital color cameras riding high on the mast of NASA's next Mars rover will complement each other in showing the surface of Mars in exquisite detail. They are the...
A night with the stars ... in a conference room
Ancient astronomers looked up at the dark skies in wonder, as the stars marched by overhead like precision dancers. In the early 17th century, Galileo Galilei brought the world one...
Milky Way's twin seen in faraway galaxy
Spiral galaxy found 30 million light-years away - and it's quite a looker
Astronaut says NASA should be replaced
FERGUS FALLS, Minn., May 31 (UPI) -- A former U.S. astronaut says NASA has lost focus and leadership and should be dismantled and replaced with a deep space exploration...
The Serious Search for Intelligent Life in the Universe
SETI Institute experts address four key questions on the topic of intelligent life beyond Earth and how to systematically and scientifically look for it.
Looking at the volatile side of the Moon
Four decades after the first Moon landing, our only natural satellite remains a fascinating enigma. Specialists from Europe and the US have been looking at ESAs proposed Lunar Lander mission...
Photos: Sunspots on Earth's Closest Star
Seeing spots on the sun has a long history. Check out some great sunspot photos.
Hot stuff: the making of BepiColombo
For BepiColombo, ESA has had to extend the limits of existing design standards and develop altogether new design concepts as well. How to begin building a spacecraft that needs to...
The 6 Classic Orbital Elements
'Project Calliope' will have a nearly circular polar low-earth orbit... but what does that actually mean? Here's a brief mini course in orbital mechanics.Any orbit requires 6 elements to specify...
Video: Sullenberger on Air France Flight 447 crash
Harry Smith speaks with CBS News aviation and safety expert Capt. Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger about Air France Flight 447 and what black box recordings from the cockpit tell us about...
Spacewatch: International Space Station timings and positions
Satellite watchers call it the ISS marathon, and it is just beginning. For a few weeks each summer, the height of the Earth's shadow overhead at night at the latitude of London...
Students design space mission habitat
RALEIGH, N.C., May 31 (UPI) -- Students at a U.S. university say advanced textile materials may be part of the solution to life-support challenges astronauts would face on a...
Enceladus named sweetest spot for alien life
Saturn's icy moon has all the key ingredients, scientists say.
Astronaut Husband of Rep. Giffords Eager to See Her After Spaceflight
Kelly reflected on his difficult choice to fly in space this time from his perch 220 miles above the Earth.
Supermassive Black Holes: Drains of the Universe?
All large galaxies - including ours - seem to have supermassive black holes at their centers. Astrophysicists Ann Wehrle, Roeland van der Marel and Ed Turner explain how these beasts...
Shuttle Comes Alive - The Power of Launch
Sure, a Space Shuttle is a bunch of technology. But the sum of Endeavor's parts adds to an extremely emotional experience; especially on launch. Multiple cameras, mic arrays and graphic...
Green Crystal ‘Rain’ Discovered Near Infant Star
Tiny crystals of a green mineral called olivine are falling down like rain on a burgeoning star, according to observations from NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope. This is the first time...
Long warm-ups can sabotage race performance
University of Calgary Faculty of Kinesiology researcher Elias Tomaras says the idea came to him while watching track and field sprinters warm-up for a race. “If you watch sprinters, short...
Probing the origins of extreme neutron stars
(PhysOrg.com) -- Neutron stars are the unimaginably dense corpses of what were once much more massive stars that died while being ripped apart in a supernova explosion. Their average density...
Copenhagen suborbitals upcoming launch attempt in June
Copenhagen Suborbitals hopes to launch the worlds first amateur-built rocket for human space travel and have announced an upcoming launch window for their Tycho Brahe capsule. The window extends from...
VIDEO: Waterspout spirals high into sky
A waterspout, spiralling hundreds of metres into the sky, has been filmed off the coast of New South Wales in Australia.
Rebels launch Free Libya satellite TV station
Libya's rebels have launched their first homegrown satellite TV station, trying to counter the Moammar Gadhafi regime's powerful media message,
Very Large Telescope time lapse | GrrlScientist
This breathtaking time-lapse video was captured at the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope in Chile's Atacama DesertHere's a stunning time-lapse video of the night sky south of the equator, a sight that...
A Galaxy Zoo: Photos From NASA's WISE Telescope
See spectacular images of different kinds of galaxies from the WISE mission.