SPACE

Look Up! The Eta Aquarid Meteor Shower Is Here

Set your alarm for the predawn hours of Saturday May 6 (or stay up really late tonight).

A 4.6 Billion-Year-Old Meteorite Is for Sale

Christie's auction house in New York describes the space rock as "a third as old as time itself."

The center of the Milky Way galaxy, with the supermassive black hole Sagittarius A*, located in the middle, as captured in x-ray and infrared in this 2013 NASA photo.

Astronomers Will Soon Have the First-Ever Picture of a Black Hole

“We might see a crescent, brightened on one side—or a bipolar, jet-like structure. We honestly don’t know.”

FAECIASP/NASA/Conicet of Argentina/Getty Images

Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Black Holes

They’re probably the weirdest—and certainly the most puzzling—objects in the universe. Peer over the event horizon with us.

A No-Bake Method for Making Bricks on Mars

The ability to easily compress Martian soil into building materials could free up huge amounts of room on Mars-bound spacecraft.

NASA Is Developing an Inflatable Greenhouse to Use on Mars

NASA and researchers at the University of Arizona are building a greenhouse that can mimic conditions on Earth to feed astronauts on the moon and on Mars.

Peggy Whitson Breaks NASA Record for Most Days in Space

It's one of many, many records held by the trailblazer.

Watch How Stars Will Move Over the Next 5,000,000 Years

Constellations are temporary.

A Brief History of Soyuz 1, Russia's First Crewed Soyuz Spacecraft

Soyuz 1 was plagued with technical problems and ended in tragedy. But more 50 years later, we're still using descendants of the spacecraft to ferry people and supplies to and from space

Look Up Tonight! The Lyrids Meteor Shower Is Set to Stun!

You can expect to see 10 meteors an hour tonight.

New "Super-Earth" Exoplanet May Have Water—and Life

The planet resides in its star’s habitable zone, the slim "Goldilocks" orbit at which water can exist as a stable liquid.

Who Took the Photo of the First Man on the Moon?

Today's Big Question.

On April 16, 1972, Apollo 16 Blasted Off

On April 16, 1972, Apollo 16 departed for the moon. It was the second-to-last crewed mission to the moon. It was also the second time astronauts drove the Lunar Roving Module, also known as the coolest dune buggy in the universe.

Tesseract2 via Wikimedia Commons // CC BY-SA 3.0

NASA Puts the Planet Up for Adoption in Time for Earth Day

One section can be (symbolically) yours.

Hidden Figures Is Coming to Classrooms

The real-life story behind the hit movie doesn't end once the credits roll; for educators, there's now a free curriculum to use in the classroom that shines a light on the pioneering African-American women of NASA's space program.

An artist's rendering of the Europa mission's spacecraft. Main Image: NASA/JPL-Caltech Banner Image: NASA/JPL-Caltech

How Will the Europa Lander Search for Life?

New details on the breaking-edge mission to the Jovian moon.

ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO), J. Bally/H. Drass et al.

See Baby Stars Explode in Orion

Astronomers looking into the center of a star-forming cloud in Orion discovered a pyrotechnic marvel.

In 1959, Soviets Littered the Moon With Tiny Metal Pennants

Luna 2 was the first human-made object to reach the moon.

French Scientists Are Paying Men $17,000 to Lie in Bed for Two Months

The experiment is meant to mimic the experience of being weightless in space.

You Can Help NASA Prove the Existence of Planet 9

The space agency is funding a massive crowdsourcing effort to comb through 200,000 images in search of a theorized ninth planet.

Look Up! Jupiter Is Close, Bright, and Showing Its Stripes

Get your telescope: You’re going to see some magical things.

Look Up! Tonight Is Your Big Chance to See Little Mercury

If you like planets and watch to catch ‘em all, get your poké balls ready.

5 Facts About Aurora Australis, the Southern Lights

The Aurora Borealis has a down under sibling, the Aurora Australis.

Watch Live as SpaceX Launches Its First Reused Rocket

To put this in context, every single orbital, cargo-bearing rocket used before the founding of SpaceX—except for those that blew up on the launch pad or otherwise went horribly wrong—was dropped into the ocean after launch.

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