SPACE

What Two Dead Stars Reveal About Earth's Origins

A couple of white dwarfs + space garbage = possible planet formation

8 Extreme Weather Events As Seen From Space

No matter how things look from the ground, these events look drastically different, even surprisingly peaceful, from above.

WATCH: Why a Soaking-Wet Washcloth Doesn't Drip in Space

Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield demonstrates what it's like to wring out a soaking-wet washcloth when the familiar properties of gravity are removed from the equation.

The Space Toilet

22 Space Agencies that Aren't NASA

Not all of humanity’s eggs are in one lunar module. Here are 22 space agencies that aren’t NASA.

Q&A: The Filmmakers of Lunarcy!

It's been 40 years since we've sent anyone to the Moon, but that doesn't mean people have stopped dreaming about going there—and Lunarcy!, which played the SXSW film festival this week, explores how these lunar dreamers plan to make the trip.

The Challenges of Building the Hubble Telescope’s Replacement

In the SXSW panel “Beyond Hubble: Building NASA’s Next Great Telescope,” scientists and engineers discussed what the Webb telescope will look for and all the engineering challenges that go into actually building the instrument.

Where Exactly Did the Russian Meteor Come From?

A scientific team from Colombia was able to trace back the explosive space rock's origins using "simple trigonometry."

Say Hello to the Tiniest Planet Ever Discovered

What is the Universe?

The Last Time a (Really Big) Meteor Hit Russia

In late 1908, the scientific community in St. Petersburg and Moscow was galvanized by vague reports filtering out of Siberia, telling of a gigantic, mysterious explosion that summer witnessed only by a handful of native Evenki tribesmen and Russian settle

How You Can Help Name Pluto's Two New Moons

P4 and P5 need new names. How does Cerberus sound? Or Styx?

New Horizons Nears July 14 Flyby Of Pluto

Pluto Was Named by an 11-Year-Old Girl

On March 14, 1930, 11-year-old Venetia Burney and her family were eating breakfast at their home in Oxford, England, discussing the biggest news of the day: The discovery of a new planet. As they talked about what the new planet's moniker should be, Venet

5 Bold Proposals For Cleaning Up Space Junk

One Company's Bold Plan to Mine Asteroids

Brace yourselves for the coming asteroid gold rush. U.S. company Deep Space Industries this week revealed plans to send spacecraft on missions to mine near-Earth asteroids for precious metals. According to the announcement, the company plans to dispatch a

5 Fictional Ways to Go Very Fast in Space

Space operas would be pretty boring without some way to go very far, very fast. Traveling at 40,000 miles per hour—the speed at which Voyager is zipping along—it would take around 17,000 years for the Vulcans to fly to Earth and make first contact. Chance

What Would Mars Have Looked Like Covered in Water?

The western hemisphere of Mars, with the volcano Olympus Mons on the horizon. Photo courtesy Kevin Gill. In September, NASA announced that the Curiosity rover found remnants of an ancient stream bed on Mars—evidence that our red neighbor was, at one poin

NASA's Bizarre Plan to Drag an Asteroid into Orbit

By Chris

Did Neil Armstrong Mislead the World About His 'One Small Step' Line?

By Chris Gayomali The famed quote wasn't quite so spontaneous after all, at least according to the late astronaut's

A Sun-Like Star Very Close to Us Might Have a Goldilocks Planet

Artist’s impression of the Tau Ceti system. Created by J. Pinfield for the RoPACS network at the University of Hertfordshire, 2012. A bunch of science-fiction stories just got a little bit more feasible: An international team of astronomers recently anno

A Very Special Message from Space Station Alpha

In the timelapse video "Further Up Yonder," we hear snippets of speech from the crew of the International Space Station, also known as Space Station Alpha. There are three crew up there at the moment, and as you hear in the video -- they are "the most fo

On Its Way to Interstellar Space, Voyager 1 Explores the Magnetic Highway

This image shows NASA's Voyager 1 spacecraft exploring a new region in our solar system called the "magnetic highway." Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech When NASA launched its Voyager 1 and 2 spacecraft 33 years ago, the probes' primary mission was to expl

The Russians Didn't Just Use Pencils in Space

A longstanding urban legend goes like this: During the space race of the 1960s, NASA spent millions developing a fancy "space pen" that could be used in zero gravity ... but the Soviets just used a pencil. This story resonates with us because NASA did act

Why Does the Moon Sometimes Look Huge?

Have you ever seen the moon floating above the horizon of your city, and noticed that it looked oddly huge? I sure have. In fact, I've seen the effect in lots of popular media, including that one iconic shot from E.T. and other "supermoon" photos. But

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