Space News

A high-power camera on the Mars Curiosity rover snapped a picture of a 1909 American penny featuring Abraham Lincoln. The coin is used as a calibration target for the Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) that is at the end of C...

If Google Maps existed back in 1969 and included directions for navigating to the surface of the moon, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin might have plugged in "Tranquility Base" and been told to begin their descent by passi...

It's the question on every astronomer's mind this season, both backyard and professional: will Comet C/2012 S1 ISON survive perihelion? Now, new studies released today at the American Astronomical Society's 45th Annual D...

Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope: An exotic free-floating planet found by an international team of astronomers will help resolve Exoplanets mystery.

NASA's Juno spacecraft came within 347 miles (558 kilometers) of Earth during its closest approach, which occurred at 3:21 p.m. EDT (1921 GMT) today over South Africa. The maneuver boosts Juno's speed for the long trip t...

ESA's completion of a pair of dedicated ground stations at opposite ends of Europe has enabled Galileo satellites in orbit to participate in global testing of the Cospas-Sarsat search and rescue system....

An international team of astronomers has discovered an exotic young planet that is not orbiting a star. This free-floating planet, dubbed PSO J318.5-22, is just 80 light-years away from Earth and has a mass only six time...

An M2.8 class flare erupted from Sunspot AR1865 on October 9th, 2013. NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory captured the fireworks. (looped)

It appears that the Russian government wants to take action over the string of unmanned mission failures beleaguering Roscosmos, or the Russian Federal Space Agency. A recent example includes the loss in June of three GL...

I finally caught up with the rest of the space journalist community and watched the new Gravity movie last night. I absolutely loved it. It was by far the best movie I’ve seen this year, and I think one of the best spa...

As long as ISON is a fairly typical comet -- one with "normal" size, density and rotational characteristics -- it probably won't disintegrate during its upcoming close solar encounter on Nov. 28.

Planetary science is a girl's best friend. Jupiter and Saturn might be brimming over with diamonds, new research suggests.

Astronomers may soon be able to observe the shockwaves between the magnetic fields of exoplanets and the flow of particles from the stars they orbit. Magnetic fields are crucial to a planet's (and as it turns out a moon'...

The American Astronomical Society (AAS), which was founded in 1899, wants to hear shutdown-related stories from astronomers across the country so that its appeal to lawmakers can be as informed and persuasive as possible...

As Earth's iron core cools unevenly, the resulting whirls create a slow westward drift in a region of the magnetic field.

NASA's Juno spacecraft gets a gravity assist from the Earth on its way to Jupiter today. Learn all about today's close approach.

Northern lights were on display over a small village on the archipelago of Lofoten in northern Norway. Photographer Chad Blakley (lightsoverlapland.com) was on hand to snap footage. (looped)

One of the most famous of all the "shooting star" displays, the Draconid meteor shower, will peak tonight, but the celestial light show may be disappointing for casual stargazers. Here's how to see it tonight (Oct. 9).

Astronomers have discovered what appears to be a large asteroid belt around the star Vega, the second brightest star in northern night skies, using data from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope and the European Space Agency's...

Juno flies past Earth for a gravity assist at 19:22 UTC today, and the first images from the encounter are already on the ground and processed by amateurs!

This week’s Carnival of Space is hosted by Brian Wang at his Next Big Future blog.

An alien signal could take many forms. From radio to light, and even genetic manipulation only visible in DNA, extraterrestrial communication could be extremely diverse.