Space News

12" of awesome Dobsonian love. Thanks #johndobson for the views! @universetoday @JPMajor pic.twitter.com/PLA321Vqf1 — Scott MacNeill (@scottiemacneill) January 16, 2014 Amateur astronomers love their Dobs. As we said i...

The Pentagon's biggest space hardware contractor said the company must change along as the U.S. military adopts new ways of operating in space.

One of the most ambitious missions in the history of space goes into high-risk mode on Monday when Europe rouses a comet-chasing probe from years of hibernation.

The Winter 2013 issue of The Planetary Report is finally on press and will be mailing soon. However, the electronic version is available online for members to start reading now!

Paul Hayne takes a look at the mysterious polar caps of Mars, and what it would be like to ski there.

American Astronomical Society: Final registration numbers for the 223rd AAS meeting are in: 3,132 astronomers, policy makers, educators, students, journalists, and guests showed up at the Gaylord National Resort & Conven...

In 2012 astronomers announced the discovery of an Earth-like planet circling our nearest neighbor, Alpha Centauri B, a mere 4.3 light-years away. But with such a discovery comes heated debate. A second group of astronome...

"Gravity" will be a force to be reckoned with at the 2014 Academy Awards. The space thriller garnered 10 nominations for this year's Oscars, tying with "American Hustle" for the most nods.

Is China's Chang'e-3 unmanned lunar lander the opening salvo in an ambitious plan by China to land people on the Moon a decade or so hence? Will China land humans on the Moon before America? It would seem so based on a n...

Deborah Gordon, who researches animals' collective behavior, explains her experiment aboard Space Station into how ants would react to varying surfaces in a microgravity environment.

Night sky photographer Jeff Johnson captured this stunning view of the Triangulum Galaxy by combining observations of the galaxy taken years apart. See how he did it here.

The test of China's new "hypersonic glide vehicle," which apparently took place Jan. 9, was not designed to advance the nation's ability to penetrate American missile defense systems, according to Chinese military offici...

Today’s post is written by Heinz Andernach (Univ. of Guanajuato, Mexico), a member of the Radio Galaxy Zoo science team and an expert on radio galaxies. This is the first half of a detailed science post explaining what...

The Space Shuttle Atlantis lands with its drag chute deployed.

The Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics will broadcast a live show on the misfit stars known as brown dwarfs tonight (Jan. 16) and you can watch the science talk live online.

Woo hoo! I've got another cover story in the current (February 2014) issue of Sky & Telescope, in which I try to make sense of the Kuiper belt. This article was motivated by my observation that the discovery of many new ...

The team of 140 is going to 25 now that NASA has canceled work on the Advanced Stirling Radioisotope Generator.

The European Space Agency is developing a tight-fitting "skinsuit" designed to squeeze the body from the shoulders to the feet, counteracting the lack of gravity in space.

KVH is now beefing up its C-band capacity to fill in its remaining Ku-band gaps and offer backup in areas already under Ku-band coverage.

NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center: Pack it up, put it on a plane and fly it to Japan. It sounds simple, but a new video from NASA shows when you're shipping a satellite, it's anything but.

Space science image of the week: The most recent view of Rosetta's destination comet

NASA said the relatively quiet year from a debris-threat perspective reflects "the chaotic nature of the [debris] population."