Space News

An event of cosmic proportions occurred on November 18 when the US congress passed the Space Act of 2015 into law. The legislation will give US space firms the rights to own and sell natural resources they mine from bodi...

The program remains in deadlined-stressed mode with triple-shift work days in preparation for the first mission's March launch. SpaceNews.com

As the moon moves around the Earth in its monthly orbit, it often passes in front of background stars. Such events are called "lunar occultations" and one will happen Thursday at dawn in a Thanksgiving lunar treat.

A team of astronomers have used the LCOGT network to detect light scattered by tiny particles (called Rayleigh scattering), through the atmosphere of a Neptune-size transiting exoplanet. This suggests a blue sky on this ...

U.S. House lawmakers signaled bipartisan willingness to encourage greater use of commercial satellite imagery at NASA, although exactly which data might be used for what purposes is unclear. SpaceNews.com

The world's most powerful accelerator, the 27 km long Large Hadron Collider (LHC) operating at CERN in Geneva established collisions between lead nuclei, this morning, at the highest energies ever. The LHC has been colli...

NASA Johnson interns have created yet another hilarious parody music video, with this latest one highlighting Scott Kelly's epic one-year mission aboard the International Space Station.

A reminder to all: please submit any nominations for the 2016 RAS Council elections by noon on Friday 27th November 2015.   The positions available are: Vice president (x2) Treasurer Secretary (Geophysics) Councillor (x...

The Royal Astronomical Society offers its condolences to the family, friends and colleagues of Professor Rod Davies, President of the Royal Astronomical Society from 1987 to 1989, who passed away earlier this month.   P...

As you dig into those mashed potatoes, be grateful the universe’s physical constants are so precise that a slight variation in any one would render that drumstick—and even your... --

NASA has successfully installed the first of 18 flight mirrors onto the James Webb Space Telescope, beginning a critical piece of the observatory's construction.

November's full moon will rise tonight, bringing an early Thanksgiving treat for skywatchers lucky enough to have clear skies over the long U.S. holiday weekend.

This computer simulation shows what two merging black holes would look like -- gravitational waves rippling away from the impact.

Astronomers at the Universities of Tübingen and Potsdam have identified the hottest white dwarf ever discovered in our Galaxy. With a temperature of 250,000 degrees Celsius, this dying star at the outskirts of the Milky...

Find out how LISA Pathfinder will test-drive technologies to detect gravitational waves from space

Was it a catastrophic collision in the star's asteroid belt? A giant impact that disrupted a nearby planet? A dusty cloud of rock and debris? A family of comets breaking apart? Or was it alien megastructures built to har...

Now available is the July 29, 2015 NASA Future In-Space Operations (FISO) telecon material. The speaker was Brand Griffin (NASA MSFC) who discussed "Evolvable Mars Campaign Small Habitat Commonality Reduces Cost and Impr...

VY Canis Majoris is a stellar goliath, a red hypergiant, one of the largest known stars in the Milky Way. It is 30-40 times the mass of the Sun and 300 000 times more luminous. In its current state, the star would encomp...

VY Canis Majoris is a stellar goliath, a red hypergiant, one of the largest known stars in the Milky Way. It is 30-40 times the mass of the Sun and 300 000 times more luminous. In its current state, the...

NASA has successfully installed the first of 18 flight mirrors onto the James Webb Space Telescope, beginning a critical piece of the observatory's construction....

Wednesday's briefing begins with SpaceX one-upping Blue Origin with its very own supermodel, plus the latest on ULA's push to lift the RD-180 ban. SpaceNews.com

Author’s note: In the wake of the November 13th terrorist attacks, the French Space Agency CNES canceled the celebration of the 50th anniversary of the launch of Asterix. This post commemorates the launch of France’s...