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A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launches the Zuma mission for an unspecified U.S. government agency on Jan. 7, 2018, from Florida’s Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. The mysterious payload, built my Northrop Grumman, apparently never reached orbit, according to media reports. The U.S. Air Force has given SpaceX a qualified vote of confidence in the […]

An artist’s illustration of the hot Jupiter exoplanet CoRoT 2b, which has a strange westward-blowing hotspot in its atmosphere, scientists say. If you’re looking to beat the heat on exoplanet CoRoT-2b , astronomers found the hottest spot in a surprising location. Their discovery could help scientists better understand how winds blow on “hot Jupiters” or […]

Writer Ursula K. Le Guin, whose work spanned multiple genres and categories including science fiction, fantasy, poetry and essays, died on Monday (Jan. 22) at the age of 88, the New York Times reports . The exact cause of death has not been announced, but Le Guin’s son told the Times that his mother had […]

A “Super Blue Blood Moon” will light the skies over Alaska, Hawaii and western North America Jan. 31, 2018. A “blood moon” happens when Earth’s moon is in full eclipse. While it has no special astronomical significance, the view in the sky is striking as the usually whiteish moon becomes red or ruddy-brown. The next […]

Sky map showing the Draconid meteor shower’s “radiant” — the point from which the meteors seem to originate. The annual Draconid meteor shower peaks in October, but don’t get your hopes up for a spectacular sky show. Even at their peak — which, this year, occurs Tueday, Oct. 9 —  the Draconids are usually modest, generating […]

This image shows a portion of the sky mapped by the Dark Energy Survey. Stellar streams (including ones previously found) can be seen as yellow, blue and red streaks. A project designed to help uncover the nature of dark energy and dark matter in our universe has found that alien stars from other galaxies have […]

A stunning new view of Saturn’s largest moon, Titan, captures beautiful layers of bluish-yellow haze in the moon’s atmosphere.  The image was taken by NASA’s Cassini spacecraft on March 31, 2005. The photo shows individual layers of haze in the upper atmosphere of Titan — the second-largest moon in the solar system and the only […]

NASA astronaut Scott Tingle tests out his spacesuit in preparation for the first spacewalk at the International Space Station this year. Update: NASA TV is back on the air this morning after the government shutdown was lifted last night. You can now watch the live webcast here , courtesy of NASA TV. Two NASA astronauts […]

NASA’s famous emblem. WASHINGTON – As the federal government began its first shutdown in more than four years Jan. 20, NASA’s operating plans  are little changed from that earlier shutdown, with most agency employees set to be furloughed. The continuing resolution (CR) that had been funding the federal government expired late Jan. 19 with no new […]

The 215-foot-tall structural test stand for NASA’s Space Launch System is at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. Located in Huntsville, Alabama, NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center has played a significant role in the American space program. Marshall helped to develop the rockets that carried the first U.S. astronaut into space and those […]

Many of our most ambitious space missions to space have been made possible using nuclear power. On Thursday (Jan. 18), scientists and officials from NASA and the Department of Energy gathered at the National Atomic Testing Museum in Las Vegas to discuss the Kilopower project , the next generation of nuclear power plants for future […]

An artist’s illustration for NASA’s Astrobiology Program. IRVINE, Calif. — Mary Voytek, NASA’s senior scientist for astrobiology, likes to tell other researchers that “everyone is an astrobiologist; they just don’t know it yet.” What she means is that answering the question currently at the heart of astrobiology — Does life exist beyond Earth? — requires […]

A U.S. Atlas V rocket lifted off Jan. 19 carrying the SBIRS GEO Flight 4 satellite. WASHINGTON — The U.S. Air Force says it has made contact with a new missile-warning satellite  that was launched Friday night from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida. The Air Force 460th Space Wing at Buckley Air Force Base, Colorado, […]