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For astronauts in space, the Earth is always an amazing sight and the year 2017 offered dazzling (and sometimes frightening) views of our home planet from space. From hurricanes and volcanoes to amazing sunsets, see the best photos of 2017 here. See NASA’s video of best astronaut photos from 2017 here! This Image: The massive […]

The United States’ first successful satellite, Explorer 1, launched on Jan. 31, 1958, and discovered the radiation belt around Earth. Holding a model of the satellite in celebration after its successful launch are (left to right): William Pickering, former director of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which built and operated the satellite; James van Allen, of […]

The Avengers join forces with the Guardians of the Galaxy to defeat the powerful Thanos (played by Josh Brolin), who is trying to collect the Infinity Stones. Thanos was born into a group of superhumans, known as the Eternals, who live on Saturn’s moon, Titan. He plans to use the six stones for a gauntlet […]

Sequential images of the moon show the change inflicted by a penumbral eclipse. The images were taken April 25, 2013, by space enthusiast Stanislaus Ronny Terence of Chennai, India, during a trip to Frankfurt, Germany. Update for Jan. 31: For full coverage and live views of the Super Blue Blood Moon eclipse of 2018, visit […]

Astronauts on the International Space Station have New Year’s Day (Jan. 1) off, so how will they ring in the New Year, and how will it compare to their year-end traditions on Earth? In a new video from NASA, some of the current residents of the space station share their favorite New Year’s traditions (both […]

The second full moon of January (a Blue Moon, by some definitions) will be totally eclipsed by the shadow of the Earth . The Pacific Ocean is turned toward the moon when this takes place; the event will occur more or less during the middle of the night in that region. To the west of […]

Bill Nye the Science Guy is back for a second season of “Bill Nye Saves the World,” which returns to Netflix today (Dec. 29). The new season kicks off at a cannabis dispensary in Hollywood, where Nye examines the science behind marijuana, a Schedule I drug in the U.S. that is “presumed to have no […]

An image of the star Aldebaran near the limb of the moon. On the right, the brightness is turned up to make the star visible. The last of this year’s series of occultations of the star Aldebaran by the moon is set for Saturday, Dec. 30.  The final “vanishing act” of this bright orange star […]

China’s Tiangong-1 space lab has been orbiting Earth since September 2011, but it is slated for an uncontrolled re-entry through Earth’s atmosphere in late January or later, officials have said. Most of the vehicle is expected to burn up during the re-entry. The uncrewed space lab, which weighed 18,740 lbs. (8,500 kilograms) at launch, was […]

A United Launch Alliance Delta IV-Heavy rocket lifts off from Space Launch Complex 37B at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla. WASHINGTON — An evaluation of military space launch services revealed lapses in quality control that could compromise the schedule and performance of future missions, the Defense Department inspector general reported last week . The […]

Though 2017 included several astronomical highlights, the Great American Solar Eclipse of Aug. 21 stands out as the biggest skywatching event of the year, if not all time.   While a partial solar eclipse was visible in most of the United States, a total solar eclipse could be seen in a smaller, coast-to-coast path stretching from […]

Saturn’s icy moon Enceladus is seen half-lit, with the gas giant’s glistening rings in the background, in this image from NASA’s Cassini spacecraft released Dec. 27, 2017. The spacecraft took the image in 2011 and crashed into Saturn on Sept. 15, 2017. NASA’s Cassini spacecraft has given the world a belated Christmas gift: a stunning […]

Images from the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico show a massive space rock’s close approach to Earth on Dec. 16.  The asteroid 3200 Phaethon zipped to within about 6.4 million miles (10.3 million kilometers) of Earth, or about 27 times the distance from Earth to the moon. This was the space rock’s closest approach to […]