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The ExoMars rover, shown above in an artist’s illustration, is expected to launch in 2020. Watch out, Mars. Scientists are going to kick the search for habitability up a notch in 2020, when NASA and the European Space Agency plan to send rovers to the Red Planet to survey, drill, and take pictures of potentially […]

Updated at 12:57 pm ET: Today, Sept. 15, NASA’s Cassini spacecraft wrapped up 20 historic years in space, and collected data as it crashed into Saturn’s atmosphere and burned up like a meteor. Read our parent company Purch’s interview on Cassini’s death  with managing editor Tariq Malik. Read on for our complete coverage: Main Story: RIP, Cassini: Historic […]

The fifth mystery mission of the U.S. Air Force’s X-37B space plane is now underway. A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying the robotic X-37B lifted off today (Sept. 7) at 10 a.m. EDT (1400 GMT) from historic Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida. About 2.5 minutes into the flight, the […]

Three hurricanes are now brewing in the Atlantic: Irma, Katia and Jose. The Atlantic officially has three hurricanes churning simultaneously — Irma, Jose and Katia. Irma, a powerful Category 5 storm , is currently battering Puerto Rico and on track to slam into Florida, while Jose is barreling toward the Caribbean Islands, while Katia is […]

Adam Savage, co-host of the Discovery TV show “MythBusters,” hosts Syfy’s new 15-part podcast, “SYFY25: Origin Stories.” Happy birthday, Syfy! The science-fiction network turns 25 this month, and it’s kicking off a monthlong celebration with the release of a new podcast called “SYFY25: Origin Stories.” Hosted by Adam Savage, co-host of the hit Discovery TV show […]

Humans have long gazed toward the heavens, searching to put meaning and order to the universe around them. Although the movement of constellations — patterns imprinted on the night sky — were the easiest to track, other celestial events such as eclipses and the motion of planets were also charted and predicted. Definition of astronomy: […]

Project Blue aims to find an Earth-like planet around the neighboring Alpha Centauri star system. The private space telescope initiative Project Blue launched a new crowdfunding campaign Sept. 6 in a second attempt to raise money for its mission to directly image Earth-like exoplanets.  The initiative aims to launch a small space telescope into low-Earth […]

An active, sun-spotted region of the sun that unleashed powerful solar flares earlier this week fired two more significant solar flares this morning.  As a result, radiation flowing from the sun’s surface may bring brilliant auroras and strong geomagnetic storms to Earth through Saturday (Sept. 9), according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Space […]

Russian cosmonaut Sergey Ryazanskiy took this photo of Hurricane Irma from orbit on Sept. 7, 2017 while he flew overhead aboard the International Space Station. A Soyuz crew capsule is visible at left. Hurricane Irma  is barreling through the Caribbean as a massive Category 5 storm and its fury unmistakable even from orbit, according to […]

A massive, X9.3-class solar flare blasted from the sun at 8:02 a.m. EDT (1202 GMT). As if Hurricane Irma wasn’t enough, now the sun is acting up. A strong geomagnetic storm watch is in effect as scientists wait to see if a coronal mass ejection (CME) is winging toward Earth. A strong solar flare , […]

This article was updated at 5:44 p.m. EDT to indicate that a coronal mass ejection was observed coming from the site of the solar flare. Early this morning (Sept. 6), the sun released two powerful solar flares — the second was the most powerful in more than a decade. At 5:10 a.m. EDT (0910 GMT), […]

Artist’s illustration of the Automaton Rover for Extreme Environments (AREE), a concept vehicle inspired by mechanical computers that could someday explore the surface of Venus. This Venus rover concept looks like something out of science fiction — from the 19th century.  Researchers are studying the possibility of building a steampunk Venus rover, which would forsake […]

Powerful Hurricane Irma churns toward Puerto Rico on Sept. 5, 2017, in this view from the NOAA/NASA GOES East satellite. The second-largest radio telescope in the world has suspended operations as powerful Hurricane Irma churns ever closer. The Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico, which features a 1,000-foot-wide (305 meters) radio dish, is closed for safety […]