The ASTERIA satellite, currently in low-Earth orbit, is only slightly larger than a box of cereal, but it could help astrophysicists study planets orbiting other stars. - 5 days ago, 12 Apr 18, 7:04pm -
A 3-D infrared movie depicts cyclones and anticyclones in Jupiter's polar regions, and the first detailed view of a dynamo powering the magnetic field of a planet beyond Earth. - 6 days ago, 11 Apr 18, 7:04pm -
Startup companies in the aerospace sector descended on JPL to pitch their ideas to JPL technologists, corporate and government agency leaders, and potential investors. - 15 days ago, 2 Apr 18, 7:04pm -
NASA is investing in technology concepts, including several from JPL, that may one day be used for future space exploration missions. - 18 days ago, 30 Mar 18, 7:03pm -
In 2018, NASA will intensify its focus on one of the most critical but remote parts of our changing planet with the launch of two new satellite missions and an array of airborne campaigns. - 22 days ago, 26 Mar 18, 7:03pm -
The Kepler space telescope, famous for finding exoplanets, has also been valuable in tracking exploding stars known as supernovae. - 22 days ago, 26 Mar 18, 7:03pm -
NASA's Mars Curiosity rover just hit a new milestone: its two-thousandth Martian day on the Red Planet. An image mosaic taken recently offers a preview of what comes next. - 26 days ago, 22 Mar 18, 7:03pm -
NASA's next mission to Mars will be the topic of a media briefing Thursday, March 29, at JPL. The briefing will air live on NASA Television and the agency's website. - 26 days ago, 22 Mar 18, 7:03pm -
Two JPL-sponsored teams took top honors at the 18th annual FIRST Robotics Competition's Los Angeles Regional event over the weekend. - 27 days ago, 21 Mar 18, 7:03pm -
NASA spacecraft travel to far-off destinations in space, but a new mobile app produced by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California, brings spacecraft to users. - 28 days ago, 20 Mar 18, 7:03pm -
InSight will be the first mission to another planet launched from the West Coast. It launches from Vandenberg Air Force Base in May. - 34 days ago, 14 Mar 18, 7:03pm -
Observations of Ceres have detected recent variations in its surface, revealing that the dwarf planet is a dynamic body that continues to evolve and change. - 34 days ago, 14 Mar 18, 7:03pm -
NASA's Mars 2020 mission has begun the assembly, test and launch operations (ATLO) phase of its development, on track for a July 2020 launch to Mars. - 35 days ago, 13 Mar 18, 7:03pm -
NASA invites digital creators to apply for social media credentials to cover the launch of the InSight mission to Mars, May 3-5, at California's Vandenberg Air Force Base. - 36 days ago, 12 Mar 18, 7:03pm -
Data collected by NASA's Juno mission indicate that the atmospheric winds of Jupiter run deep into its atmosphere and last longer than similar atmospheric processes on Earth. - 41 days ago, 7 Mar 18, 8:03pm -
On March 14, JPL will celebrate Pi Day with the fifth annual "Pi in the Sky" illustrated math challenge, featuring pi-related space problems that you can do at home. - 41 days ago, 7 Mar 18, 8:03pm -
Permafrost in the far northern Arctic will thaw enough to become a source of carbon to the atmosphere in 40 to 60 years. - 43 days ago, 5 Mar 18, 8:03pm -
Scientists used NASA's Hubble and Spitzer space telescopes to find water "fingerprints" in the atmosphere of a hot, bloated, Saturn-mass exoplanet some 700 light-years away. - 47 days ago, 1 Mar 18, 8:03pm -
NASA's Mars Curiosity rover has conducted the first test of a new drilling technique on the Red Planet since its drill stopped working reliably. - 48 days ago, 28 Feb 18, 8:02pm -
NASA's InSight spacecraft has arrived at Vandenberg Air Force Base in central California to begin final preparations for a launch this May. - 48 days ago, 28 Feb 18, 8:02pm -
NASA's nearly 12-year-old CloudSat satellite has exited the Afternoon Constellation, or A-Train, of Earth monitoring satellites, but its science mission will continue. - 53 days ago, 23 Feb 18, 8:02pm -
A NASA study based on an innovative technique for crunching torrents of satellite data provides the clearest picture yet of changes in Antarctic ice flow into the ocean. - 56 days ago, 20 Feb 18, 8:02pm -
This animation blinks between two images taken nearly a decade apart of the 2008 landing site of NASA's Mars Phoenix mission, showing that dust has obscured landing marks. - 56 days ago, 20 Feb 18, 8:02pm -
NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, at Mars since 2006, put itself into a precautionary standby mode on Feb. 15 in response to sensing an unexpectedly low battery voltage. - 60 days ago, 16 Feb 18, 8:02pm -
NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity keeps providing surprises about the Red Planet, most recently with observations of possible "rock stripes." - 61 days ago, 15 Feb 18, 8:02pm -
The Sun will rise on NASA's solar-powered Mars rover Opportunity for the 5,000th time on Saturday, sending rays of energy to a robot that continues to provide revelations. - 61 days ago, 15 Feb 18, 8:02pm -
The rate of global sea level rise has been accelerating in recent decades, rather than increasing steadily, according to a new study based on 25 years of NASA and European satellite data. - 63 days ago, 13 Feb 18, 8:02pm -
NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) has begun extra stargazing to help the space agency accomplish advances in Mars exploration over the next decade. - 67 days ago, 9 Feb 18, 8:02pm -
Star-shaped and swallowtail-shaped tiny, dark bumps in fine-layered bright bedrock of a Martian ridge are drawing close inspection by NASA's Curiosity Mars rover. - 68 days ago, 8 Feb 18, 8:02pm -
NASA has selected two new research proposals to develop small, space-based instruments that will tackle fundamental questions about our home planet and its environment. - 71 days ago, 5 Feb 18, 8:02pm -
The seven Earth-size planets of TRAPPIST-1 are all mostly made of rock, with some having the potential to hold more water than Earth, according to a new study. - 71 days ago, 5 Feb 18, 8:02pm -
A panorama taken by NASA's Curiosity Mars rover from a mountainside ridge provides a vista of key sites visited since the rover's 2012 landing, and the towering surroundings. - 77 days ago, 30 Jan 18, 8:01pm -
JPL technology to help find disaster survivors under rubble is included in the 2018 edition of NASA's annual Spinoff publication, which features 49 technologies the agency helped create. - 81 days ago, 26 Jan 18, 8:01pm -
When wildfires break out around the world, NASA satellites and airborne instruments are on the job, providing many types of data useful to scientists and disaster responders. - 83 days ago, 24 Jan 18, 8:01pm -
Sixty years ago next week, America launched its first satellite, the JPL-built Explorer 1, marking the beginning of the scientific exploration of space. - 84 days ago, 23 Jan 18, 8:01pm -
The amount of dust on the snowpack, not the warmth of the spring air, controls the pace of spring snowmelt flowing into the Colorado River. - 84 days ago, 23 Jan 18, 8:01pm -
Some Mars experts are eager and optimistic for a dust storm this year to grow so grand it darkens skies around the entire Red Planet. - 84 days ago, 23 Jan 18, 8:01pm -
Asteroid 2002 AJ129 will make a close approach to Earth on Feb. 4, 2018, but no closer than 10 times the distance between Earth and the moon. - 88 days ago, 19 Jan 18, 8:01pm -
Saturn's moon Titan may be nearly a billion miles away from Earth, but a recent paper from NASA's Cassini mission reveals a new way this world and our own are eerily similar. - 90 days ago, 17 Jan 18, 8:01pm -
The year 2017 marked several milestones in science, technology and flight projects for NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California. - 91 days ago, 16 Jan 18, 8:01pm -
Researchers using NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) have found eight sites where thick deposits of ice beneath Mars' surface are exposed in faces of eroding slopes. - 96 days ago, 11 Jan 18, 8:01pm -
The Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite is designed to spot planets orbiting nearby bright stars-- Read more on ScientificAmerican.com - 16 hours ago, 16 Apr 18, 3:45pm -
A civilization in the habitable zone of a dwarf star like Proxima Centauri might find it hard to get into interstellar space with conventional rockets-- Read more on ScientificAmerican.com - 21 hours ago, 16 Apr 18, 11:00am -
After years of stealthy activity, the start-up is making big moves and revealing its plans to overturn more than a half century of tradition in aerospace manufacturing-- Read more on ScientificAmerican.com - 21 hours ago, 16 Apr 18, 10:45am -
Red dwarfs are a popular place to hunt for small exoplanets in the habitable zone—but the stars' radiation bursts might fry chances for life as we know it. Christopher Intagliata reports.-- Read more on ScientificAmerican.com - 5 days ago, 11 Apr 18, 11:21pm -
Astronomers are racing to figure out what causes powerful bursts of radio light in the distant cosmos-- Read more on ScientificAmerican.com - 8 days ago, 9 Apr 18, 12:30pm -
A new analysis of data from NASA’s planet-hunting Kepler mission suggests one of the telescope’s prized finds, Kepler 452 b, might be a statistical mirage-- Read more on ScientificAmerican.com - 8 days ago, 9 Apr 18, 10:45am -
It looks like the galaxy is overflowing with worlds soaked in water, but scientists are divided on whether life there would succeed or fail-- Read more on ScientificAmerican.com - 12 days ago, 5 Apr 18, 10:45am -
Anticipated but never before seen, the existence of tens of thousands of these dark objects at the galactic center could have far-reaching implications for astrophysics-- Read more on ScientificAmerican.com - 13 days ago, 4 Apr 18, 5:00pm -
Physicists at experiment in Italy continue to see a data fluctuation that they say represents dark matter—but the mystery deepens-- Read more on ScientificAmerican.com - 15 days ago, 2 Apr 18, 4:30pm -
A complex interplay of gravity, volcanoes and planetary wobble could pin down the age of oceans on Mars-- Read more on ScientificAmerican.com - 16 days ago, 1 Apr 18, 5:00pm -
His work distinguished him as one of the greatest physicists of our generation; his character distinguished him as one of its greatest men-- Read more on ScientificAmerican.com - 19 days ago, 29 Mar 18, 11:00am -
The newfound object NGC 1052-DF2 defies easy explanation, and could lead to breakthroughs in our understanding of how galaxies form and evolve-- Read more on ScientificAmerican.com - 20 days ago, 28 Mar 18, 5:00pm -
The discovery, although mysterious, might provide a new window into the depths of our most familiar star-- Read more on ScientificAmerican.com - 20 days ago, 28 Mar 18, 12:00pm -
The tumbling spacecraft’s uncontrolled reentry could resemble that of NASA’s Skylab station from 1979-- Read more on ScientificAmerican.com - 21 days ago, 27 Mar 18, 6:30pm -
Damaged thrusters and a torn sunshield are keeping the telescope grounded perhaps until May 2020—and throwing astronomy and astrophysics into turmoil-- Read more on ScientificAmerican.com - 21 days ago, 27 Mar 18, 3:35pm -
Two years on, the search for our solar system’s missing world is as frenzied as ever—and the putative planet is running out of places to hide-- Read more on ScientificAmerican.com - 26 days ago, 22 Mar 18, 10:45am -
The ARIEL mission will peer into the atmospheres of thousands of exoplanets to learn more about their formation and evolution-- Read more on ScientificAmerican.com - 27 days ago, 21 Mar 18, 5:00pm -
The mysterious object may have formed in a binary star system, new research suggests-- Read more on ScientificAmerican.com - 28 days ago, 20 Mar 18, 6:00pm -
One of the great physicist's longtime collaborators explains why his contributions to science will be remembered forever -- Read more on ScientificAmerican.com - 30 days ago, 18 Mar 18, 4:35pm -
New research reveals a possible mechanism allowing “black stars” and “gravastars” to exist-- Read more on ScientificAmerican.com - 32 days ago, 16 Mar 18, 10:45am -
Two relativists present their distinctive views on the universe, its evolution and the impact of quantum theory-- Read more on ScientificAmerican.com - 34 days ago, 14 Mar 18, 3:16pm -
Shares of U.S. drug suppliers rose on Monday after a report that Amazon.com Inc had dropped plans to sell drugs to hospitals, in a boost to a pharmaceutical supply chain rattled by the looming threat of competition from the online retailer. Stocks o… - 12 hours ago, 16 Apr 18, 7:49pm -
BINGHAMTON, N.Y. (AP) — A 19-year-old freshman was fatally stabbed on New York's Binghamton University campus and the assailant suspected of targeting him remained at large Monday, authorities said. - 13 hours ago, 16 Apr 18, 7:26pm -
LEGGETT, Calif. (AP) — Crews searching for a family whose vehicle plunged into a rain-swollen Northern California river more than a week ago have found the sport utility vehicle and the bodies of a man and a girl inside, authorities said Monday. - 13 hours ago, 16 Apr 18, 7:00pm -
LOS ANGELES (AP) — It's been more than three years since the arrest of eccentric New York real estate heir Robert Durst in the execution-style shooting of his best friend years earlier in Los Angeles. - 14 hours ago, 16 Apr 18, 5:39pm -
WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. Commerce Department is blocking Chinese telecommunications giant ZTE Corp. from importing American components for seven years, accusing the company of misleading U.S. regulators after it settled charges of violating sanct… - 15 hours ago, 16 Apr 18, 5:30pm -
TORONTO (AP) — Canadian alleged serial killer Bruce McArthur is now facing an eighth murder charge — the death of a Sri Lankan man who had not been reported missing. - 16 hours ago, 16 Apr 18, 4:22pm -
By Markus Wacket and Thomas Escritt BERLIN (Reuters) - Germany's Europe minister called on Monday for a new policy of easing tensions with Russia, adding to a chorus of voices pressing Chancellor Angela Merkel to moderate her hardened stance towards… - 16 hours ago, 16 Apr 18, 3:55pm -
A family friend says the 26-year-old woman whose body was found packed inside the back of a U-Haul in Indianapolis say the family moved suddenly after the woman`s death in January or February. - 16 hours ago, 16 Apr 18, 3:41pm -
Eurovision winner Conchita Wurst has revealed she is HIV positive and has been living with the virus for years. Wurst, the onstage alter-ego of drag queen Thomas Neuwirth, said she was force to reveal the news after an ex-boyfriend had "threatened… - 20 hours ago, 16 Apr 18, 12:33pm -
(Corrects this April 13 story to add reference to a cup in paragraph three.) By Christine Kim and Joori Roh SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korean police have launched an inquiry into reports a daughter of the chairman of Korean Air Lines threw a water bot… - 1 day ago, 16 Apr 18, 7:07am -
(Reuters) - American Airlines Group Inc on Sunday resumed flying routes that use Russian airspace after having rerouted flights on Saturday due to its monitoring of "global geopolitical issues", a spokesman said. U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday… - 1 day ago, 16 Apr 18, 2:19am -
NASA is poised to launch a $337 million washing machine-sized spacecraft that aims to vastly expand mankind's search for planets beyond our solar system, particularly closer, Earth-sized ones that might harbor life. NASA predicts that TESS will disc… - 1 day ago, 16 Apr 18, 1:14am -
The CEO of Starbucks has apologized for an incident at one of the mammoth chain's Philadelphia cafes where two black men were arrested while waiting for a friend. A video of the incident, posted Thursday on Twitter, was viewed millions of times and… - 1 day ago, 16 Apr 18, 12:45am -
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — The Navy is citing pilot error for a military training jet crash in Tennessee that killed the two aboard, saying it was being flown for thrills and too low. - 1 day ago, 15 Apr 18, 11:31pm -
In an interview with a WDRB-TV television reporter on Friday, the Republican governor said he could guarantee that somewhere in Kentucky a child was sexually assaulted after being left home with no supervision because of the walkout. Kentucky's Repu… - 1 day ago, 15 Apr 18, 9:23pm -
U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley said on Sunday that the United States would not pull its troops out of Syria until its goals were accomplished. Speaking on Fox News Sunday, Haley listed three aims for the United States: ensuring th… - 2 days ago, 15 Apr 18, 2:26pm -
Excerpts from former FBI Director James Comey’s upcoming memoir, and from an interview Comey gave to ABC News, set off a Sunday-morning tweetstorm of accusations, corrections and annotations from President Trump, including the bizarre assertion tha… - 2 days ago, 15 Apr 18, 2:07pm -
Myanmar's government said it has repatriated the first family of Rohingya refugees, among the 700,000 who fled a brutal crackdown, but the move was slammed by rights groups as a publicity stunt which ignored warnings over the security of returnees.… - 2 days ago, 15 Apr 18, 11:30am -
Israel's army said Sunday it had destroyed a Hamas tunnel crossing from the Gaza Strip into its territory after more than two weeks of tension along the border of the Palestinian enclave. Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman said it was the longest an… - 2 days ago, 15 Apr 18, 8:42am -
Cuba will cease to be ruled by a Castro this week for the first time in almost half a century, as the Caribbean island begins a new chapter in its turbulent history. President Raul Castro, 86, will step down on Thursday after a decade in power, in a… - 2 days ago, 15 Apr 18, 7:00am -
The discovery of potentially millions of tons of valuable "rare earth" elements in sea sludge off Japan has raised hopes that Asia's number-two economy can reduce its dependence on Chinese supply. A Japanese study published last week revealed an est… - 2 days ago, 15 Apr 18, 3:40am -
British Prime Minister Theresa May faced a backlash from the domestic opposition after launching military strikes on Syria without consulting parliament. As the Conservative leader explained her rationale for the air strikes, opposition parties clai… - 2 days ago, 15 Apr 18, 3:19am -
Britain would consider launching a cyber attack against Russia in retaliation if Russia targeted British national infrastructure, the Sunday Times reported, citing unnamed security sources. Britain's relations with Russia are at a historic low, afte… - 2 days ago, 15 Apr 18, 3:08am -
Washington’s priority should be to eliminate the North’s nuclear weapons and the regime’s ability to strike America. The prospect of a summit between President Donald Trump and North Korean supreme leader Kim Jong-un offers a unique opportunit… - 2 days ago, 15 Apr 18, 12:27am -
A man who allegedly fired a shotgun at a black teenager who knocked on his door to ask for directions after missing the school bus, has been charged with assault with intent to murder. Brennan Walker, 14, told police that he overslept, missed his bu… - 2 days ago, 14 Apr 18, 11:48pm -
Joint air strikes by the US, UK and France have set back Syria’s chemical weapons capability “for years”, the US military said. Cruise missiles were fired at three sites in response to what Theresa May called the “despicable and barbaric”… - 2 days ago, 14 Apr 18, 10:53pm -
The hunt for exoplanets is getting a new set of eyes, but not quite yet. SpaceX delayed the launch of NASA's Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) to do analysis on their rocket's guidance system - 4 days ago, 13 Apr 18, 4:09pm -
After Jupiter formed, it likely had no nearby material to build moons. Young Saturn may have tossed rocks at the gas giant that grew into its four biggest moons - 4 days ago, 13 Apr 18, 3:38pm -
The March for Science on 14 April will involve rallies in more than 200 cities, as a sequel to last year’s inaugural march in protest of president Donald Trump - 4 days ago, 13 Apr 18, 10:29am -
Life on Venus has been thought impossible due to its acidic atmosphere. But acid-loving microbes are all over Earth, so they could also live in its toxic clouds - 5 days ago, 12 Apr 18, 5:27pm -
The US is making noises about increasingly militarising space, but orbital conflict won’t be a battle of spaceships and bombs - 6 days ago, 11 Apr 18, 6:00pm -
Bad news for life near Proxima Centauri – the star has been seen emitting explosive blasts of radiation that would destroy the ozone on its Earth-like planet - 7 days ago, 10 Apr 18, 5:18pm -
The competition for a private firm to put a rover on the moon was cancelled in January when no firm seemed close enough. It’s back now, but without a cash prize - 12 days ago, 5 Apr 18, 5:23pm -
Astronauts on long missions won't be able to bring all their tools with them. A new way of turning faeces into 3D-printable plastic may solve that problem - 12 days ago, 5 Apr 18, 3:27pm -
NASA awarded a $247.5 million contract to Lockheed Martin to design and build an aeroplane that breaks the sound barrier without shattering the peace and quiet - 12 days ago, 5 Apr 18, 10:28am -
Just after the big bang, waves of neutrinos and other matter raced across the cosmos. Those neutrinos reached forward in time to dictate where galaxies form now - 12 days ago, 4 Apr 18, 8:20pm -
We knew that the centre of the Milky Way was home to a supermassive black hole. But now we’ve also spotted evidence of 10,000 smaller black holes flanking it - 13 days ago, 4 Apr 18, 6:00pm -
After two years of spiralling closer and closer to Earth, the Chinese space station Tiangong-1 has come crashing through the atmosphere over the Pacific Ocean - 15 days ago, 2 Apr 18, 2:22am -
We may be watching a supermassive black hole rip a star limb from limb. As it swallows bits of the star, it will release enough energy to stay bright for months - 19 days ago, 29 Mar 18, 5:02pm -
The Parker Solar Probe is about to unlock the secrets of our star by flying into its fiery atmosphere – a mission that will push technology to the limit - 19 days ago, 29 Mar 18, 9:00am -
Comparing moon rocks to volcanic ones from the ocean floor shows that Earth’s water may have stuck around even through the giant impact that formed the moon - 20 days ago, 28 Mar 18, 7:00pm -
A Jupiter-like planet has been found orbiting a star just 12 light years from Earth, making it the closest confirmed gas giant found outside our solar system - 20 days ago, 28 Mar 18, 6:44pm -
Most galaxies have more mysterious dark matter than bright stars and gas. But this galaxy has no dark matter, killing off some alternate ideas of gravity - 20 days ago, 28 Mar 18, 6:00pm -
The surface of Sputnik Planitia, part of a heart-shaped plain on Pluto, has no craters at all. They may have been filled in by soft, flowing nitrogen ice - 21 days ago, 27 Mar 18, 7:28pm -
The James Webb Space Telescope, which will hunt for signs of life on other worlds, was supposed to launch next year. It has now been delayed to May 2020 - 21 days ago, 27 Mar 18, 4:45pm -
An exoplanet discovered 340 million light years away may shed some light on how Mercury got to be such a weird world – a tiny planet made mostly of an iron core - 22 days ago, 26 Mar 18, 4:00pm -
A supernova exploded and hit maximum brightness over 2.2 days – the fastest one we’ve spotted. A shell of gas from its dying star may have amped up its light - 22 days ago, 26 Mar 18, 4:00pm -
Tantalising clues suggest the weird seas on Saturn’s largest moon contain a chemical cocktail capable of spawning life. A daring mission now aims to find out - 22 days ago, 26 Mar 18, 12:20pm -
From the hunt for a theory of everything to the complex Rosetta mission, there’s treasure to be found in a trawl of some of the recent popular science writing - 23 days ago, 25 Mar 18, 10:00am -
On missions to Mars and beyond, astronauts will have to grow their own food. Urine has been shown in space simulations to keep wheat and soy alive over 20 years - 25 days ago, 23 Mar 18, 6:21pm -
The most precise calculation of the lifetime of our universe finds that a bubble of vacuum energy made by the Higgs boson could envelop us all in 10139 years - 26 days ago, 22 Mar 18, 11:20am -
The Humanity Star, an orbiting geodesic sphere that reflects sunlight, was expected to circle earth until September but it came down early - 26 days ago, 22 Mar 18, 10:02am -
We have two ways to measure the accelerating expansion of the universe, but they don’t line up. If dark matter gives off radiation, it could make them agree - 27 days ago, 20 Mar 18, 10:29pm -
First hints are emerging of a universe that existed before our own: an alien world of chaos where time, space and geometry were yet to form - 28 days ago, 20 Mar 18, 12:00pm -
A London concert by the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment this Sunday says as much about J. S. Bach’s original audience as it does about today’s cosmology - 32 days ago, 16 Mar 18, 4:30pm -
Dark matter and neutrinos are both cosmic loners – they don’t interact with much. But dark matter could give neutrinos their mass through a weak repellant force - 32 days ago, 16 Mar 18, 3:27pm -
The mega-storm we know as Jupiter’s Great Red Spot is getting taller, but smaller in diameter. It’s also becoming more orange than red, and it could disappear - 33 days ago, 15 Mar 18, 3:17pm -
Artificial intelligence can automatically identify craters on the moon, and may eventually tell us more about the formation of the solar system - 33 days ago, 15 Mar 18, 1:19pm -
The physicist was also known for his outspoken views on existential issues such as climate change. They were part of being an icon, says Geraint Lewis - 33 days ago, 15 Mar 18, 11:30am -
Ceres, a distant dwarf planet, hosts sheets of ice just under its surface. In the summer, some of this ice may sublimate and coat shadowy crater walls in frost - 34 days ago, 14 Mar 18, 6:00pm -
In an exclusive interview with New Scientist to mark his 70th birthday, physicist Stephen Hawking looked back on his life and work - 34 days ago, 14 Mar 18, 8:46am -
The surface of Saturn’s largest moon Titan might be covered, salt-like crystals that could be among the ingredients for nitrogen-based alien life - 35 days ago, 13 Mar 18, 4:28pm -
The surface of Saturn's largest moon Titan might be covered in salt-like crystals that could be among the ingredients for nitrogen-based microbes - 35 days ago, 13 Mar 18, 3:29pm -
NASA’s Juno spacecraft took this image on 7 February from a spot more than 8000 kilometres above Jupiter’s northern cloud tops - 35 days ago, 13 Mar 18, 7:00am -
Fast radio bursts are some of the weirdest, most elusive phenomena in the cosmos. We just found three new ones, one of which is the brightest we’ve ever seen - 35 days ago, 12 Mar 18, 8:16pm -
In what seems to be the first unauthorised satellite launch, a start-up company may have sent four tiny – and potentially dangerous – satellites into space - 36 days ago, 12 Mar 18, 4:51pm -
The signature of cold gas around the first stars is far stronger than expected. Some suggest dark matter is to blame, but black holes may be the culprit - 39 days ago, 9 Mar 18, 3:41pm -
If there are alien civilisations as technologically advanced as us, we could possibly find them by looking for rings of orbiting satellites around their worlds - 42 days ago, 6 Mar 18, 4:29pm -
Falling space debris should make craters on rocky surfaces. But on Saturn’s moon Iapetus, it might have created a belt of mountains around the equator - 46 days ago, 2 Mar 18, 4:47pm -
Our cosmos is failing to meet the rigorous beauty standards set by physicists. Is it time to face up to the fact we may live in an uglyverse? - 46 days ago, 2 Mar 18, 11:50am -
A company called SpinLaunch says it wants to use a centrifuge to slingshot cargo into space, avoiding the need for heavy, pricey rocket fuel - 47 days ago, 1 Mar 18, 5:40pm -
The James Webb Space Telescope, currently slated for launch in 2019, is facing technical difficulties and budget overruns that might push back its launch date - 47 days ago, 28 Feb 18, 9:58pm -
Early Earth may have been smashed into a vapour by a Mars-sized object. Our moon may have formed at the edges of the leftover doughnut-shaped cloud of debris - 48 days ago, 28 Feb 18, 6:35pm -
Earth microbes have shown they can withstand the environment on Enceladus. If alien life is similar, the methane we’ve found on Saturn’s moon could be from life - 48 days ago, 28 Feb 18, 6:00pm -
The earliest stars left their mark on the hydrogen gas that drifts in deep space, and the same traces could also hint at the true nature of dark matter - 48 days ago, 28 Feb 18, 6:00pm -
Powerful telescopes are ready to reveal the vast black hole at the heart of our galaxy in all its glory. This is a big moment for astronomy, says Geraint Lewis - 49 days ago, 27 Feb 18, 4:58pm -
Pions are particles that usually decay very quickly. But right after the big bang, they could have made stars that last long enough for us to detect now - 49 days ago, 27 Feb 18, 3:00pm -
Because the universe is expanding, it may be possible to survive entering a black hole, ending up in a place where the past no longer dictates the future - 50 days ago, 26 Feb 18, 4:23pm -
The Falcon Heavy launch was more than just spectacle – it set the stage for a future Mars mission. Now we need to think about who's in the driver's seat - 62 days ago, 14 Feb 18, 6:00pm -
When hydrogen and oxygen combine in a planet’s atmosphere, they can ignite into a ball of fire and then leave behind liquid water oceans that would be good for life - 62 days ago, 14 Feb 18, 4:00pm -
The chemical make-up of stars tells us a lot about their explosive family history. Unlocking those secrets could reveal how the galaxy got its shape - 62 days ago, 14 Feb 18, 12:30pm -
Recent near misses show China's pursuit of space prowess seems to trump debris risks. The re-entry of its space station is another looming drama, says Paul Marks - 62 days ago, 14 Feb 18, 10:13am -
If gravitational waves – ripples in space time – have a handedness, primordial particles could interact with them to form a dark matter superfluid that spreads through the cosmos - 63 days ago, 13 Feb 18, 10:50am -
The orbiting satellite will search for planets around nearby star systems, advancing the search for other signs of life in the Milky Way, but the launch was pushed back to Wednesday. - 10 hours ago, 16 Apr 18, 10:13pm -
China lost control of the craft in 2016, and sky watchers had been waiting months for it to re-enter the atmosphere, unsure where or when it would land. - 15 days ago, 2 Apr 18, 8:31am -
The space agency announced on Tuesday that its successor to the Hubble telescope has hit a series of testing snags, pushing back a planned launch next year. - 20 days ago, 27 Mar 18, 9:01pm -
A physicist and best-selling author, Dr. Hawking did not allow his physical limitations to hinder his quest to answer “the big question: Where did the universe come from?” - 29 days ago, 19 Mar 18, 5:07pm -
Steve is a glowing strip in the night sky, not far from the northern lights. It was named after a cartoon. Now scientists have learned more. - 32 days ago, 15 Mar 18, 10:22pm -
The cosmologist not only overturned our imaginations, he became an icon of mystery, curiosity and determination to understand this place we are in. - 33 days ago, 15 Mar 18, 1:57pm -
Mr. Lightfoot has filled in since the end of the Obama administration. The agency has never gone this long without a leader confirmed by the Senate. - 35 days ago, 12 Mar 18, 11:06pm -
Using a telescope in Australia, astronomers say they have glimpsed farther back in time than the Hubble Telescope to see what was happening when the first stars were forming. - 40 days ago, 7 Mar 18, 8:52pm -
Astronomers rarely see the beginnings of these explosions, but an Argentine amateur’s lucky picture helped them study the start of a massive star’s violent death. - 55 days ago, 21 Feb 18, 6:00pm -
The administration sees a greater role for the private sector in returning to the moon and running the International Space Station, which it would stop financing in 2025. - 64 days ago, 12 Feb 18, 2:14am -
Elon Musk disrupted the business of sending rockets into space and has now achieved a milestone in spaceflight by launching the most powerful rocket currently operating in the world. - 69 days ago, 7 Feb 18, 3:05am -
Seen and heard, the fireball is a stunning breakthrough into kilonovas, bursts of energy believed to produce metals like gold and uranium in the universe. - 17 Oct 17, 8:17pm -
Abolition would see 'official' time unmoored from the Sun.<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/news/rss/news_s15/~4/JfsemaNcHGA" height="1" width="1" alt=""/> - 8 Nov 11, 9:29pm -
As a huge European observatory nears approval, a National Science Foundation funding competition between equivalent US projects remains in a holding pattern. - 2 Nov 11, 7:00pm -
NASA is launching a mission to find Earth-sized planets beyond our solar system that scientists can study for signs of life. Scientists already know of over 3,000 planets around distant stars. - 2 days ago, 15 Apr 18, 12:20pm -
Scientists hope MethaneSAT will show where the potent greenhouse gas is coming from. Tracking methane in the air is difficult because it rises and spreads from the source. - 5 days ago, 11 Apr 18, 11:30pm -
The supermassive black hole lurking at the center of our galaxy appears to have a lot of company, according to a new study that suggests the monster is surrounded by about 10,000 other black holes. - 13 days ago, 4 Apr 18, 5:26pm -
If the history of thermodynamics can teach us anything, it is that modest entropy reversals have not taken us back in time at all. But it is more fun to think otherwise, says guest Jimena Canales. - 14 days ago, 3 Apr 18, 4:55pm -
Commentator Adam Frank talks with Harvard astrophysicist Avi Loeb about exo-civilizations, techno-signatures, and the search for alien life — living or long-gone. - 15 days ago, 2 Apr 18, 4:28pm -
A defunct Chinese space station was mostly burned up in the Earth's atmosphere before landing in the the South Pacific Sunday. - 15 days ago, 2 Apr 18, 9:06am -
Tiangong-1, an abandoned Chinese orbiting lab, re-entered the atmosphere over the South Pacific Ocean Sunday evening, fulfilling predictions by the European Space Agency. - 16 days ago, 1 Apr 18, 5:52pm -
China's Tiangong-1, launched in 2013, is expected to re-enter the Earth's atmosphere sometime between March 31 and April 2, according to the European Space Agency. - 20 days ago, 28 Mar 18, 8:18am -
A Japanese company is proposing a venture to create on-demand meteor showers using small spheres dropped from a satellite. Scientists aren't really keen to the idea. - 21 days ago, 27 Mar 18, 8:06pm -
For two years Mike Hughes worked on a rocket. His goal was to prove the earth was flat. Over the weekend, he got a third of a mile into the air and then fell back to earth. The rocket had a parachute. - 22 days ago, 26 Mar 18, 9:57am -
Sunita Williams was the second female commander of the International Space Station. Now, she says her new job working with private companies to develop space technologies feels like a new frontier. - 22 days ago, 26 Mar 18, 2:00am -
Astronaut Andrew Fuestel has been to space three times. He says he has a mild fear of heights, but he can push through it. He's OK after reaching hundreds of miles above the Earth. - 25 days ago, 23 Mar 18, 9:01am -
Showing science's enchanting side has the almost magical effect of opening new portals to what is possible, says astrophysicist Marcelo Gleiser. - 27 days ago, 21 Mar 18, 3:30pm -
Despite the incredibly accurate predictions of quantum theory, there's a lot of disagreement over what it says about reality — or even whether it says anything at all about it, says guest Adam Becker. - 27 days ago, 20 Mar 18, 9:30pm -
Scheduled for takeoff at 6:32:07 p.m. EDT, the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) has only a 30-second launch window. - 22 hours ago, 16 Apr 18, 10:00am -
Brian Keating explores the pitfalls of pursuing science's highest honor, in the context of uncovering the universe's earliest moments. - 22 hours ago, 16 Apr 18, 10:00am -
Every few minutes, a pair of black holes slams together, producing a faint but steady drumbeat of gravitational waves. And thanks to a new technique, astronomers may soon be able to hear that harmony. - 4 days ago, 13 Apr 18, 10:00am -
By blocking the overshadowing light from young stars, astronomers are finally giving protoplanetary disks their time to shine. - 4 days ago, 13 Apr 18, 10:00am -
On a mission to detect planets outside of our solar system, NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) is scheduled to launch no earlier than 6:32 p.m. EDT Monday, April 16. Prelaunch mission coverage will begin on NASA Television and the… - 4 days ago, 13 Apr 18, 10:00am -
Scientists working on NASA's Juno mission to Jupiter shared a 3-D infrared movie depicting densely packed cyclones and anticyclones that permeate the planet's polar regions, and the first detailed view of a dynamo, or engine, powering the magnetic fi… - 5 days ago, 12 Apr 18, 10:00am -
Though the surface of Venus is a hellish landscape, a new study suggests that microbial life may be able to survive in — and change — the venusian atmosphere. - 6 days ago, 11 Apr 18, 10:00am -
Red dwarfs are far and away the most common type of star. These slow and steady burners are thought to account for roughly 75 percent of the stars in the Milky Way, and for the most part, astronomers agree that red dwarfs are prevalent throughout the… - 11 days ago, 6 Apr 18, 10:00am -
The blistering blue star, which existed almost 10 billion years ago, was imaged thanks to a chance alignment that magnified it by a factor of at least 2,000. - 15 days ago, 2 Apr 18, 10:00am -
For the first time, astronomers have identified a dim and diffuse galaxy that seems to contain very little, if any, dark matter. - 18 days ago, 30 Mar 18, 10:00am -
The planets around TRAPPIST-1 are estimated to be between 15 and 50 percent water by mass — Earth is only 0.02 percent. - 20 days ago, 28 Mar 18, 10:00am -
The infrared space telescope that will revolutionize astronomy needs additional time for testing and integration to ensure success. - 21 days ago, 27 Mar 18, 10:00am -
70,000 years ago, a nomadic star came within a light-year of the Sun, likely sending dozens of comets and asteroids tumbling out of the solar system. - 21 days ago, 27 Mar 18, 10:00am -
Before he died, renowned cosmologist Stephen Hawking submitted a paper, with co-author Thomas Hertog, to an as-yet-unknown journal. - 27 days ago, 21 Mar 18, 10:00am -
Once state of the art, this Gilded Age observatory has been left behind by progress. Now astronomers wonder what will happen to this piece of history. - 28 days ago, 20 Mar 18, 10:00am -
For decades, astronomers suspected that Mars might be teeming with organics, which are carbon-based molecules like proteins, carbohydrates, and nucleic acids. However, it wasn’t until 2015 that the Mars Curiosity rover uncovered the first evidence… - 32 days ago, 16 Mar 18, 10:00am -
Our solar system's innermost planet reaches greatest elongation tonight. Here's some background before you step outside to view its best 2018 apparition. - 33 days ago, 15 Mar 18, 10:00am -
StarmusToday, on the 14th of March, 2018, the human race has suffered an immeasurable loss. The loss of a man who was not only one of the greatest scientists of all times and one of the most influential people on the planet, but also a model and… - 34 days ago, 14 Mar 18, 10:00am -
A witty and brilliant cosmologist and mathematician, Hawking became a household icon who advanced our understanding of the cosmos. - 34 days ago, 14 Mar 18, 10:00am -
In a study published March 9 in The Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, astronomers announced the discovery that all disk galaxies rotate about once every billion years, no matter their size or mass. “It’s not Swiss watch precisi… - 35 days ago, 13 Mar 18, 10:00am -
The University of Texas at Austin McDonald Observatory has entered into a partnership with the National Park Service (NPS) to train park rangers in bringing the wonders of the night sky to their visitors. The observatory also will create outreach pr… - 39 days ago, 9 Mar 18, 12:00pm -
Data collected by NASA's Juno mission to Jupiter indicate that the atmospheric winds of the gas-giant planet run deep into its atmosphere and last longer than similar atmospheric processes found here on Earth. The findings will improve understanding… - 40 days ago, 8 Mar 18, 12:00pm -
Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko is a curious comet. Not just because of its peculiar name, but also because of its odd, rubber-ducky shape. The comet — hereafter referred to as Chury — seems to be made up of two cometary nuclei that gently collid… - 41 days ago, 7 Mar 18, 12:00pm -
This image was originally meant to track the movement of sand dunes near the North Pole of Mars, but what's on the ground in between the dunes is just as interesting!The ground has parallel dark and light stripes from upper left to lower right in t… - 41 days ago, 7 Mar 18, 12:00pm -
Using a radio antenna the size of a tabletop, astronomers found evidence suggesting the first stars formed just 180 million years after the Big Bang. - 46 days ago, 2 Mar 18, 12:00pm -
Flagstaff, AZ - Nearly every major Pluto-related discovery has ties to Flagstaff, Arizona, particularly Lowell Observatory. This has led people to call both the city and observatory the “Home of Pluto”. A new book published by The History Press,… - 46 days ago, 2 Mar 18, 12:00pm -
With today’s best models and instruments, astronomers are closing in on the comparatively tiny regions around supermassive black holes. - 47 days ago, 1 Mar 18, 12:00pm -
This Hubble Space Telescope image shows a massive galaxy cluster glowing brightly in the darkness. Despite its beauty, this cluster bears the distinctly unpoetic name of PLCK G308.3-20.2.... - 4 hours ago, 17 Apr 18, 3:41am -
A challenge for the next generation of explorers, an eye-popping virtual tour of the Moon, and introducing the public to a universe of discovery - a few of the stories to tell you about - This Week at NASA.... - 2 days ago, 15 Apr 18, 1:21pm -
Today's research aboard the International Space Station is primarily focusing on how plants react and how medicine works in space.... - 4 days ago, 13 Apr 18, 1:02pm -
The ASTERIA satellite, which was deployed into low-Earth orbit in November, is only slightly larger than a box of cereal, but it could be used to help astrophysicists study planets orbiting other stars.... - 4 days ago, 13 Apr 18, 3:06am -
The Expedition 55 crew explored a wide variety of life science today studying how different biological systems are affected by long-term exposure to microgravity.... - 5 days ago, 12 Apr 18, 12:57pm -
Take a virtual tour of the Moon in all-new 4K resolution, thanks to data provided by NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter spacecraft.... - 5 days ago, 12 Apr 18, 12:05am -
The SPHERE instrument on ESO's Very Large Telescope (VLT) in Chile allows astronomers to suppress the brilliant light of nearby stars in order to obtain a better view of the regions surrounding them.... - 5 days ago, 11 Apr 18, 11:42pm -
Scientists working on NASA's Juno mission to Jupiter shared a 3-D infrared movie depicting densely packed cyclones and anticyclones that permeate the planet's polar regions, and the first detailed view of a dynamo, or engine, powering the magnetic fi… - 5 days ago, 11 Apr 18, 11:31pm -
Legendary explorers and visionaries, real and fictitious, are among those immortalized in the first set of official surface-feature names for Pluto's largest moon, Charon.... - 6 days ago, 11 Apr 18, 8:00pm -
The fully-staffed Expedition 55 crew worked throughout the International Space Station today exploring how microgravity affects a variety of phenomena including biology and physics.... - 6 days ago, 11 Apr 18, 2:59pm -
Scientists have decoded faint distortions in the patterns of the universe's earliest light to map huge tubelike structures invisible to our eyes - known as filaments - that serve as superhighways for delivering matter to dense hubs such as galaxy... - 6 days ago, 11 Apr 18, 4:27am -
Today - Plant Gravity Perception (PGP): The crew began the final Plant Gravity Perception experiment run on Saturday with three of the Experiment Containers maintaining power.... - 6 days ago, 10 Apr 18, 8:54pm -
The HESS international collaboration, to which CNRS and CEA contribute, has published the results of fifteen years of gamma ray observations of the Milky Way.... - 7 days ago, 10 Apr 18, 1:37am -
This is my last post for the Bad Astronomy Blog on Discover Magazine. As of today – Monday, November 12, 2012 – the blog has a new home at Slate magazine. It has been my pleasure and honor to be a Discover blogger for more than four years. Still,… - 12 Nov 12, 5:16pm -
Folks, it’s time. And an appropriate time: for my penultimate post here at Discover Magazine, I’ve decided to show you my tattoo. I’ve been meaning to post this for a while, but there were a lot of behind-the-scenes issues getting permissions I… - 12 Nov 12, 1:00pm -
Speaking of Neil Tyson, if you’re a fan of his you’ll be pleased to know that his show, Star Talk Radio, is now going to be part of the Nerdist Channel network! Thats actually a pretty big deal; Chris Hardwick has created this juggernaut of Nerdi… - 10 Nov 12, 2:00pm -
I love it when kids get excited enough about science to go out and do something about it. That’s why I’m digging Jeffrey Tang – who’s 10 – because he created the Astronomy For Kids podcast, where he talks about different astronomical things… - 9 Nov 12, 7:00pm -
[Today is Carl Sagan’s birthday, celebrated by lovers of science and rationality around the planet. I wrote the following post last year, but I think it’s still appropriate (and I updated his age). Happy birthday, Carl. It’s a darker cosmos wit… - 9 Nov 12, 4:30pm -
Of all the amazing pictures returned from the moon by the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter – and I may include the Apollo landing sites among them – I think my favorites are the ones showing boulders that rolled down slopes. Did I say rolled? I mean… - 9 Nov 12, 2:00pm -
Astronomers are discovering a lot of planets these days. The official count is 800+, with thousands of more candidates (unconfirmed but suspiciously planet-like). Right now we give them alphabet soup names. Alpha Centauri Bb. HR 8799b (through HR8799… - 8 Nov 12, 4:38pm -
Well now, this is an interesting discovery: astronomers have found what looks like a "super-Earth" – a planet more massive than Earth but still smaller than a gas giant – orbiting a nearby star at the right distance to have liquid water on it! Gi… - 8 Nov 12, 1:39pm -
A few people – including my pal Deric Hughes – put together this non-partisan and nicely done video in honor of democracy: If you like it, give it a thumbs-up on YouTube and Like it on FB. And they’re right. As I wrote last night, there is much… - 7 Nov 12, 7:07pm -
