Was This Ridge Habitable? Mars Curiosity Eyes Nearby Mountain
So Curiosity has been on Mars for an Earth year and is now, slowly, making its way over to that…
On the Road to One Thousand Exoplanets
A quiet milestone in modern astronomy may soon come to pass. As of today, The Extrasolar Planets Encyclopedia lists a…
One Year Later, New POV Video of Baumgartner’s Freefall
A year ago, BASE jumper Felix Baumgartner dove out of a balloon-borne capsule in the stratosphere (not space), 39 kilometers…
Wet Asteroid’s Remains Found In Old Star That Could Have Hosted Habitable Planets
Remains of a water-filled asteroid are circling a dying white dwarf star, right now, about 150 light-years from us. The…
Astronomy Cast Episode 317: Observatories
Have you ever wondered what it's like to visit one of the big research observatories, like Keck, Gemini, or the…
Possible Huge Meteorite Fragment Recovered From Russian Fireball
A half-ton meteorite -- presumably from the Russian fireball that broke up over Chelyabinsk in February -- was dragged up…
How the Moon Would Look if it Were at the Same Distance as the Space Station
This is completely impossible, but fun just the same. How would the Moon look from Earth if it orbited at…
Masked Starbirth Mapped In New Milky Way Survey
Stars are born in private. Hidden in dust and gas clouds, these bright beacons in the universe slowly coalesce. All…
Novel Strategy May Help Target Extraterrestrial Intelligent Life
Discovering life beyond Earth might just be the holy grail of science. And even though we have yet to find…
To The Moon! Crowdfunded Solar Sail Shoots For Lunar Launch
It's a tiny satellite with ambitious goals: to zip all the way from the Earth to the Moon using a…