One Astronaut’s Kids Get a Valentine’s Day View of Dad’s Office in Orbit
It's a wonderful thing for children to look up to their fathers, but some kids have to look a little…
New Horizons’ Pluto Stamp is One Step Closer to Becoming a Reality
A little over a year ago Alan Stern, principal investigator on the New Horizons mission, announced the team's plans to…
Why Dying Stars Might be a Good Place to Look for Life
We’ve currently found 867 different exoplanets, but have yet to definitely determine if one of those harbors life. How will…
Astronomers Calculate Orbit and Origins of Russian Fireball
Just a week after a huge fireball streaked across the skies of the Chelyabinsk region of Russia, astronomers published a…
Light-travel-time Effect Finds New Astronomical Applications
Sometimes the tried and true methods are still the best, even in observational astronomy. Researchers at the University of Prague…
Pluto May Soon Have a Moon Named Vulcan (Thanks to William Shatner)
The votes have been tallied and the results are in from the SETI Institute's Pluto Rocks Poll: "Vulcan" and "Cerberus"…
The Mars Spacecraft That Was Almost Destroyed On The Launchpad
On this day (Feb. 25) in 1969, Mariner 6 was hefted off of Earth on a path to Mars. What's…
Fire! How the Mir Incident Changed Space Station Safety
Sixteen years ago, a fire on the Russian space station Mir erupted after a cosmonaut routinely ignited a perchlorate canister…
Indian Rocket Launches Swarm of International Mini Satellites
A Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) successfully launched from India today, sending seven different international satellites into orbit. Launch was…
Russian Fireball Inspires Journey into the World of Meteorites
A little more than week ago a 7,000 ton, 50-foot (15-meter) wide meteoroid made an unexpected visit over Russia to…