HowStuffWorks Newsletter
Explore the vast reaches of space and mankind’s continuing efforts to conquer the stars, including theories such as the Big Bang, the International Space Station, plus what the future holds for space travel and exploration.
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The August 2022 full moon is known as the sturgeon moon and it's extra-special this year as it's also a supermoon.
Nope, the "dog days" have nothing to do with your pooch lying around panting, but everything to do with the dog star, Sirius.
And this month's buck moon is extra-special because it is a supermoon!
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The first image released by President Joe Biden shows a galaxy cluster as it appeared 4.6 billion years ago. But the telescope will look back billions more, even as far as the Big Bang.
By Sarah Gleim
Do you love looking at beautiful pictures of the night sky? How do space photographers get those shots? And could you join their ranks?
Surprisingly, the solar system isn't odorless — it has a distinct scent that some astronauts like and others think is stinky. So, what does it smell like and why?
The Tau Herculids meteor shower was made of debris from the broken comet SW3 and produced a lot of shooting stars, but not quite the meteor shower that was hoped for.
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University of Florida scientists used lunar soil collected during Apollo 11, 12 and 17 missions to successfully grow plants from seed. It's a first in human history and could help future space colonists grow food on the moon.
Sonification is the process of taking data and turning it into sound. When it come to the universe we live in, scientists are finding that the sounds are definitely otherwordly and very beautiful.
Aldebaran is not just the brightest star in the constellation Taurus, it's also the 14th brightest star in the sky.
If you imagine the eight major planets in a single line stretching out from the sun, this alignment occurs roughly every 13.4 trillion years. And our solar system is 4.5 billion years old.
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The oldest megamaser ever measured, estimated to have been emitted some 5 to 6 billion years ago, was observed in 2022 from a radio telescope in South Africa.
Many people dream of climbing Mount Everest, but what if it were possible to scale the highest mountain in the solar system? That mountain is more than twice as tall as Everest! So, where is it?
An unplanned rocket booster crash into the surface of the moon will hopefully shed some light on the mysterious physics of planetary impacts.
By Paul Hayne
Starship is a reusable spacecraft and second-stage rocket built by SpaceX. The end goal of the massive spaceship is to send humans to the moon and eventually to Mars.
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Not sure what you're seeing in the night sky? Astronomy software such as Stellarium makes stargazing easier by helping to explain what you're seeing when you look at the stars.
Astronomers at Haleakalā Observatory in Hawaii noted a bright X-ray emission in 2018, which persisted for three weeks and glowed ten times more brightly than previously studied supernovas, but are just now beginning to understand it.
The gegenschein, "faint light" in German, occurs under very specific astronomical conditions when the sun reaches the exact opposite of Earth from wherever you're stargazing.
NASA's DART mission will test a technology that someday could protect the Earth from a killer asteroid.
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Soon, one out of every 15 points of light in the night sky will actually be a satellite, not a star.
Camden County in South Georgia was once considered as a backup site for launching the Apollo missions. Now this quiet county could be the next big launching site to space.
By John Donovan
Is it possible that we are not alone in the universe, but are just like animals in a zoo to the aliens who are watching us?
By Robert Lamb
Using the Chandra X-ray Observatory, a team of scientists discovered what could very well be the first exoplanet outside the Milky Way. It's massive and might even orbit a black hole.
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If our living space is to become outer space, we have a lot of challenges to address. And our first line of defense will be space architects.
By John Donovan
Two mission scientists working with the Perseverance rover and Ingenuity helicopter give us the breakdown of the historic achievements the two Martian ships have made in the months on the Red Planet.