Space

Comet NEOWISE comes by only once every 6,800 years. But it will be visible to anyone with binoculars or even to the naked eye. Here's how to spot this rare event.

By Nathan Chandler

Watching meteor showers can be a spectacular sight. We talked to some astronomy experts on how to improve your meteor-viewing experience.

By Nathan Chandler

Astronomers used Hubble's full range of imaging to dissect wild 'fireworks' happening in two nearby young planetary nebulas.

By Carrie Whitney, Ph.D.

In 1953, CalTech geochemist Clair Patterson came up with an estimate for Earth's age that still holds today.

By Patrick J. Kiger

Uranus is the seventh planet from the sun and sits on an axial plane tilted at a jaw-dropping 97.7-degree angle. And yes, Uranus does actually stink.

By Mark Mancini

For the first time since 2011, NASA will launch astronauts into space from U.S. soil. It will also be the first time ever a private company will get them there.

By Mark Mancini

A new kind of survival story: Scientists discovered a star that came near a black hole and lived to tell the tale – at least temporarily.

By Nathan Chandler

The moon has seen a lot in its 4.5 million years of life, and a detailed new geologic map serves as testament.

By Jesslyn Shields

Every April, the Lyrid meteor shower fills the sky with shooting stars. Here's how to see them in 2021.

By Mark Mancini

Lettuce has key nutrients that give both astronauts and Earth-dwellers alike a physical and psychological boost. And the lettuce grown in space is no less nutritious than the Earth-bound variety.

By Katie Carman

NASA's historic Beach House on Cape Canaveral is the last place many astronauts visit before they blast off into space. Today it's full of mission memories and NASA artifacts.

By Mark Mancini

Nobody's nose knows better than NASA's George Aldrich. He's the longest-serving member of the space agency's odor panel, which basically sniffs and smells everything that goes up into space.

By John Donovan

Saturn is the sixth planet from the sun and the second largest planet in the solar system. It has an amazing ring system and 82 moons! And did we mention that it's an oblong world that appears squished looking?

By Mark Mancini

In the early days of the space race, several animals went into orbit, including dogs, chimps and one intrepid cat. Who was this forgotten feline from the French space program?

By Nathan Chandler

NASA and the European Space Agency's new Solar Orbiter will travel as close as 26 million miles to the sun to get the first glimpses of its north and south poles.

By Mark Mancini

Neptune is the eighth planet from the sun, and one of the coldest. It also has supersonic winds that are the fastest in the solar system.

By Mark Mancini

The Geminid meteor shower is one of the year's stronger displays in terms of number and size of meteors. When's the best time to see it?

By Christopher Hassiotis

In 1984, President Ronald Reagan had a vision for a permanently inhabited space station. Today that vision is a reality we know as the International Space Station.

By Craig Freudenrich, Ph.D. & Mark Mancini

Polaris, also known as the North Star, is almost exactly over the celestial North Pole, making it extremely useful for navigation (and for making wishes on, as well).

By Patrick J. Kiger

The atmospheric pressure is crushingly extreme on Venus, and lead would melt into a puddle on its surface. But as hellish as this place sounds, it actually has a lot in common with Earth.

By Mark Mancini

A Russian cosmonaut printed some steak in space, and now we're one step closer to sending humans to Mars.

By Jesslyn Shields

Jupiter is the largest planet in the solar system. Big as it is though, next to the sun, Jupiter looks puny.

By Mark Mancini

As the search for Planet Nine wears on, and astronomers have yet to get so much as a glimpse of it, researchers are pondering what else the object might be.

By Ian O'Neill, Ph.D.

The galaxy has sent another tumbling chunk of frozen interstellar material our way.

By Ian O'Neill, Ph.D.

You know Apollo 11. But what did the other Apollo missions accomplish after Neil Armstrong made his giant leap for mankind?

By Mark Mancini