Astronomy, features and articles | Educational Science

Oct 31, 2018

Ugh, When These Stars Die They're Probably Gonna Get Sand Everywhere

Until now, scientists didn't know for sure where most of the stuff around us came from. Now, they do. Silica, or silicon dioxide (SiO2), is just about the most abundant thing here on the outer shell of Earth. It makes up most of the planet's crust by mass — about...

Oct 31, 2018

Journey to the Center of the Red Planet: NASA's InSight Lander to Reveal the Secrets Inside Mars

NASA's Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport (InSight) mission aims to change that. InSight will touch down Monday (Nov. 26) around 3 p.m. EST (2000 GMT), in a 6 minutes of terror touchdown that you can follow live here at Space.com. Shortly thereafter, the lander will begin...

Sep 30, 2018

Astronomers Find Another Clue That Planet X Is Lurking Out There

That clue is 2015 TG387, a newfound object in the far outer solar system, way beyond Pluto. The orbit of 2015 TG387 shares peculiarities with those of other extremely far-flung bodies, which appear to have been shaped by the gravity of a very large object in that distant, frigid realm...

Sep 30, 2018

Moonmoons (Moons That Orbit Other Moons) Could Exist, Scientists Say

True to form, the internet has endeavored to name an unnamed thing, and the results are hilarious. From the people who brought you Boaty McBoatface— the Arctic research drone that has already returned some very interesting discoveriesfrom the world's coldest abysses — here come moonmoons: moons that orbit other moons....

Aug 31, 2018

Mysterious Swirls on the Moon Finally Explained

Light and dark markings swirl over the moon, looking like cream swirled into coffee or clouds against a slate gray sky. These lunar swirls may result from ancient, magnetic lava just below the moon's surface, according to one new study. A joint study between researchers at Rutgers University and the...

Aug 31, 2018

The BFR in Images: SpaceX's Giant Spaceship for Mars Colony & Beyond

BFR in 2018 (Image credit: Elon Musk/SpaceX)SpaceX CEO Elon Musk unveiled this new rendering of the company's Big Falcon Rocket spacecraft ahead of the announcement Sept. 17, 2018 of the first passenger to fly a trip around the moon. The design shows many changes from the 2017 version seen in...

Aug 31, 2018

Weird Infrared Signal Emanates Across Space, But What Created It?

Space is filled with bizarre signals that we scramble to put meaning to — and now, researchers have detected yet another mysterious signal. This one emanated from near a neutron star, and for the first time, it's infrared. So, what's nearby that could have created the weird signal? Scientists have...

Aug 31, 2018

They Made It! Japan's Two Hopping Rovers Successfully Land on Asteroid Ryugu

The suspense is over: Two tiny hopping robots have successfully landed on an asteroid called Ryugu — and they've even sent back some wild postcards from their new home. The tiny rovers are part of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's Hayabusa2 asteroid sample-return mission. Engineers with the agency deployed the...

Jul 31, 2018

NASA's Solar Probe Blasts Off to the Sun

It was very emotional, Fox told Space.com. I was speechless and I’m not normally speechless. The United Launch Alliance Delta IV rocket carrying NASA's Parker Solar Probe launches from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida on Aug. 12, 2018. It is the first mission ever to attempt to touch the...

Jul 31, 2018

'Foreign Object' on Mars Spotted by Curiosity Rover Is Just a Rock

Don't worry: NASA's Mars rover Curiosity isn't falling apart. On Monday (Aug. 13), Curiosity photographed an odd, flat object that mission team members initially thought might have fallen off the car-size robot. Indeed, they dubbed the weirdly shaped target the Pettegrove Point Foreign Object Debris, or PPFOD in NASA-speak. (Pettegrove...

Jul 31, 2018

Why Does the Earth Rotate?

This story was updated at 9:40 a.m. E.D.T. on Monday, Sept. 10. Every day, the Earth spins once around its axis, making sunrises and sunsets a daily feature of life on the planet. It has done so since it formed 4.6 billion years ago, and it will continue to do...

Jun 30, 2018

New Telescope Will Hunt for Asteroids on Collision Course with Earth

Around sunrise on Feb. 15, 2013, an extremely bright and otherworldly object was seen streaking through the skies over Russia before it exploded about 97,000 feet above the Earth's surface. The resulting blast damaged thousands of buildings and injured almost 1,500 people in Chelyabinsk and the surrounding areas. While this...

Jun 30, 2018

The Edge of Space Just Crept 12 Miles Closer to Earth

Did you feel that? Does it suddenly feel a little bit stuffier in here to you? Does it feel like, I don't know… outer space just got 12 miles (20 kilometers) closer? Nothing actually moved, of course (unless you count the constant and increasing expansion of the universe). But according...

Jun 30, 2018

Longest Lunar Eclipse of the Century Dazzles Skywatchers

The 21st century's longest total lunar eclipse entranced skywatchers around the globe on Friday (July 27). With totality lasting for an incredible 1 hour and 43 minutes, this eclipse clocked in only 4minutes shorter than the longest possible such event calculated by astronomers. The duration let viewers from around the...

Jun 30, 2018

Weird Volcanoes Are Erupting Across the Solar System

NASA's Juno spacecraft recently spotted a possible new volcano at the south pole of Jupiter's most lava-licious moon, Io. But this volcanically active moon is not alone in the solar system, where sizzling-hot rocks explode and ooze onto the surface of several worlds. So how do Earthly volcanoes differ from...