Astronomy, features and articles | Educational Science

Aug 31, 2012

Blue Moon Wows Observers Around the World (Photos)

Skywatchers all over the world jumped at the chance to view and photograph Friday's (Aug. 31) full moon, the last so-called blue moon until July 2015. Friday's full moon was the second one to rise during the month of August, following the full moon of Aug. 1. This qualifies it...

Aug 31, 2012

The Night Sky in Transition: From Summer to Fall

The night sky's autumn constellations follow the summer stars so closely they can be seen well before the air gets chilly. As we move into the final days before the official arrival of autumn here in the Northern Hemisphere on Sept. 22, skywatchers can now see a sky in transition....

Aug 31, 2012

Ancestors of the Sun

(ISNS) -- Astronomers love to say that we are all made of elements forged in the bellies of giant stars and exploded into vast clouds of stellar debris. But they rarely tell us the details of the solar system's stellar genealogy. Now a pair of researchers has combined measurements of...

Aug 31, 2012

Far Out! Meteorites From Mars & Moon Going Up For Sale

If you've ever yearned to own something from out of this world, here's your chance. On Oct. 14 in Manhattan, fragments of Mars, the moon and asteroids that have fallen to Earth go up for sale, in what auction house Heritage Auctions is billing as the largest public meteorite auction...

Aug 31, 2012

Earth-Sun Distance Measurement Redefined

One of the stalwart units of astronomy just got a makeover. The International Astronomical Union, the authority on astronomical constants, has voted unanimously to redefine the astronomical unit, the conventional unit of length based on the distance between the Earth and the sun. The new definition is much simpler than...

Aug 31, 2012

Mouth of Giant Black Hole Measured for First Time

For the first time, scientists have peered to the edge of a colossal black hole and measured the point of no return for matter. A black hole has a boundary called an event horizon. Anything that falls within a black hole's event horizon — be it stars, gas, or even...

Jul 31, 2012

Full Moon Tonight Sets Stage for 'Blue Moon' on Aug. 31

The first of August's two full moons occurs tonight (Aug. 1), offering a lunar preview for a so-called blue moon rising at the end of the month. The moon will reach its full phase at 11:27 p.m. EDT tonight (0327 GMT on Aug. 2), then come back big and bright...

Jul 31, 2012

Martian Curiosity: How Do You Drive a $2.5 Billion Mars Rover?

Taking a 1-ton Mars rover out for a Red Planet spin may be an otherworldly adventure, but it isn't full of heart-pumping action like a video game. NASA's Mars rover Curiosity is set to make its first test drive Wednesday (Aug. 22), then head out toward a spot called Glenelg...

Jul 31, 2012

Neil Armstrong, First Man to Walk on Moon, Dies at 82

Astronaut and American icon Neil Armstrong, the first person ever to set foot on the moon, has died at the age of 82. Armstrong, who stepped onto the lunar surface on July 20, 1969 as commander of NASA's Apollo 11 mission, died Saturday (Aug. 25). The news was first reported...

Jun 30, 2012

Why Sunburn Hurts

It's no secret that too much time in the sun causes pain, redness and a strong desire for aloe vera lotion. Now, researchers know why. The ultraviolet B (UVB) wavelength of light damages skin cells' RNA molecules, new research finds. RNA, or ribonucleic acid, is part of the genetic machinery...

May 31, 2012

Scientists to Hold Bake Sale for NASA Saturday

Scientists are trading telescopes for aprons this week to sell Milky Way cupcakes, Saturn cake, and chocolate chip Opportunity cookies in an effort to salvage U.S. planetary science projects. The 2013 budget proposal submitted by the Obama administration earlier this year would cut funding for NASA's planetary science projects by...

Apr 30, 2012

Spectacular 'Supermoon' Wows Skywatchers Around the World

The biggest full moon of the year, a so-called supermoon, rose into the night sky Saturday to the delight of skywatchers around the world, who captured the lunar sight in dazzling amateur astronomy photos. Because of a fluke of orbital timing, the full moon of May peaked late Saturday just...

Apr 30, 2012

Sand Dunes on Mars Are Surprisingly Speedy

Towering sand dunes on Mars, once thought to be ancient and unchanging, are actually dynamic and active today, new satellite observations show. Using advanced optical images taken by the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, scientists tracked the horizontal and vertical motion of sand over...

Apr 30, 2012

Sun-Watching Space Telescope Bounces Back From Glitch

A spacecraft designed to stare at the sun is back up and running after a technical glitch temporarily sidelined the observatory for just over a week. The Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO), a joint mission by NASA and the European Space Agency, suffered a glitch last week that put the...

Apr 30, 2012

New Galaxy-Packed Region of Space Discovered

A giant, galaxy-packed filament ablaze with billions of new stars was floating along out in space, just waiting to be seen. Waiting, that is, until astronomers at the Herschel Space Observatory spied it recently. We are excited about this filament, because we think the intense star formation we see in...