Astronomy, features and articles | Educational Science

May 31, 2016

Mars Rover Panorama Shows Sweeping 'Marathon Valley' (Photo)

An epic Mars panorama shows the snaking valley that NASA's long-lived Opportunity rover has been exploring for the last year — and will likely soon leave behind. The newly released photo — a composite of many images Opportunity captured in April and May — depicts Marathon Valley, a feature that...

Apr 30, 2016

Superflares from the Sun May Have Sparked Life by Warming Earth

Life on Earth may owe its existence to incredibly powerful storms that erupted on the sun long ago, a new study suggests. Potent and frequent solar eruptions could have warmed the planet enough for life to take root, and also provided the vital energy needed to transform simple molecules into...

Mar 31, 2016

Surprise! Gigantic Black Hole Found in Cosmic Backwater

One of the biggest black holes ever found sits in a cosmic backwater, like a towering skyscraper in a small town. Astronomers have spotted a supermassive black hole containing 17 billion times the mass of the sun — only slightly smaller than the heftiest known black hole, which weighs in...

Mar 31, 2016

Giant Green 'Spider' Invades Stellar Nursery in Eerie New Image

An enormous space spider, glowing a strange and radioactive shade of green, stretches its many legs across the cosmos. But breathe easy, arachnophobes; it's just a photo, and a pretty one at that. The image, which NASA released Thursday (April 14), shows the Spider Nebula, a giant cloud of gas...

Feb 29, 2016

Mon-Stars! Cluster of Massive Suns Spotted by Hubble Telescope (Photo)

Some of the biggest and brightest stars in the universe are packed within a single cluster, a new study reveals. Researchers used the Hubble Space Telescope to image the young star cluster R136 in ultraviolet (UV) light for the first time. The cluster is located in the Tarantula Nebula of...

Dec 31, 2015

I Spy: Satellites Capture ABCs from Space (Photos)

Sometimes, looking at satellite images of planet Earth is a bit like playing hidden pictures. A few years ago, NASA science writer Adam Voiland noticed that a satellite image of smoke plumes over Canada looked like the letter V. Eager to play a worldwide game of hidden pictures, he began...

Dec 31, 2015

Visible Light from a Black Hole Spotted by Telescope, a First

For the first time, astronomers have seen dim flickers of visible light from near a black hole, researchers with an international science team said. In fact, the light could be visible to anyone with a moderate-size telescope. These dramatically variable fluctuations of light are yielding insights onto the complex ways...

Nov 30, 2017

Man's Unusual Sunburn Lets Him Make A Dent in His Forehead

See more A man in Texas got a reminder about the importance of sunscreen: He developed a sunburn so severe that the swelling allowed him to make a dent in his forehead. On Monday (Dec. 4), Cade Huckabay posted a series of photos to Twitter showing the sunburn that developed...

Nov 30, 2017

Moon's Supersonic Shadow Created Waves During the Solar Eclipse

When the moon's shadow zipped across the United States during the Great American Solar Eclipse this past August, the shadow traveled so fast it created waves in Earth's upper atmosphere, a new study finds. During a solar eclipse, the moon passes between the sun and Earth, casting its shadow in...

Oct 31, 2017

Stellar Zombie: Scientists Discover a Star That Won't Die

The appearance of a years-long supernova explosion challenges scientist's current understanding of star formation and death, and work is underway to explain the bizarre phenomenon. Stars more than eight times the mass of the sun end their lives in fantastic explosions called supernovas. These are among the most energetic phenomena...

Sep 30, 2017

The Next Giant Leap: US Will Return to the Moon, Pence Says

The Trump administration is committed to sending astronauts to the moon as part of a broader push to prioritize human spaceflight and firm up U.S. dominance in the final frontier, Vice President Mike Pence said. We will return American astronauts to the moon, not only to leave behind footprints and...

Sep 30, 2017

Antimatter Angst: The Universe Shouldn't Exist

The universe shouldn't exist, according to new ultra-precise measurements of anti-protons. But the fact that I'm typing this article and you're reading it, however, suggests that we are here, so something must be awry with our understanding of the physics the universe is governed by. The universe is the embodiment...

Sep 30, 2017

A Nearby Neutron Star Collision Could Cause Calamity on Earth

A long time ago in a galaxy far away—NGC 4993, to be exact—two neutron stars collided and created a spectacular light show. After billions of years spent slowly circling each other, in their last moments the two degenerate stars spiraled around each other thousands of times before finally smashing together...

Jul 31, 2017

Eclipse Overload: What If the Sun Were Blocked for Years?

Total solar eclipses are astonishing events to witness, and preparations for them — particularly for eclipses with paths that are visible to large numbers of people, such as the Aug. 21 eclipse — can generate widespread eclipse fever that lasts for months. However, the eclipse itself speeds by all too...

Jul 31, 2017

Here's How to Watch the Great American Solar Eclipse Live

If you're not one of the 12 million people who live within the approximately 70-mile-wide (113 kilometers) path of totality, or one of the 1.85 million to 7.4 million people expected to travel to that path, there are still ways to watch the eclipse live. [Total Solar Eclipse 2017: Everything...