Astronomy, features and articles | Educational Science

Jul 31, 2017

Will Your Solar Eclipse Glasses Still Be Safe to Use in 2024?

The 2017 total solar eclipse has come and gone, but another one is less than a decade away for North America. And if you purchased paper eclipse glasses, you may be wondering if you can reuse them again for the next total solar eclipse in seven years. On April 8,...

Jun 30, 2017

Final New Moon Sunday Starts the Countdown to the Great American Eclipse

It seems that everyone is eagerly awaiting the shady drama that will be enacted in the skies over North America on Aug. 21. It is a play whose script was written eons ago: On that third Monday in August, the celestial wanderings of the sun, Earth and moon will cause...

May 31, 2017

The Missing Link: Where Are Medium-Size Black Holes?

For decades, while astronomers have detected black holes equal in mass either to a few suns or millions of suns, the missing-link black holes in between have eluded discovery. Now, a new study suggests such intermediate-mass black holes may not exist in the modern-day universe because of the rate at...

Apr 30, 2017

Mysterious Light Flashes 1st Spotted by Carl Sagan Explained

The pale blue dot has been twinkling like a brilliant diamond in satellite images, and scientists may have finally solved the mystery of why. Mysterious flashes of light from Earth were captured by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Deep Space Climate Observatory, or DSCOVR, an Earth and space weather...

Feb 28, 2017

Mars Colonists Might Need to Radically Alter Their Bodies and Minds

In 2016, two astronauts finished nearly a year of work on the International Space Station. NASA's Scott Kelly and Russia's Mikhail Kornienko were studied closely for changes in their physical and psychological health. NASA touts the mission as part of its Journey to Mars, in which it hopes to send...

Jan 31, 2017

TRAPPIST-1: How Long Would It Take to Fly to 7-Planet System?

The discovery of seven Earth-size planets around a nearby star, TRAPPIST-1, is certainly exciting news. But what would it take to visit one of these potentially Earth-like alien worlds? TRAPPIST-1 is 39 light-years away from Earth, or about 229 trillion miles (369 trillion kilometers). It would take 39 years to...

Jan 31, 2017

Could a Spacecraft Fly to the Sun?

Humans have sent spacecraft to the moon, Mars and even distant interstellar space, but could we send a spaceship to the scorching sun? The answer is yes, and it's happening soon. In 2018, NASA plans to launch the Solar Probe Plus mission to the sun. Earth is about 93 million...

Nov 30, 2018

Soar Over NASA's InSight Landing Site on Mars in This Stunning Video

The flyover video above, and available here on YouTube, shows the area in and around Elysium Planitia, the equatorial plain on which InSight touched down on Monday (Nov. 26). At the beginning, the supra-regional topography of the landing site is shown from various perspectives within a radius of a few...

Nov 30, 2018

NASA's Stunning Photo of the Moon Will Make You Swoon

The moon is pretty enough here from Earth, but it's even more stunning up close, as this new photograph from NASA reminds us. The image was captured on Nov. 3 by NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, which has been circling the moon since 2009. While the crater itself is not quite...

Nov 30, 2018

Hello, Bennu! NASA Asteroid-Sampling Probe Reaches Its Target Space Rock

NASA's OSIRIS-REx spacecraft sidled up to the diamond-shaped asteroid Bennu today (Dec. 3) at about 12 p.m. EST (1700 GMT), wrapping up a circuitous cosmic chase that lasted 27 months. Achievement unlocked: 'We have arrived!' NASA officials said via Twitter today. [OSIRIS-REx: NASA's Asteroid Sample-Return Mission in Pictures] NASA’s OSIRIS-REx...

Nov 30, 2018

Tiny 'Blueberries' on Mars Continue to Baffle Scientists

It was just a few months after NASA's Opportunity rover touched down on Mars in 2004 that it spotted a geological curiosity: tiny, iron-rich spheres scattered across the rock surface near the robot's landing site. Snack-loving scientists working with the mission dubbed these objects blueberries, but the features were easier...

Nov 30, 2018

Could Life on Mars Be Lurking Deep Underground?

WASHINGTON — To find life on Mars, scientists may need to give up surface exploration and go deep. Typically, Mars missions searching for signs of life target the planet's surface, at sites where there are signs of ancient water (a reliable indicator of where life is found on Earth). But...

Nov 30, 2018

Christmas 'Hippo' Asteroid Is Buzzing Earth, Its Closest Flyby in 400 Years

If only a hippopotamus will do this Christmas, Santa has the space rock for you. A small asteroid will fly safely by Earth Saturday (Dec. 22) and according to the folks at NASA, it looks just like the mighty hippo in new radar images. The asteroid, called 2003 SD220, is...

Oct 31, 2018

How to Watch a Near-Earth Asteroid Zoom Closer to Earth than the Moon

Three chunky asteroids will zoom by Earth this weekend, and one of them is getting closer to our planet than the moon itself. On Saturday (Nov. 10), the near-Earth asteroid 2018 VX1 will zip within about 236,100 miles (380,000 kilometers) of Earth. That's closer than the moon, which hangs out...

Oct 31, 2018

Voyager 2 Creeps Closer to the Edge of the Solar System

Going, going — nope, it's still just going, NASA says of its Voyager 2 probe, which the agency realized was approaching the edge of the solar system back in early October. In a statement released yesterday (Nov. 14), NASA shared additional data from the probe that gives engineers a sense...