Space, features and articles | Educational Science

Apr 30, 2011

Galactic 'Fountain of Youth' Flows in Hubble Photo

A new photo from the Hubble Space Telescope has revealed what scientists have called a veritable galactic fountain of youth, one that would turn the fictional pirate captain Jack Sparrow of the Pirates of the Caribbean films green with envy. Journeying to the mythic Fountain of Youth is Sparrow's goal...

Apr 30, 2011

New 3-D Map of Universe Is Best One Yet

This story was updated at 11:29 am ET. BOSTON — Astronomers have created the most complete 3-D map of our local universe, revealing new details about our place in the cosmos. The map shows all visible structures out to about 380 million light-years, which includes about 45,000 of our neighboring...

Mar 31, 2011

New Image Is Worth 1,235 Potential Alien Planets

A photo may be worth 1,000 words, but a new depiction of NASA's Kepler mission is worth 1,235 potential alien planets. Created by a devoted mission scientist, the image takes stock of the Kepler observatory's prolific planet-hunting results so far. The illustration shows all of Kepler's candidate planets — which...

Mar 31, 2011

NASA Photos Bring Millions of Galaxies and Asteroids Down to Earth

NASA has unveiled a flood of photos showing millions galaxies, stars and asteroids photographed by a prolific sky-mapping telescope that ended its mission earlier this year. For the first time, the space agency publicly released more than half of the 2.7 million images taken by its Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer...

Mar 31, 2011

Earth From Space: An Astronaut's Quest to Protect Our 'Fragile Oasis'

From 220 miles above Earth on the International Space Station, American astronaut Ron Garan certainly has a unique perspective of our home planet. As people around the world celebrate Earth Day tomorrow (April 22), Garan and his five crewmates on the space station will be privy to spectacular and awe-inspiring...

Feb 28, 2011

Dusty Spiral Galaxy Is Closer Than Once Thought

The star-forming regions of a nearby spiral galaxy glow bright pink in a spectacular new image from a telescope atop a Chilean peak. And the galaxy's actually slightly closer than astronomers once thought, researchers say. The glowing pink clouds seen in the image of the spiral galaxy NGC 247 are...

Feb 28, 2011

Of Mice and Boiling Bubbles: Weird Science Rides Space Shuttle

NASA's space shuttle Discovery left the International Space Station today (March 7), after delivering not just supplies and equipment, but dozens of scientific experiments. The space science projects run the gamut of topics, from biomedical studies to materials science experiments. Some of them were carried out during the flight –...

Feb 28, 2011

'Supermoon' Lunacy: Does the Moon Make Us Crazy?

With the so-called supermoon upon us, as our only natural satellite makes its largest appearance Saturday (March 19) in more than 18 years, should we expect any lunacy? For centuries legend has held that full moons make people go crazy. Full moons have been linked in popular culture with a...

Feb 28, 2011

Balloons Flying Over Antarctica May Help Solve Radiation Mystery

The planet is surrounded by two gigantic, fluctuating donut-shaped zones made of protons and electrons known as the Van Allen radiation belts. The charged particles in these zones can damage sensitive electronics on spacecraft such as those used for global positioning systems (GPS) and communications and can injure humans in...

Jan 31, 2011

R.I.P. Possibly Habitable Planet Gliese 581g? Not So Fast, Co-Discoverer Says

Even as some astronomers start shoveling dirt on the much-heralded first potentially habitable alien world – a planet called Gliese 581g – its co-discoverer is vigorously defending the find. Since a team of astronomers — led by Steven Vogt and Paul Butler— announced the discovery of Gliese 581g last fall,...

Nov 30, 2012

Private Company Aims for Manned Moon Missions by 2020

A new private venture aims to sell manned trips to the moon by 2020, its founders announced today (Dec. 6). The company, called Golden Spike (after the final spike built into the First Transcontinental Railroad), plans to sell each moon mission for about $1.5 billion — a relative bargain, said...

Nov 30, 2012

Newfound Asteroid Buzzes Earth Inside Moon's Orbit

A newfound asteroid gave Earth a close shave early today, zipping between our planet and the moon just two days after astronomers first spotted it. The near-Earth asteroid 2012 XE54, which was discovered Sunday (Dec. 9), came within 140,000 miles (230,000 kilometers) of our planet at about 5 a.m. EST...

Nov 30, 2012

Videos Capture Amazing Geminid Meteor Shower

Last week, skywatchers all over the world were treated to one of the best Geminid meteor showers in recent memory. Because this year's shower peaked during a new moon, leaving the sky as dark as possible, it brought some viewers in rural areas between 50 and 100 meteors per hour....

Nov 30, 2012

Planck Spots Hot Gas Bridging Galaxy Cluster Pair

Planck has discovered a bridge of hot gas that connects galaxy clusters Abell 399 (lower centre) and Abell 401 (top left). The galaxy pair is located about a billion light-years from Earth, and the gas bridge extends approximately 10 million light-years between them.The image shows the two galaxy clusters as...

Oct 31, 2012

Obscured by Rings

Saturn's rings obscure part of Titan's colorful visage in this image from NASA's Cassini spacecraft. The image was obtained with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on May 16, 2012, at a distance of approximately 1.9 million miles (3 million kilometers) from Titan.Parts of the rings appear dark near the center...