Jason Major
Super Bright Fireball Spotted Across U.S. Northeast
It came from outer space—literally! On Tuesday, May 17, 2016, the early morning sky briefly lit up with the brilliant…
Enceladus’ Jets Selectively Power-Up Farther From Saturn
A crowning achievement of the Cassini mission to Saturn is the discovery of water vapor jets spraying out from Enceladus' southern pole.…
Three New Earth-sized Planets Found Just 40 Light-Years Away
Three more potentially Earthlike worlds have been discovered in our galactic backyard, announced online today by the European Southern Observatory. Researchers using the…
Icy Hot: Europa’s Frozen Crust Could Be Warmer Than We Thought
All the worlds may be ours except Europa but that only makes the ice-covered moon of Jupiter all the more intriguing. Beneath…
Nearby Supernovas Showered Earth With Iron
We all know that we are "made of star-stuff," with all of the elements necessary for the formation of planets and even…
Did the Sun Steal Planet Nine?
One of the biggest new mysteries in our Solar System is the purported presence of a large and distant "Planet Nine,"…
The Bright Spots on Ceres are Blinking
All right, maybe not blinking like a flashlight (or a beacon on the tippity-top of a communication tower—don't even start that…
DSCOVR Captures EPIC Views of the March 2016 Eclipse
On March 8, 2016 (March 9 local time) the Moon briefly blocked the light from the Sun in what was…
Dark Stains on Mercury Reveal Its Ancient Crust
Ever since the MESSENGER spacecraft entered orbit around Mercury in 2011, and indeed even since Mariner 10's flyby in 1974, peculiar…
If You’re Going to Fall Into a Black Hole, Make Sure It’s Rotating
It's no secret that black holes are objects to be avoided, were you to plot yourself a trip across the…