In a major step towards flight, engineers at NASA's Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans have finished welding together the pressure vessel for the first Lunar Orion crew module that will blastoff in 2018 atop the agency's Space Launch System (SLS) rocket.
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The astronomer known worldwide for vigorously promoting the demotion of Pluto from its decades long perch as the 9th Planet, has now found theoretical evidence for a new and very distant gas giant planet lurking way beyond Pluto out to the far reaches of our solar system.
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We are all familiar with how long a day is here on Earth. But how long is a day on the other planets of our Solar System?
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Reader images of the January 19th, 2016 occultation of the bright star Aldebaran by the waxing gibbous Moon. the event was visible across North America, the northern Atlantic, and Western Europe. Readers responded with Vines, pics, videos and more!
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The first Zinnia flower to bloom in space is dramatically catching the sun's rays like we have never seen before - through the windows of the Cupola on the International Space Station (ISS) while simultaneously providing a splash of soothing color, nature and reminders of home to the multinational crew living and working on the orbital science laboratory.
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The Plum Pudding Model, which was devised by J.J. Thompson by the end of the 19th century, was a crucial step in the development of atomic physics
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SpaceX came much closer to sticking the landing of their Falcon 9 rocket on a tiny droneship at sea than initially thought, as evidenced by a dramatic video of the latest attempt to recover the booster by making a soft ocean touchdown on Sunday, Jan. 17, after successfully propelling a US-European ocean surveillance satellite to low Earth orbit.
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Don't miss a fine occultation of the bright star Aldebaran by the waxing gibbous Moon on the evening of Tuesday, January 19th, visible across North America and the UK/western Europe.
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A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket successfully launched the NASA/NOAA/European Jason-3 sea level rise reconnaissance satellite a short while ago today, Sunday, Jan. 17, from Vandenberg Air Force Base into a polar orbit around the Earth.
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The joint NASA-European ocean surveillance satellite named Jason-3 is poised for blastoff from SpaceX's California launch pad on Sunday, Jan. 17 - followed immediately by another Falcon 9 rocket recovery landing on a barge at sea. The weather forecast is outstanding! And you can watch all the excitement live.
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In a major advance towards the dream of rocket reusability, SpaceX successfully test fired the first stage engines of the Falcon 9 booster they successfully recovered last month - following its launch to the edge of space and back that ended with a history making upright landing at Cape Canaveral.
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A shuttle will soar again from American soil before this decade is out, following NASA's announcement today (Jan 14) that an unmanned version of the Dream Chaser spaceplane was among the trio of US awardees winning commercial contracts to ship essential cargo to the International Space Station (ISS) starting in 2019.
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People have often wondered what Earth would look like if it had Saturn's rings. JPL's Kevin Gill lets them know with his new photoseries
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NASA's Dawn spacecraft has unveiled a new patch of intriguing bright features in the most recent series of striking close-up images taken just after the probe reached the lowest altitude it will ever reach during the mission.
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Electromagnets, which rely on electrical current to generate magnetic fields, are used to powering everything from medical equipment to consumer electronics.
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SpaceX is on course to move ahead with an ambitious spaceflight agenda, trying a 2nd rocket recovery landing of their Falcon 9 booster in barely 4 weeks time and upcoming this Sunday, Jan. 17, says Elon Musk, the billionaire founder and CEO of SpaceX.
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Comet C/2013 US10 Catalina puts on its final act this week through late January, as it crosses through northern hemisphere skies. Here's how to find it, what to expect, and some great images from Universe Today readers. The time to catch this bright binocular comet is this week!
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The geocentric model of the universe, in which the Sun, planets and stars revolved around the Earth, was the accepted view of the cosmos for millennia.
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Zinnia experimental plants growing aboard the International Space Station (ISS) have staged a dramatic New Year's comeback from a potential near death experience over the Christmas holidays, when traces of mold were discovered.
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When space tourism gets underway, companies will have many options for getting people to and from the Moon, some faster than others.
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"X" marks the spot that's illustrative of "convective churning" resulting from subsurface planetary heating, as seen in a fascinating new super high resolution image received from NASA's New Horizons spacecraft on Christmas Eve, Dec. 24, 2015.
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In this interview, we talk to NASA's Scott Bolton about the Juno Mission to Jupiter.
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The Solar System's planets have varied and interesting atmospheres, ranging from incredibly thin exospheres to ones that could literally crush a person.
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Exactly 12 Years ago this week, NASA's now famous Spirit rover touched down on the Red Planet, starting a spectacular years long campaign of then unimaginable science adventures that ended up revolutionizing our understanding of Mars due to her totally unexpected longevity.
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Have you ever wished that there was an instruction manual for life? "Success Strategies from Women in STEM" aims to be that book for women in research – a 'portable mentor' to help individual researchers find their way.
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If you took a picture of the Sun every day, always at the same hour and from the same location, would the Sun appear in the same spot in the sky? This fine image, compiled by astrophotographer Giuseppe Petricca from Italy, proves the answer is no.
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In 1543, Polish astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus revolutionized astronomy by proposing his heliocentric model of the Universe
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Now that SpaceX has successfully and safely demonstrated the upright recovery of their Falcon 9 booster that flew to the edge of space and back on Dec. 21 - in a historic first - the intertwined questions of how did it fare and what lies ahead for the intact first stage stands front and center.
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Watch Venus pass less than five arc minutes from Saturn on Saturday, January 9th in one of the closest conjunctions of two naked eye planets in 2016. The Moon will also pay the pair a visit this week, as comet US10 Catalina hovers near naked eye visibility in the dawn. It's a great way to kick off astronomy in 2016!
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Happy New Year 2016 from the International Space Station and Beyond! Behold Earth ! Courtesy of our Human and Robotic emissaries to the High Frontier we can ring in the New Year by reveling in gorgeous new views of our beautiful Home Planet taken from the space station and beyond.
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There are several space stories we're anticipating for 2016 but one story might appear -- to some -- to belong in the realm of science fiction: in the coming year Elon Musk will likely reveal his plans for colonizing Mars.
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NASA WALLOPS FLIGHT FACILITY, VA - Assembly and testing of a significantly upgraded version of Orbital ATK's commercially developed Antares rocket has kicked into high gear and is on target for rebirth - as the clock ticks down towards its 'Return to Flight' by approximately mid-2016 from a launch pad at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport (MARS) in Virginia, company managers told Universe Today during a recent up close visit to see the actual flight hardware.
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Pluto has been explored, and now the USPS has released new stamps to celebrate this accomplishment. And that's not all, more planets, the Moon and Star Trek?
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The planet Mercury has no moons, but why is that the case? The reason is due to a combination of its small size, orbit, and weak gravity.
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Still looking for the perfect calendar for 2016? Don't start the year without the new Year In Space Wall Calendar!
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Missions to Mars, Jupiter and asteroids are on tap in 2016. Back here on Earth, we may just see the first direct detection of gravitational waves, and some serious exoplanet and SETI hunts get underway... and could 2016 become the year of the heavy lift rocket? Here's the big space stories we're watching in 2016.
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Mountains are formed by geological and tectonic forces, resulting in massive formations that are amazing and awe-inspiring.
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KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FL – Buildup of the first of Boeing's CST-100 Starliner crew spaceships is ramping up at the company's Commercial Crew and Cargo Processing Facility (C3PF) - the new spacecraft manufacturing facility at NASA's Kennedy Space Center.
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Gravity is a fundamental force in our universe. And on the planets in our Solar System, it is dependent on the size, mass, and density of the body.
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As history closes in on 2015, assembly of NASA's James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) reached a historic milestone as the installation of the primary mirrors onto the telescope structure reached the halfway point to completion and marks the final assembly phase of the colossal observatory.
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Comets, conjunctions, eclipses and more await astronomy fans worldwide in 2016, as well as a fine opposition of Mars and a rare transit of Mercury across the face of the Sun. Get ready for astronomy 2016! Camping out under dark skies. Image credit and copyright: Michelle Nixon/MNixon Photography
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Elon Musk's dream and ultimate goal of establishing a permanent human presence on the Red Planet in the form of "A City on Mars" took a gigantic step forward with the game changing rocket landing and recovery technology vividly demonstrated by his firm's Falcon 9 booster this past Monday, Dec. 21
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