On the heels of the retirement of the space shuttle program, NASA announced it has launched a new department that has targeted asteroids and Mars as the next targets for human space exploration.
Mountain View-based SETI (Search of Extraterrestrial Intelligence) Institute got a massive financial boost from donors that will enable its 42 radio telescope dishes near Mount Shasta to resume search for sounds of intelligent life form in the Universe.
You earthlings might have had some pretty spectacular views of the 2011 Perseid meteor shower, but astronomers in space got some magnificent views. During its peak Friday, NASA astronaut Ron Garan captured these photographs of the Perseids and posted them on Twitter ... from space, while aboard the International Space Station.
While the 2011 Perseid Meteor Shower did not disappoint onlookers during its peak on Aug. 12, an astronaut from NASA's International Space Station (ISS) one-upped us Earth dwellers when he posted photos of the shooting stars FROM space.
Despite a bright full moon, sky-watchers around the world didn't get disappointed as they caught striking views of the Perseid meteor shower overnight Friday (Aug. 12).
August's Perseid meteor shower has historically been providing the best opportunity for enthusiasts to catch meteor shows.
TrES-2b, the blackest planet ever discovered in the Milky Way galaxy, is only three million miles away from the star it orbits, which makes its atmosphere burn at 980 degrees Celsius (1,800 degrees Fahrenheit). But still, the blacker than coal planet mysteriously reflects only one percent of the starlight that strikes it.
NASA released an image of beginning stage of colliding galaxies, VV 340, also known as Arp 302. The edge-on galaxy near the top of the image is VV 340 North and the face-on galaxy at the bottom of the image is VV 340 South. Millions of years later these two spirals will merge -- much like the Milky Way and Andromeda will likely do billions of years from now. VV 340 is located about 450 million light years from Earth.
The "Necklace Nebula" is a dying binary star 15,000 light-years away from Earth.
NASA created a deep space mission department to oversee deep space manned mission explorations such as traveling to space rocks and Mars.
NASA has opened a new office called the "Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate" to oversee deep space manned missions. NASA was charged by Uncle Sam to put astronauts on an asteriod by 2025, and Mars by mid 2030s.
Space debris orbiting the Earth is building up to a critical point, and it is threatening the environment and spacecrafts alike, says a NASA scientist.
Rollercoaster financial markets and the worst riots Britain has seen in decades have made it quite a week for a time of year that is usually so dead the newspapers are filled with "silly season" tales of amusing pet antics.
The planet reflects almost none of the light shined on it from its sun.
A spectacular treat awaits star-gazers as the Perseid meteor shower peaks on August 12-13, generating visuals of fast-moving shooting stars.
This year's most reliable Perseid meteor shower is set to woo sky watchers in the overnight hours of Friday and Saturday this weekend. Glowing streaks will lit up the sky in the early morning hours just before the moon becomes full.
NASA has given seven different private space firms contracts worth a combined $10 million, signaling the growing importance of private firms capable of supporting NASA's efforts in the post-shuttle era.
Unbelievable photos of the cosmic event
Moving to bolster private spaceflight in the post-shuttle era, NASA handed out a combined $10 million to seven firms vying to build commercial spaceships.
The sun was rocked by an extremely powerful solar flare on Tuesday, which, according to scientists, was the largest in four years. However, the bursts of radiation were not likely to cause any serious chaos on Earth since they were not aimed at the planet, they added.
The best time to spot the annual Perseid meteor shower is this week, when the number of particles hitting the atmosphere is at its peak. Perseid shower is caused by debris from Comet Swift-Tuttle and has been observed for 2000 years. It normally peaks at 100 or more meteors per hour in the absence of moonlight on new moon.
The sun emitted a powerful solar flare on Tuesday, which is the largest in five years, but the bursts of radiation weren't in the direction of Earth and so there will be little impact on satellite and communication systems, scientists say.
