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 Watch launch of BepiColumbo mission to Mercury
The ESA-JAXA BepiColombo mission to planet Mercury launches from Europe's Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana on October 19 at 9:45 PM EDT (October 20 at 1:45 UTC) Here's how to watch.
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What makes giant soldier ants?
Charles Darwin puzzled over why ants come in such wildly different sizes. The question even made him doubt his theory of evolution. New research might explain things
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How do dogs process words?
What's happening in your dog's brain when it hears you say squirrel? New research looks at how dog's brains react to human words.
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Asteroid 2018 EB has a moon
Binary asteroids - that is, asteroids with moons - aren't uncommon. More than 300 have been discovered so far. Astronomers found a moon for 2018 EB when it swept closest to Earth on October 7.
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Venus passages compared
Venus will sweep near the sun in our sky (inferior conjunction) on October 26. Astronomer Guy Ottewell uses his great skill at illustration to compare this passage of Venus with the last one, and the next one.
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The Draconids did have an outburst
Experts had said "no outburst" predicted for the 2018 Draconids. But, since the parent comet had recently passed near, observers knew to watch anyway.
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When white dwarf meets brown dwarf, pow!
In 1670, skywatchers saw a nova, a star that appeared where none had been before. Today's astronomers have learned it was a collision between an aging white dwarf star, and less massive brown dwarf.
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Jupiter in the rearview mirror
In the final minutes of a close flyby of Jupiter on September 6, the Juno spacecraft captured this departing view of the planet's swirling southern hemisphere.
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Moon, Saturn and Mars on October 14-17
These next several nights - October 14, 15, 16 and 17, 2018 - watch the waxing moon move from Saturn to Mars, and with the mind's-eye, envision the invisible dwarf planet Pluto in between these two bright worlds.
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Young moon and Jupiter October 10-12
The moon is back in the evening sky - low in the west after sunset - as a waxing crescent. The bright object near it is our solar system's biggest planet, Jupiter.
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See it! Venus as a crescent
The planet Venus is heading toward inferior conjunction - when it goes between us and the sun - on October 26. For some weeks now, we've been receiving photos of Venus as a crescent world.
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Is Voyager 2 nearing interstellar space?
Voyager 2, launched in 1977, is now about 11 billion miles (17.7 billion km) from Earth. NASA says the spacecraft has detected an increase in cosmic rays, which might mean it's close to becoming only the 2nd human-made object, after Voyager 1, to enter interstellar space.
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South Taurid meteors to peak in October?
It's meteor season! This shower rarely produces more than 5 meteors per hour (although it's been known to produce fireballs). Now ... when do the South Taurids peak, October or November?
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Michael heading for Florida panhandle
The early morning update on Tuesday, October 9, shows Michael as a category 1 hurricane, still forecast to reach major, category 3 status before landfall Wednesday on the Florida panhandle.
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Watch 3 whales dive, then leap
Whale watchers on a cruise out of Nova Scotia got a thrill when they saw 3 whales breach the surface, one after the other. "We did not drive them," the cruise director commented.
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Hubble is in safe mode. Science operations suspended
The Hubble Space Telescope has been in safe mode since last Friday evening, following the failure of one of the gyros that helps stabilize it. NASA is analyzing the problem and hopes to resume operations soon.
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Watch, as black holes spiral closer
A new simulation by scientists lets you witness supermassive black holes about to collide. One shows them from outside the system, just 40 orbits from merging. The other places you in their midst.
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New dwarf planet nicknamed The Goblin
The Goblin is a very small dwarf planet, very far away. It might help astronomers in their search for a much bigger world - the long-sought Planet X.
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Arctic sea ice reaches 2018 minimum
On both September 19 and 23, Arctic sea ice dropped to its minimum extent of 1.77 million square miles (4.59 million square km). The 2018 minimum ties for the 6th-lowest in the satellite record.
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Moon and Leo before sunup October 5 to 7
The lit portion of the waning moon always points eastward. That's also the moon's direction of travel in front of the background stars. Watch the moon wane in the coming mornings, as it sweeps through Leo.
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MASCOT returns 1st image from asteroid Ryugu
Japan's Hayabusa2 spacecraft deployed the MASCOT lander to asteroid Ryugu yesterday. Now, MASCOT has returned its 1st image. An international team of engineers and scientists in Germany is standing by.
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Microbes catch a ride on fog
When fog rolls in, it can bring along communities of airborne microorganisms, says a new study. Moisture in fog allows microbes to last longer than they would in dry air.
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Can you see the Big Dipper in autumn?
Sure, it's easy to recognize, but sometimes the Big Dipper is low in the northern sky, or not visible at all. That's the case now, in the evening. How to spot it.
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Moon and fogbow
Fogbows - sometimes called white rainbows, cloudbows or ghost rainbows - are made much in the way as rainbows.
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What we've learned from 50 years of ocean drilling
We know more about the surface of the moon than about Earth's ocean floor. But analysis of core samples from the deep seabed has given us insights into climate change, Earth's history, and the key conditions for life.
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New image shows a haunting comet landscape
Citizen scientists now frequently explore spacecraft images, finding and processing hidden treasures. Jacint Roger Perez of Spain processed this Rosetta spacecraft view of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko.
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Smoke over Yosemite in September
Last summer's major fires in and around Yosemite National Park in California have been contained, but the U.S. National Park Service reports multiple fires still burning in Yosemite's wilderness.
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Sunset over England
Sam Kelly captured Thursday's sunset over the Abberton Reservoir in Essex, England.
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Mercury’s strange chemistry revealed
Mercury is an odd little world, but new research is revealing its mysteries. Plus, the upcoming BepiColombo mission - a joint mission between Europe and Japan - will help scientists understand the planet's origin and evolution.
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Moon in Taurus September 28-30
Even in the moon's glare, you should be able to make out Aldebaran, Taurus' brightest star, as well as the tiny, misty, dipper-shaped Pleiades star cluster.
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Hello autumn!
The sun bursting through autumn leaves in Allaire State Park in New Jersey.
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Opportunity emerges from Mars dust
We still haven't heard from the Opportunity rover on Mars, which went silent in June when a dust storm engulfed it. Now, at least, the dust has cleared, and we can see the rover!
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What are haboobs? Amazing pics and videos
Dust storms, also known as haboobs, occur when winds from dying thunderstorms push downward and pick up sand and dirt across desert areas. Amazing pics and video from last summer's haboobs in Arizona, here.
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Scientists spy roving dust storms on Titan
Using data from the Cassini spacecraft, whose mission to Saturn ended a year ago, scientists now say they can see dust storms moving across the surface of Titan, Saturn's large moon.
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Which one is 'Oumuamua’s home star?
The 1st object known to be from another solar system passed through our solar system a year ago. Where did it come from? Astronomers have identified 4 plausible candidates.
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See it! 2018’s Harvest Moon
We're still collecting images of last night's Harvest Moon, but there are some beauties so far. Check back! We'll be adding more.
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Full Harvest Moon September 24-25
It's the full moon closest to the autumn equinox. For us in the Northern Hemisphere, it means no great lag time between sunset and moonrise, in this season of waning daylight.
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What’s the recipe for a habitable exoplanet?
What combination of ingredients produce a planet that can support life? NASA has just awarded $7.7 million to Rice University for a new 5-year research program, in hopes of answering that question.
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Venus and Jupiter, from Brazil
Most of us don't often (or ever) witness the view at sunset, from atop a high mountain, on which is perched an astronomical observatory. The 2 planets here are Venus and Jupiter.
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Why is Earth’s spin axis drifting?
As Earth rotates, its spin axis -- an imaginary line that passes through the North and South Poles -- drifts and wobbles. Scientists now have, for the 1st time, identified 3 reasons why.
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Birds flying south. How many will return?
Contrary to popular thought, birds wintering in the tropics survive the winter better than birds wintering in the U.S. That's despite the fact that tropical wintering birds migrate 3 to 4 times farther.
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A new way to launch rockets without fuel?
Conventional rockets - with their onboard fuel - are expensive and dangerous. A new "quantized inertia" concept might make rocket launches cheaper and safer. The concept has just received $1.3 million in new funding.
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Were the 2 Magellanic Clouds once 3?
A new study suggests that the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds - small satellite galaxies to our Milky Way - might have once had a 3rd companion.
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See Venus at its brightest
Greatest brilliancy for Venus is a delicate balance between how much we see of its day side, and the changing distance between our 2 worlds. Conditions are now optimum! Venus looms low in the twilight, dazzlingly bright.
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How leaves tell each other about a bug attack
"We often think of plants as being passive and at the mercy of their environment. My jaw literally dropped when I first saw these videos ... They beautifully illustrate how active and complex plants really are."
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Scientists discover earliest human drawing yet
This month, scientists published their discovery of 73,000-year-old cross-hatchings found in a South African cave. It's now the earliest known drawing and evidence of early humans' ability to store information outside the human brain.
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Dry ice frosts a Mars crater
The white markings here are bright residual carbon dioxide ice deposits - dry ice - on the south-facing rim of a pit crater on Mars.
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TESS planet-hunter achieves 1st light
Launched last April, TESS is successor to the Kepler mission, which discovered a substantial fraction of all known exoplanets orbiting distant suns. This 1st-light image from TESS is cause for celebration. Ahoy! New worlds ahead!
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Mars is closest to the sun today
On September 16, 2018, Mars reaches perihelion, its closest point to the sun in its 2-year orbit. Mars' brightness in July and August - and a recent global dust storm on the planet - are both linked to this event.
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You can still see 4 evening planets
We've been treated for several months now to the sight of 4 bright planets in our evening sky. Although Mars isn't as bright now as it was, all 4 planets are still up there after sunset, visible from across Earth.
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10 years of Large Hadron Collider discoveries
The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) has generated mind-blowing science in the last decade - including the Higgs boson particle. How the LHC, one of the most complex machines ever created, is helping physicists decode the universe.
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Why is Sunspot Solar Observatory closed?
In a strange turn of events, AURA has suddenly shut down its Sunspot Solar Observatory in New Mexico. The FBI is involved, and speculation is running wild. Mercury leak? Terrorism? Espionage? Aliens?
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Here’s how Hubble sees Saturn
Cassini ended its 13-year mission at Saturn a year ago, when it plunged into the giant planet's atmosphere. Now the Hubble Space Telescope is keeping an eye on the planet.
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