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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.
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Just because you don't have the flu doesn't mean that your aren't teeming with viruses inside and out. But what are all these viruses doing, if they aren't making you sick?
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.
For the 1st time, astronomers have detected the faint radio afterglow of a ghost explosion - a kind of cosmic sonic boom - possibly the result of a weird kind of gamma-ray burst.
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.
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.
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?
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.
Humpback whales have ever-changing and evolving songs. But a new study of whales in Alaska shows their repertoire of calls - including growls, trumpets, and ahoogas - remains more stable. Why?
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.
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.
Night launches are always fun, and this one - from Vandenberg Air Force Base, north of Los Angeles, California - generated more than its fair shares of awesome images.
The European Space Agency's next big planet-hunting mission - the Plato space telescope - will continue the search for rocky and potentially habitable worlds orbiting other stars.
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.
Last year, in its Grand Finale, the Cassini spacecraft dove repeatedly between Saturn and its rings. This week, 6 teams of researchers published new research based on Cassini's final days and those daredevil dives.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Yuri Milner's Breakthrough Listen program said it has added the MeerKAT telescope in South Africa to its global effort to listen for signals from an alien intelligence.
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.
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.
An innovative plan by the EuroMoonMars project uses Japanese origami - the art of folding paper into interesting shapes - to design and develop habitats for future human space explorers.
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.
After some prompting by Congress, NASA is again getting involved in SETI. Last week, it held a Technosignatures Workshop in Houston, exploring new ways scientists could seek intelligent aliens.
There may be misaligned disks of material rotating around the black hole. Rings of gas may be breaking off and colliding, leaving gas to fall directly towards the black hole at unfathomable speeds.
Smoky air makes it harder for thunderclouds to grow. But pollution - if it's not too heavy - energizes their growth, according to a new study based on satellite data.
Links to stories and images of the 7.5-magnitude earthquake and subsequent tsunami in Indonesia on Friday. By Sunday morning, the death toll had gone over 800, with thousands waiting to be rescued.
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.
This candy-pink lagoon in Spain is providing valuable clues about how extremophile microorganisms might exist on Mars despite the planet's harsh conditions.
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.
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!
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.
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.
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.
Sea levels have been rising since the end of the last Ice Age. But the rate of the rise is accelerating, as Earth's global climate warms. A new video from ESA explains how scientists know.
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.
These boxy satellites, small enough to fit in a backpack, are currently trailing thousands of miles behind the InSight spacecraft on their way to Mars.
Only 11 light-years away, Ross 128 b is the 2nd-closest-known rocky exoplanet. It appears to be a temperate world, with similarities to Earth. Here's a recent study scrutinizing this fascinating world.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Japan's space agency JAXA said the pair of tiny robots - released by the Hayabusa2 space probe - touched down Saturday on asteroid Ryugu. See the images here.
How is it possible for an equinox sun to rise due east - and set due west - for everyone around the world? How can you visualize it? Illustrations here.
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.
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.
In recent decades, astronomers and Trekkies have had fun speculating on what might serve as Spock's home star. Many settled on 40 Eridani A, about 16 light-years away. Now they've found a Vulcan-esque planet for this star!
"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."
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.
Musk said Monday from SpaceX headquarters in California that it will send Japanese billionaire and online fashion tycoon Yusaku Maezawa - with a group of artists - on a loop around the moon and back to Earth in 2023.
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!
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.
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.
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.
A congressionally-mandated report recommends that NASA lead efforts to directly image possibly Earth-like exoplanets, using upcoming technologies. A major goal is finding habitable - maybe even inhabited - worlds.
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?
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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