Space, features and articles | Educational Science

Apr 30, 2018

This Alien World Has No Clouds, and That's Weird

The team, led by Nikolay Nikolov, an astronomer at the University of Exeter in the United Kingdom, detected this hot gas giant, known as WASP-96b, using the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope in Chile. The team determined the atmospheric makeup of the exoplanet by studying it as it passed...

Apr 30, 2018

Intelligent Aliens Might Speak Our Language. And You Can Help Decode Their Messages.

Stay sharp! You may be needed to help decode a message from intelligent aliens someday. The work of professional linguists, mathematicians and scientists is probably not going to be enough to unravel a cosmic mystery missive, said Sheri Wells-Jensen, a linguist at Bowling Green University in Ohio who also serves...

Mar 31, 2018

China's Space Station Expected to Make Fiery Plunge in Next Few Hours

Editor's note: Chinese space station Tiangong-1 fell to Earth in the southern Pacific Ocean on Sunday, April 1 at 8:16 p.m. EDT (0016 GMT on April 2). You can read more about the fiery reentry here. It sure looks like the abandoned Chinese space station Tiangong-1 will put on its...

Mar 31, 2018

Why Extraterrestrial Life May Be More Unlikely Than Scientists Thought

Phosphorus is an essential element for life — but that there was enough of it for life to start on Earth might just have been a matter of luck, new findings suggest. According to new observations of the Crab Nebula — the leftovers from an exploding star first seen by...

Mar 31, 2018

Here's How We Know the Big Bang Happened

At 13.8 billion years ago, our entire observable universe was the size of a peach and had a temperature of over a trillion degrees. That's a pretty simple, but very bold statement to make, and it's not a statement that's made lightly or easily. Indeed, even a hundred years ago,...

Mar 31, 2018

Heat Shield for NASA's Next Mars Mission Breaks During Testing

The heat shield for NASA's next Mars spacecraft just cracked open. Luckily, engineers found this out during testing here on Earth, long before the Mars 2020 rover mission leaves for the Red Planet in search of habitable environments there. In preparation for landing, both the rover and the craft's landing...

Feb 28, 2018

Why Meteorologists Don't Know if Tonight's Nor'easter Will Bring Rain or Snow

A powerful storm is on track to strike the U.S. East Coast tomorrow, the second nor'easter to visit the area in two weeks. The storm will arrive tonight (March 6) at 10 p.m. EST and will last until 4 a.m. on Thursday (March 8), according to a winter storm warning...

Feb 28, 2018

What Should You Do If You Find a Piece of China's Crashed Space Station?

China's defunct Tiangong-1 space station is careening through low-Earth orbit right now, and is expected to reenter Earth's atmosphere sometime between March 30 and April 2. Most of the 9-ton (8,500 kilograms) space station will probably burn to bits in the atmosphere — but a few thousand chunks of hot,...

Jan 31, 2018

Starman's SpaceX Spacesuit Would Leave You Dead in Minutes

If you hope to someday take a profile pic that looks as majestic as the convertible-driving, spacesuit-wearing mannequin known as Starman that was just launched into space, we have some bad news for you. For starters, cosmic radiation will probably rip that cherry-red convertible to bits within a year. And...

Jan 31, 2018

These Are the Most Out-of-This-World Photos Ever Taken — Literally

The photos don't look like much: blurry green splotches against pixelated blue. But they're arguably among the most amazing photographic images ever. That's because they were taken from the farthest point from planet Earth of any images ever captured, snapped by a spacecraft just over 3.79 billion miles (6.12 billion...

Jan 31, 2018

Launch of Superfast Russian Cargo Ship Mission Aborted at Last Minute

The launch of a Russian cargo ship bound for the International Space Station was aborted in the final minute Sunday (Feb. 11), just as it was poised to fly the fastest resupply mission to the orbiting lab in history. The uncrewed Progress 69 resupply ship and its Russian-built Soyuz 2.1a...

Jan 31, 2018

A Giant Claw Will Grab Falling SpaceX Gear 'Like a Giant Catcher's Mitt'

See more SpaceX is planning to use a giant net — one so immense that it takes up the majority of a high-speed watercraft named Mr. Steven — to catch reusable gear that falls back to Earth after missions to outer space. If the huge net successfully catches the SpaceX...

Dec 31, 2017

Out-of-This-World Diamond-Studded Rock Just Got Even Weirder

A tiny chunk of stone that looks like nothing else ever seen in the solar system might be even weirder than scientists thought. The Hypatia stone was found in southwestern Egypt in 1996. It was hardly more than a pebble, just 1.3 inches (3.5 centimeters) wide at its widest and...

Dec 31, 2017

US Launches Spy Satellite on Secret Mission

The fleet of U.S. spy satellites has just welcomed a new member. The NROL-47 spacecraft soared into Earth orbit today (Jan. 12), riding atop a United Launch Alliance (ULA) Delta IV Medium rocket that lifted off from California's Vandenberg Air Force Base at 5:11 p.m. EST (2211 GMT, 2:11 p.m....

Dec 31, 2017

Wild 360-Degree Video Lets You See the Milky Way As a Giant Black Hole Would

NATIONAL HARBOR, Md. — Ever wish you could see the galaxy from the perspective of a black hole? A new 360-degree simulation that uses data from NASA's Chandra X-Ray Observatory is helping astronomers better understand more than 22 stellar giants found at the center of the Milky Way galaxy. The...