Space, features and articles | Educational Science

Dec 31, 2018

See Far Side of the Moon in Amazing Panorama from China's Chang'e 4 Lander

China made history earlier this month with the first successful soft landing on the far side of the moon — and now, the mission has sent back an incredible panorama view of its work site. The mission consists of two robots: the Chang'e 4 lander and the Yutu 2 rover....

Dec 31, 2018

Is Anyone Out There? New SETI Tool Keeps Track of Alien Searches

With research on extraterrestrial life continuing across the world, a noted researcher from the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) Institute launched a new tool to help researchers keep track of results. Jill Tarter, a co-founder of the institute who inspired the fictional character Ellie Arroway in the Carl Sagan novel...

Dec 31, 2018

What to Expect from the Super Blood Wolf Moon Eclipse

Call in late to work on Monday (Jan. 21) and prepare to spend Sunday night staring at the sky: The Super Blood Wolf Moon eclipse is coming. That's a mouthful, but let's break it down. January's full moon is a supermoon, meaning that the moon is at the point in...

Dec 31, 2018

How Flat-Earthers Explain Total Lunar Eclipses

During the Super Blood Wolf Moon this weekend (Jan. 20-21), skywatchers in much of the Western Hemisphere saw the moon pass directly through Earth's shadow. Our natural satellite appears red during lunar eclipses for the same reason that sunrises and sunsets appear that shade here on Earth: because sunlight is...

Nov 30, 2020

Drone catches Arecibo Observatory's last moments

The exact moment of Arecibo Observatory's final collapse — when the cables supporting its instrument platform broke — was caught on video by a drone doing a routine inspection flyby, according to a new video released by the observatory Thursday (Dec. 3). The footage, taken just before 8 a.m. local...

Nov 30, 2020

Mysterious minimoon circling Earth is actually a 1960s rocket booster

A mysterious minimoon temporarily orbiting Earth isn't a chunky space rock, but a 1960s rocket booster, NASA reported Wednesday (Dec. 2). Researchers had an inkling that the minimoon might be human-made, but it wasn't until this week that they confirmed it, after analyzing its composition from afar at NASA's Infrared...

Nov 30, 2020

Most accurate map of our galaxy pinpoints 1.8 billion cosmic objects

Astronomers were hit Thursday (Dec. 3) with a huge wave of data from the European Space Agency's Gaia space observatory. Those researchers can now explore the best-yet map of the Milky Way, with detailed information on the positions, distances and motion of 1.8 billion cosmic objects, to help us better...

Nov 30, 2020

Voyager mission finds a new type of electron burst at the edge of our solar system

The Voyager probes left our Solar System years ago, yet even as they travel through interstellar space, they are still detecting bursts of cosmic rays from our Sun, more than 23 billion kilometers (14 billion miles) away. A detailed analysis of recent data from both Voyager 1 and Voyager 2...

Nov 30, 2020

Watch SpaceX test a giant 'Starship' over Texas today [UPDATED]

Update Wednesday, Dec. 9 at 4:27 p.m. EST: The launch is now on hold, and now anticipated to take place at 5:40 p.m. EST. Update Wednesday, Dec. 9 at 4:02 p.m. EST: SpaceX is getting ready to launch again any minute. A livestream is below. Update Tuesday, Dec. 8 at...

Nov 30, 2020

How to watch the northern lights across far northern US tonight

A small northern slice of the United States could get a rare glimpse of the northern lights on Thursday (Dec. 10) night. A geomagnetic storm may cause the lights, or aurora borealis, to dip more southward than usual, according to Space Weather Watch. Earlier this week, there was hope that...

Nov 30, 2020

Two strange blobs of X-ray energy are swirling out of the galaxy's center

Millions of years ago, a powerful explosion shook the center of the Milky Way, sending twin shock waves blasting across the sky. Those waves bulldozed through the galaxy, heating up all the gas and dust in their path and leaving two telltale blobs of hot, highly energized gamma-rays in their...

Nov 30, 2020

China is opening the world's largest radio telescope up to international scientists

Following the collapse of the historic Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico, China has opened the biggest radio telescope in the world up to international scientists. In Pingtang, Guizhou province stands the Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Telescope (FAST), the largest radio telescope in the world, surpassing the Arecibo Observatory, which stood as...

Nov 30, 2020

Alien hunters detect mystery signal coming from the closest star system

Astronomers hunting for radio signals from alien civilizations have detected an intriguing signal from the direction of Proxima Centauri, the nearest star system to the sun, The Guardian reported. The researchers are still preparing a paper on the discovery, and the data has not been made public, according to The...

Nov 30, 2020

What was the Star of Bethlehem?

As the well-known story in the Gospel of Matthew goes, three Magi, or wise men, followed the Star of Bethlehem to Jerusalem some 2,000 years ago. And after consulting with King Herod of Judea, the men found newborn baby Jesus in the little town of Bethlehem. Whether such an event...

Nov 30, 2020

Extraterrestrial evidence: 10 incredible findings about aliens from 2020

Here on the little space rock we call Earth, humans often wonder whether or not we are alone in this universe. Though that question was not answered in 2020, many discoveries seemed to increase the prospect of extraterrestrial entities existing. Findings on the closest planet to us, in the outer...