Space

  1. Astronomy

    Some gamma-ray bursts may occur nearby

    A sizable minority of gamma-ray bursts may originate relatively nearby, in galaxies within 325 million light-years of our own.

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  2. Astronomy

    Planet Quest

    Need help in tracking discoveries of planets orbiting stars beyond our solar system? NASA’s new Planet Quest Web site offers one-stop shopping for planet discovery news. Check out the latest findings, search an atlas of extrasolar planets, and learn about NASA’s proposed missions to search for new worlds, particularly those that might harbor life. Interactive […]

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  3. Planetary Science

    Exploring the Red Planet

    Searching for signs of subsurface water on the Red Planet and analyzing the elemental and mineral composition of surface rock, NASA's Mars Odyssey spacecraft begins its main mapping mission next month and may shed light on several enduring puzzles about the planet.

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  4. Astronomy

    All Aglow in the Early Universe

    Was the infant cosmos a star-making machine?

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  5. Astronomy

    Milky Way galaxy: Cloaked in a hot shroud?

    Spacecraft observations indicate that a vast, unseen halo of hot gas envelopes our home galaxy, the Milky Way, and could literally be brushing up against its nearest neighbors.

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  6. Astronomy

    Sampling the sun

    A spacecraft has begun a 30-month mission in which it will collect samples of the solar wind and bring them back to Earth.

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  7. Astronomy

    Watching a dying star transform

    Astronomers have for the first time caught a dying star at the very beginning of a brief, shining period, when it's known as a planetary nebula.

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  8. Astronomy

    Galaxy survey sheds light on dark matter

    Astronomers are examining some of the brightest objects in the universe to learn about the darkest stuff.

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  9. Astronomy

    Galileo catches Io in a slump

    Galileo spacecraft images show for the first time that material has slid downward along a cliff on Jupiter's moon Io.

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  10. Astronomy

    Observing the sun’s magnetic pull

    A spacecraft studying the sun has spotted clouds of gas that seem to be headed the wrong way, falling back toward the solar surface instead of continuing to move outward with the stream of charged particles known as the solar wind.

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  11. Astronomy

    A night of shooting stars

    Thousands of people in North America who got up early on Nov. 18 were treated to a memorable sky show: White, yellow, blue, and green fireballs, some leaving behind smoke trails, streaked across the sky.

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  12. Astronomy

    Journey through the Universe

    A new permanent exhibit at the Smithsonian Institution's National Air and Space Museum traces the development of tools used to study the heavens and how they have changed our understanding of the universe.

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