Space

Best Space Photos of the Week

An Easter Typhoon and Galactic Ghosts Are Among These Spacey Visions

Astronauts spy a colossal eye and Hubble sees echoes of quasars past in our picks for the week's best space images

Best Space Photos of the Week

A Rocket Blessing and a Cubist Planet Are Among These Celestial Sights

Russia sends off the one-year crew and a Saturn probe gets artistic in our picks for this week's best space-related pictures

Best Space Photos of the Week

A Rainbow Eclipse and X-Ray Fireworks Are Among These Cosmic Treats

A solar eclipse painted the cloudy U.K. skies and an explosion rocked a stellar corpse in our picks for this week's best space images

"The show was another spectacular one! Reds and greens and yellows! The sky has just been on fire!" the photographer enthuses on Spaceweather.com.

Severe Solar Storm Paints the Sky Green on St. Patrick's Day

A burst of particles from the sun is hitting our atmosphere and lighting up the night as far south as Illinois

The colorful salt terraces in the Dallol region of Ethiopia are hot targets for astrobiologists seeking extreme microbial life that could resemble extraterrestrials.

New Research

This Alien Color Catalog May Help Us Spot Life on Other Planets

A digital library of reflectance spectra from microbes could be a powerful tool for spotting signs of extraterrestrials

Best Space Photos of the Week

A Solar Flare and a Volcano Blizzard Are Among These Stellar Shots

An X-class explosion and a snowy satellite image feature among our picks for the week's best space images

From Auto-Tune to Motor Oil, Pi Helps Power the World

More than just a famously never-ending number, pi has a knack for appearing in the mathematical formulas we use every day

Best Space Photos of the Week

These Cosmic Visions Include a Mars Ocean and a Supernova Quartet

The red planet's deep blue sea and a rare Einstein cross feature among the week's best space images

Dragonfly wings have a complex, rigid surface that is maintained by a network of veins. The subtle colors of this immature Black Meadowhawk are caused by sunlight reflecting off the not-quite transparent wings.

Think Big

These Dragonflies Helped an Astronomer Find Ghostly New Galaxies

A Yale scientist set out to capture the insect's full lifecycle and ended up discovering hidden wonders of the cosmos

Best Space Photos of the Week

These Cosmic Eye-Poppers Include a Technicolor Comet and an Impossible Black Hole

An ancient monster and a turquoise bay feature among our picks for the week's best space pictures

Best Space Photos of the Week

These Stellar Wonders Include a Red Aurora and a Billowing Black Hole

A light show over Montana and an eruption snapped by a satellite feature among our picks for the week's best space images

This optical atomic clock uses strontium atoms to tell time.

Send Atomic Clocks to Space to Find Gravitational Waves

A new breed of the hyper-accurate clocks could help scientists detect the elusive ripples in space-time faster and cheaper

Best Space Photos of the Week

These Spacey Treats Include a Galactic Smiley Face and an Interstellar Rose

A lucky lens and a pair of mismatched star twins feature among our picks for the week's best space images

Melts in your mouth, not in microgravity.

The World of Chocolate

The Rich and Flavorful History of Chocolate in Space

From vacuum-sealed pudding to Blue Bell ice cream, astronauts have been taking the treat into orbit since the dawn of the space age

Three Kinds of Close Encounters

As head of the US Air Force's official UFO investigation, Dr. Hynek was supposed to debunk so-called "close encounters." Instead, he became a true believer

Best Space Photos of the Week

These Cosmic Visions Include a Moon Parade and a Naked Nebula

Jovian giants and newly seen stars are among our picks for the week's best space-related images

Spire’s Austin Ellis shows off a satellite frame at Spire's San Francisco headquarters. Components, like the weather sensor, stack on top of each other inside the frame. Solar panels and antennae fold out from the frame once the device is in orbit.

New Satellite Network Launching This Year Aims to Improve Weather Forecasting

With a network of compact, low-cost weather satellites with smartphone-like internals, startup Spire plans to make future forecasts a lot more reliable

Best Space Photos of the Week

Cosmic Jaw-Droppers Include a Twisted Galaxy and an Aurora Rocket Volley

From Martian vistas to glowing red nebulae, check out our picks for the best space images of the week

The sun sets behind the BICEP2 telescope at the South Pole.

Nope, We Have Not Detected Gravitational Waves (Yet)

Leaked news from teams studying the early universe says the signal hailed as our first peek at space-time ripples really is just dust

A multihued aurora ripples across the night sky over Tromsø, Norway, on January 19. Auroras happen when high-energy particles from the sun slam into Earth's atmosphere, exciting gas molecules in the air and causing them to emit light. The colors seen depend on the type of molecules involved and the altitude at which the most interactions are happening. Green is the most common shade for auroras and is produced by oxygen molecules at relatively low altitudes—between 62 and 186 miles.

Best Space Photos of the Week

These Celestial Highlights Include Flowing Auroras and a Cracked Comet

Catch up on the week's best space images, from a cyclone's glowing eye to a surreal Martian vista

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