The majority of planets form when a molecular cloud collapses into a young star. Indeed, the leftover gas and dust form a disk around the star, with the particulates inside the disk colliding and coalescing.
One of the most widely-studied of all globular star clusters appears nevertheless to harbor a mystery - a star which apparently possesses the secret of eternal youth.
NASA has released an image of a supernova (SN 2004dg) that occurred in NGC 5806, a spiral galaxy in the constellation Virgo (the Virgin) located approximately 80 million light years from Earth.
NASA's discovered several million new black holes - along with a thousand or so galaxies obscured by dust - using the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) telescope.
NASA's Kepler mission has for the first time discovered multiple planets orbiting a pair of stars, showing it's possible for more than one planet to be formed and survive in such a chaotic environment.
NASA's Curiosity rover has beamed back the first telephoto images from the Martian surface, showing a mountainside marked by eroded knobs and gulches, and geological layering clearly visible.
Neil Armstrong - the first man to walk on the moon - has passed away at the age of 82 following complications resulting from cardiovascular procedures.
