NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has photographed the iconic Horsehead Nebula in a new, infrared light to mark the 23rd anniversary of the famous observatory's launch aboard the space shuttle Discovery on April 24, 1990.
NASA's Kepler mission has discovered two new planetary systems that include three super-Earth-size planets in the "habitable zone," the range of distance from a star where the surface temperature of an orbiting planet might be suitable for liquid water.
Scientists around the world are celebrating the 50th anniversary of X-ray astronomy this year. Few objects better illustrate the progress of the field in the past half-century than the supernova remnant known as SN 1006.
An unpiloted Russian Progress cargo ship departed the International Space Station (ISS) early Monday, clearing the way for Moscow's next space freighter.
Dramatic underground explosions, perhaps involving ice, are responsible for the pits inside these two large martian impact craters, recently imaged by the European Space Agency's (ESA) Mars Express.
A new study tracking the "rain" of charged water particles into the atmosphere of Saturn has found there is more of it and it falls across larger areas of the planet than previously thought.
Stars the size of the Sun typically end their lives as tiny and faint white dwarf stars. But as they make the final transition into retirement their atmospheres are blown away into space.
ESA’s Herschel space observatory has provided the first images of a dust belt – produced by colliding comets or asteroids – orbiting a subgiant star known to host a planetary system.
An analysis of X-ray observations from the Japan-led Suzaku satellite indicates that an exploding star observed in 1604 by the German astronomer Johannes Kepler held a greater fraction of heavy elements than the sun.
Visible as a small, sparkling hook in the dark sky, the beautiful object below snapped by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope is known as J082354.96+280621.6, or J082354.96 for short.
When a current passes between two electrodes - one thinner than the other - it creates a wind in the air between. If enough voltage is applied, the resulting wind can produce a thrust without the help of motors or fuel.