In legend, the bright sun was a dazzling temptation for Icarus and so, too, it is for NASA astronaut Sunita Williams, who appears to touch our closest star in a photo snapped during a spacewalk this week. [Full Story]
Huge string-like filaments of plasma leaped from the surface of the sun recently, and NASA satellites caught the scene on film. [Full Story]
A shining Perseid meteor flies on a clear night sky over medieval Albrechtsberg castle near the northern bank of the Pielach river near Melk, Austria. Photographer Sebastian Voltmer took this striking photo on Aug. 12, 2012. [Full Story]
NASA's newest Mars rover Curiosity is taking its first tentative drives across the Martian surface and leaving tracks that have been spotted all the way from space in a spectacular photo snapped by an orbiting spacecraft. [Full Story]
The Hubble telescope has snapped a stunning new portrait of a pair of peculiar galaxies. [Full Story]
NASA’s Dawn probe has left the asteroid Vesta to begin a new journey to the dwarf planet Ceres. NASA’s Dawn probe has left the asteroid Vesta to begin a new journey to the dwarf planet Ceres. NASA’s Dawn probe has left the asteroid Vesta to begin a new journey to the dwarf planet Ceres. [Full Story]
A new image from ESO’s La Silla Observatory in Chile shows the spectacular globular star cluster Messier 4. [Full Story]
Japanese spaceflyer Akihiko Hoshide works on the exterior of the International Space Station during a spacewalk on Sept. 5, 2012. A cloud-covered part of Earth is visible in the background. [Full Photo Gallery]
Huge stars carve out gas cavities called superbubbles in a nearby dwarf galaxy, as shown in a new photo from the Chandra space telescope. [Full Story]
Skywatchers around the world were wowed by the northern lights show produced by a recent solar storm. [Full Story]
New reader-submitted photos of the August 2012 blue moon. [Full Photo Gallery]
