Even astronauts in space are turning their attention to President Barack Obama's inauguration today (Jan. 21), snapping photos of the U.S. capital from high above Earth. [Full Story]
Scientists have renamed a cosmic nebula after the sea creature it strongly resembles. [Full Story]
Photographer Greg Diesel Walck captured this photo of Jupiter near the moon from the coasts of North Carolina on Jan. 21, 2013 during an extreme close encounter. [Full Photo Gallery]
This still from a NASA video identifies comet C/2012 S1 (ISON), better known as Comet ISON, in a telescope image. [Full Photo Gallery]
This illustration depicts Deep Space Industries' small Firefly class Archimedes spacecraft for asteroid exploration. The small, nimble probes are designed for one-way trips to investigate asteroid targets. [Full Photo Gallery]
Though the sun appears yellow to the naked eye, it actually emits light in all colors, which scientists can see using specialized telescopes designed to observe wavelengths beyond the visible range. [Full Story]
A telescope in South America has captured a spectacular new view of an intricate cloud of interstellar dust in the famed Orion constellation. [Full Story]
NASA's Mars rover Curiosity has captured its first nighttime view of the Red Planet using a camera and ultraviolet light on its robotic arm. [Full Story]
NASA's Mars rover Curiosity has captured its first nighttime view of the Red Planet using a camera and ultraviolet light on its robotic arm. [Full Story]
The nighttime viewing capabilities of the Suomi NPP satellite are giving earth scientists new views of the planet's surface once the sun goes down. [Full Story]
David Rodgers sent in his photo of the moon and Jupiter as he saw them in New York City on Jan 22, 2013. He wrote: “What makes the occasion so very special, truly once in a lifetime, is that the George Washington Bridge is only lit up on occasional holidays, perhaps 3 times a year. In this case, the conjunction took place on Monday, January 21, which also had the impossibly rare coincidence of being not only the Martin Luther King Day holiday, but also the Inauguration Day for President Obama's second term, hence the lighting being turned on. Usually the towers are dark!... [The picture was] taken from northern Manhattan, looking west over the Hudson River toward Ft. Lee, New Jersey. The George Washington Bridge is to the left, 12 blocks to the south. Time was between 2:50 and 3:00 AM on Tuesday morning, January 22. By this time, the moon had moved noticeably away from its closest point, when I first observed around 11:30 PM.... Jupiter is to the right of the moon. The bright star to the left of the moon is Aldebaran, in Taurus.... The constellation Orion is visible over the bridge on the left.” [See More Images]
One of the Unit Telescopes of ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) stands beneath bright star trails appearing to circle the south celestial pole, lying in the southern constellation of Octans (The Octant). Many exposures were taken over time and combined to give the final appearance of circular tracks. Four Unit Telescopes (UTs) make up the VLT at Paranal, Chile. Each UT possesses a name in the language of the native Mapuche tribe. The names of the UTs — Antu, Kueyen, Melipal, and Yepun — represent celestial objects: the sun, moon, the Southern Cross constellation and Venus, respectively. The UT in this photograph is Yepun, also known as UT4. Image released Jan. 7, 2013. [See More Images]
