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CANCELLED DUE TO GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN: NASA Asteroid Capture Mission Public Workshop

Asteroid Breaking Apart

October 1st, 2013

NASA is holding a public workshop today through Wednesday (Sept. 29 to Oct. 2) to discuss ideas for its ambitious plan to capture an asteroid and bring it into orbit around the moon. Watch the workshop live here.

NASA Finds Ingredient for Plastic on Saturn's Moon Titan

Saturn's moon Titan's atmosphere creates a ring of light outlining the large moon. Image uploaded on Sept. 30, 2013.

September 30th, 2013

For the first time, a chemical essential for the creation of plastic on Earth has been found in a far-off part of the solar system.

3D Map of Milky Way Galaxy Reveals Peanut-Shaped Core (Video)

The Peanut at the Heart of our Galaxy

September 28th, 2013

The map marks the clearest view yet of the Milky Way's central region, a huge cloud of 10,000 million stars. The peanut-shaped bulge puts the Milky Way well within normal galactic expectations for a barred spiral galaxy.

NASA Interactive Reveals New Earth Perspectives (Op-Ed)

NASA Mapping Our World Interactive

September 30th, 2013

New interactive NASA maps reveal the beauty and complexity of Earth.

Giant NASA Balloon Mission to See Comet ISON Suffers Telescope Glitch

The Hubble Space Telescope captured this view of Comet ISON, C/2012 S1 (ISON), on May 8, 2013.

September 30th, 2013

An ambitious one-day mission to observe the potentially dazzling Comet ISON with a telescope dangling from a colossal NASA balloon this weekend has failed due to a mechanical glitch, NASA officials say. The mission, called the Balloon Rapid Response for I

Did Venus Give Earth the Moon? Wild New Theory on Lunar History

This illustration shows the still-molten moon just after its formation about 4.5 billion years ago.

September 27th, 2013

Is the moon a present from Venus, which once had a moon and then lost it? A wild new theory puts the scenario out there.

Giant NASA Balloon Ready to Hunt Potentially Dazzling Comet ISON

Comet ISON Hubble space wallpaper

September 26th, 2013

A colossal NASA balloon is poised to carry a free-hanging gondola sky-high on a mission to take a gander at celestial grandeur: Comet ISON.

NASA Finds Most Crowded Galaxy Ever Seen (Video)

Super-Compact Galaxy M60-UCD1

September 30th, 2013

The galaxy weighs a whopping 200 million times more than the sun, packing half of this mass within 80 light-years of its center, according to observations from the Keck 10-meter telescope in Hawaii.

Plastic Moon: Propylene Detected On Titan | Video

Plastic Moon: Propylene Detected On Titan | Video

September 30th, 2013

The main ingredient in industrial plastic number 5, has been detected in the atmosphere of the Saturn moon. The propylene molecule was missing in Voyager 1's probe of the moon in 1980, and had baffled scientists until now.

Climate Change Impact: NASA's 21st Century Predictions | Video

Climate Change Impact: NASA's 21st Century Predictions | Video

September 27th, 2013

According to models, temps and precip. will change dramatically over the next 87 years, with amounts varying per location. Worldwide land area temperatures are predicted to increase, along with areas of heavier and decreased precipitation.