The BBC has announced that the planned "Doctor Who" 2026 Christmas special has been cancelled and that the show’s showrunner, Russell T. Davis, is departing alongside his production company Bad Wolf.

The cancellation of the special, a mostly annual release since "Doctor Who" returned to the airwaves in 2005, is definitely bad news, but, according to Davies, it was actually planned all along.

In his post on Instagram saying farewell to the franchise again (he ran the show from 2005 to 2010 and then again from 2023 to now), he reveals that the holiday special was actually never going to happen and that it was all a facade as the BBC decided what they were going to do with the franchise.

“There won’t be a Christmas Special - we only cooked that up to guarantee a future when no one knew what would happen, but now we do know, there’s no need for it. You’ll have to wait a bit longer for new "Doctor Who"… but you’ll be waiting for MORE "Doctor Who" than a one-off. So it’s worth it! For the record: there was no script, I never wrote it, and no actor was ever approached to play the next Doctor. You may disagree; fine, sit in that chair and wait to be proved right. You’ll wait a lonnng time,” he said.

Why they had to cook up a lie about a Christmas special to guarantee the future of a show that the BBC still holds as a cornerstone of its content isn’t too clear, but the entertainment industry is weird. The real question is, what will come next?

What is next for "Doctor Who"?

This is not a sign that the BBC is giving up on "Doctor Who". While the series struggled to gain an audience on Disney+ and eventually the partnership between the BBC and Disney collapsed, the network is still standing behind the franchise.

“'Doctor Who' remains an important part of the BBC, and this tender underpins the BBC’s continued commitment to "Doctor Who", ensuring audiences will enjoy the show for years to come,” the BBC said in a release.

What does putting up for tender mean? It means "Doctor Who" is up for grabs. The BBC is inviting any production company to pitch and bid for the rights to produce the show. With a legacy franchise like "Doctor Who" that’s a mighty tempting offer, and there’s sure to be plenty of companies out there looking to grab it. Just who that company will be probably won’t be known for a while, but it will definitely mean a dramatic new direction for the series.

As for who the next actor to play the time-travelling alien will be, that is also unknown. While Ncuti Gatwa’s Doctor did regenerate into Billie Piper at the end of the previous season, there’s very little reason to believe Piper will actually take over the role. The actress is closely connected to Davies and his production company, having played Rose Tyler, and a new production company will probably want a clean slate. The Doctor also already revisited a familiar face when David Tennant returned briefly to the role.

Basically, this all means that "Doctor Who" once again finds itself with a clean slate and a new direction. That’s something the show is no stranger to, of course, so it will be exciting to see what the future (and the past and the present and the wibbly wobbly timey wimey stuff) holds.

This one hurts Stargate fans. Remember that new "Stargate" show that Amazon announced it was working on for Prime Video back in November 2025? Yeah, that's not happening anymore.

As reported by Variety, Amazon has axed the new "Stargate" TV series. The show was being developed by Martin Gero, who was a co-producer on both the "Stargate: Atlantis" and "Stargate: Universe" spin-off shows, along with input from Stargate SG-1 showrunner Joseph Mallozzi and producer Brad Wright.

The news was confirmed by Mallozzi in a post on X shortly after the story broke.

According to a source that Variety spoke to, the show was cancelled because "Amazon execs were concerned that Gero's take on the series would not have broad appeal beyond the franchise’s already dedicated fanbase". Mallozzi pushed back against this statement on X, saying, "Nope. No. Sorry. Gonna have to push back on this. We were ever mindful of creating a show that would have broad appeal."

Very few plot details had been shared about Gero's project, but in an interview with Stargate podcast Dial the Gate in November 2025, Gero said that the show was "not here to undo what came before", framing the project as a continuation of the franchise, rather than a reboot. The show was still early in development, with Gero also noting in that same interview that "We're not casting yet. We're nowhere near casting yet."

This is disappointing news for Stargate fans — me chief among them — but there is still hope. While they've turned away from this idea, Amazon is reportedly still interested in exploring the Stargate franchise, and Gero himself will continue to develop show ideas as part of a larger deal with Amazon MGM Studios.

The first series, "Stargate SG1", debuted on television in 1997. It was a spin-off from the 1994 Roland Emmerich film that massively expanded upon the story and lore, while recasting the lead roles. Richard Dean Anderson slipped into the boots of Colonel Jack O'Neill (this time with two 'l's) while Michael Shanks took over from James Spader as Daniel Jackson. The duo was joined by Major Samantha Carter (Amanda Tapping) and alien warrior Teal'C (Christopher Judge) to form the eponymous SG-1, a team tasked with exploring the galaxy through the mysterious Stargate.

The show ran for an impressive 10 seasons between 1997 and 2007, racking up a staggering 214 episodes during its decade-long run, cementing itself as one of the most successful sci-fi TV shows of all time.

There were also two spin-off shows after that — "Atlantis" and "Universe". "Atlantis" had a successful run of five seasons, racking up 99 episodes of its own, but "Universe" struggled to find its footing, lasting for only two seasons before ending in 2011. Since then, the only Stargate we've had on our screens was "Stargate: Origins", a low-budget (but surprisingly good) prequel series that explored the life of Catherine Langford, the woman who discovered the Stargate.

For now, it's back to the drawing board for Amazon, and back to the pit of despair for us Stargate fans, but mark my words; there will be another Stargate show. Undomesticated equines could not stop it from happening.

Telescope maker Vaonis has unveiled two new additions to its smart telescope family, the Vespera III and the Vespera Pro 2, a pair of high-end telescopes designed to provide even better night sky views than their predecessors, the company said.

The new smart telescopes are the latest in the Vespera line of telescopes from Vaonis, the first of which was released in 2022 with the second-generation Vespera II and Vespera Pro models released in 2024. Building on the groundwork laid by the previous models, the Vespera III and Pro 2 — both unveiled last month — boast improvements to the optical design, which Vaonis claims will boost color contrast, reduce chromatic aberration (color fringing) and ensure edge-to-edge sharpness for astrophotography.

Smart telescopes have become increasingly popular in recent years, particularly among beginners and casual astrophotographers looking for equipment that automates alignment, tracking and image processing. They typically have a built-in image sensor and a go-to automatic mount controlled by a smartphone-app. Users can orient, locate targets and take photos of night sky objects from the palm of their hand, whether that be star clusters, galaxies or nebulas. While we think that smart telescopes are a great way for beginners to observe the night sky, with price tags either at or above $2500, these new releases aren't for budding astronomers on a budget.

Related: I thought my backyard had too much light pollution for astrophotography. The Vaonis Vespera Pro proved me wrong

Vaonis is one of the big companies competing in the smart telescope industry, alongside Unistellar, Celestron, ZWO and Dwarflab. This is a fast-growing area of amateur astronomy that has made skywatching and astrophotography easier than with a manual telescope setup.

Both models are available from BH Photo and Video, with the Vaonis Vespera III priced at $2,490 and the Vespera Pro 2 priced at $2,990.

• We've got you covered with reviews and rankings of the best telescopes, binoculars, star projectors, cameras, drones, Lego, streaming and more.

The new models build on the Vespera II and Vespera Pro, both of which received positive reviews from Space.com. The external design of the telescopes looks almost identical to the previous Vespera releases but with a new internal lens configuration and a shorter 245mm focal length. A shorter focal length should help deliver a wider field of view, something that is important when imaging larger deep sky objects like the Andromeda Galaxy.

Vaonis has also added several features aimed at improving usability. A built-in hygrometer measures humidity levels and works with an anti-fog system designed to prevent moisture from interrupting imaging sessions. The new models also add USB-C support for faster transfer of JPEG and RAW files to a computer.

Vaonis offers several optional accessories for its smart telescopes, including filters for solar imaging, dual-band imaging and light pollution reduction. While those filters are sold separately, the Vespera III and Vespera Pro 2 include an aluminum tripod designed to provide additional viewing height for observations in obstructed environments.

While the Vaonis Vespera III and Verspera Pro 2 are available now from BH Photo and Video and other retailers, we have not yet tested them at Space.com. You can see our review for the Vespera II, as well as our Vespera Pro review, to get an idea of how Vaonis smart telescopes stack up as high-end observing equipment. We also have a guide to the best smart telescopes that can help you decide.

Check out our other guides to the best telescopes, binoculars, cameras, star projectors, drones, lego and much more.

Every week, Space.com delivers the latest discoveries, launches, and cosmic curiosities from across the universe. From groundbreaking research aboard the International Space Station to dazzling new images from the James Webb Space Telescope, the stories are as vast and varied as space itself. But how closely have you been paying attention?

To celebrate the thrill of space exploration and the joy of learning, we've created a special crossword puzzle built entirely from this week's top Space.com stories. It's a fun, brain-tickling way to revisit the highlights, whether you're a casual stargazer or a die-hard astrophysics fan.

Expect clues that span planetary science, rocket launches, stargazing, and entertainment tied to the stars. If you read about it on Space.com last week, it might just show up in this puzzle. And if you didn't? Well, now's your chance to catch up while flexing your trivia muscles.

So channel your inner astronaut or astronomer, and dive into this week's interstellar quiz. The answers are out there, you just have to connect the clues.

Try it out below and see how well you do!

Every week, Space.com delivers the latest discoveries, launches, and cosmic curiosities from across the universe. From groundbreaking research aboard the International Space Station to dazzling new images from the James Webb Space Telescope, the stories are as vast and varied as space itself. But how closely have you been paying attention?

To celebrate the thrill of space exploration and the joy of learning, we've created a special crossword puzzle built entirely from this week's top Space.com stories. It's a fun, brain-tickling way to revisit the highlights, whether you're a casual stargazer or a die-hard astrophysics fan.

Expect clues that span planetary science, rocket launches, stargazing, and entertainment tied to the stars. If you read about it on Space.com last week, it might just show up in this puzzle. And if you didn't? Well, now's your chance to catch up while flexing your trivia muscles.

So channel your inner astronaut or astronomer, and dive into this week's interstellar quiz. The answers are out there, you just have to connect the clues.

Try it out below and see how well you do!

Every week, Space.com delivers the latest discoveries, launches, and cosmic curiosities from across the universe. From groundbreaking research aboard the International Space Station to dazzling new images from the James Webb Space Telescope, the stories are as vast and varied as space itself. But how closely have you been paying attention?

To celebrate the thrill of space exploration and the joy of learning, we've created a special crossword puzzle built entirely from this week's top Space.com stories. It's a fun, brain-tickling way to revisit the highlights, whether you're a casual stargazer or a die-hard astrophysics fan.

Expect clues that span planetary science, rocket launches, stargazing, and entertainment tied to the stars. If you read about it on Space.com last week, it might just show up in this puzzle. And if you didn't? Well, now's your chance to catch up while flexing your trivia muscles.

So channel your inner astronaut or astronomer, and dive into this week's interstellar quiz. The answers are out there, you just have to connect the clues.

Try it out below and see how well you do!

Every week, Space.com delivers the latest discoveries, launches, and cosmic curiosities from across the universe. From groundbreaking research aboard the International Space Station to dazzling new images from the James Webb Space Telescope, the stories are as vast and varied as space itself. But how closely have you been paying attention?

To celebrate the thrill of space exploration and the joy of learning, we've created a special crossword puzzle built entirely from this week's top Space.com stories. It's a fun, brain-tickling way to revisit the highlights, whether you're a casual stargazer or a die-hard astrophysics fan.

Expect clues that span planetary science, rocket launches, stargazing, and entertainment tied to the stars. If you read about it on Space.com last week, it might just show up in this puzzle. And if you didn't? Well, now's your chance to catch up while flexing your trivia muscles.

So channel your inner astronaut or astronomer, and dive into this week's interstellar quiz. The answers are out there, you just have to connect the clues.

Try it out below and see how well you do!

Every week, Space.com delivers the latest discoveries, launches, and cosmic curiosities from across the universe. From groundbreaking research aboard the International Space Station to dazzling new images from the James Webb Space Telescope, the stories are as vast and varied as space itself. But how closely have you been paying attention?

To celebrate the thrill of space exploration and the joy of learning, we've created a special crossword puzzle built entirely from this week's top Space.com stories. It's a fun, brain-tickling way to revisit the highlights, whether you're a casual stargazer or a die-hard astrophysics fan.

Expect clues that span planetary science, rocket launches, stargazing, and entertainment tied to the stars. If you read about it on Space.com last week, it might just show up in this puzzle. And if you didn't? Well, now's your chance to catch up while flexing your trivia muscles.

So channel your inner astronaut or astronomer, and dive into this week's interstellar quiz. The answers are out there, you just have to connect the clues.

Try it out below and see how well you do!

Every week, Space.com delivers the latest discoveries, launches, and cosmic curiosities from across the universe. From groundbreaking research aboard the International Space Station to dazzling new images from the James Webb Space Telescope, the stories are as vast and varied as space itself. But how closely have you been paying attention?

To celebrate the thrill of space exploration and the joy of learning, we've created a special crossword puzzle built entirely from this week's top Space.com stories. It's a fun, brain-tickling way to revisit the highlights, whether you're a casual stargazer or a die-hard astrophysics fan.

Expect clues that span planetary science, rocket launches, stargazing, and entertainment tied to the stars. If you read about it on Space.com last week, it might just show up in this puzzle. And if you didn't? Well, now's your chance to catch up while flexing your trivia muscles.

So channel your inner astronaut or astronomer, and dive into this week's interstellar quiz. The answers are out there, you just have to connect the clues.

Try it out below and see how well you do!

Every week, Space.com delivers the latest discoveries, launches, and cosmic curiosities from across the universe. From groundbreaking research aboard the International Space Station to dazzling new images from the James Webb Space Telescope, the stories are as vast and varied as space itself. But how closely have you been paying attention?

To celebrate the thrill of space exploration and the joy of learning, we've created a special crossword puzzle built entirely from this week's top Space.com stories. It's a fun, brain-tickling way to revisit the highlights, whether you're a casual stargazer or a die-hard astrophysics fan.

Expect clues that span planetary science, rocket launches, stargazing, and entertainment tied to the stars. If you read about it on Space.com last week, it might just show up in this puzzle. And if you didn't? Well, now's your chance to catch up while flexing your trivia muscles.

So channel your inner astronaut, and dive into this week's interstellar quiz. The answers are out there, you just have to connect the clues.

Try it out below and see how well you do!

It has been a whirlwind year for space science, to say the least.

The Trump administration only entered office at the beginning of this year, but has already shaken up the world of academic research and the structure of major science organizations such as NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. An interstellar comet strayed into our solar system and scientists have been rushing to study this sample from beyond ever since (even during a government shutdown).

Satellites are crowding Earth orbit, the northern lights are suddenly visible to people who would never normally expect to see them, and we even went through one of the shortest days in history. We saw black holes devouring stars in new ways, witnessed experts fight over whether an exoplanet called K2-18b is actually exhibiting signs of life right before NASA's Perseverance rover found a possible biosignature of its own, and waited patiently for a new observatory to drop its first images — and that barely scratches the surface of it.

But I was curious about something. With so many massive cosmic stories competing for attention, which ones resonated the most? What space questions were people Googling? What sounded too good to miss?

To find out, I dug into our metrics and searched for the 12 most read stories of 2025. Here's what I found.

12. China reached out to NASA to avoid a potential satellite collision in 1st-of-its-kind space cooperation

Possible satellite accidents and surprising international space cooperation kick off this list; At number 12, is a story that perhaps offered a glimpse of a more collaborative future in orbit that can drown out our Kessler Syndrome worries.

This year, officials with the Chinese National Space Agency did something unexpected: They reached out to NASA after detecting a potential satellite traffic collision, suggesting NASA hold its satellite still while they figure out a maneuver. While NASA has sent such alerts to China before, the reverse hadn't happened until now.

On one hand, there's something to be said here about how many satellites are traversing Earth orbit (so many that space traffic control is moving toward normalcy!) and, on the other, it shows China's space capabilities may have leveled up once more. Detecting and tracking potential collisions requires sophisticated space situational awareness, something long dominated by the U.S.

Read the full article here.

11. Big lake in Quebec suddenly disappears, satellite finds

The headline of this Space Photo of the Day from August is certainly worth a double-take, so I'm not terribly shocked it's on this list.

The short explanation for what happened here is that the land surrounding a lake in Quebec collapsed inward on itself, causing the lake's water to drain suddenly and triggering landslides with little to no warning. Families with the Cree First Nation of Waswanipi, an Indigenous community in Quebec, were devastated by the loss of their traditional hunting, fishing and campgrounds.

Read the full article here.

10. James Webb Space Telescope takes 1st look at interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS with unexpected results

Of course comet 3I/ATLAS had to make this list. It's one of the most fascinating cosmic serendipities to happen in recent memory.

Comets are very cool in and of themselves, but what's special about 3I/ATLAS is that it came from beyond our solar system — hence, its "interstellar" title – and it's only the third confirmed object to enter our corner of the cosmos from elsewhere. Scientists are trying to learn as much as possible about this so-called "invader" before it leaves forever, and in this article, you can see data about the comet captured by the James Webb Space Telescope — a highly revered, infrared-light-catching instrument that launched on Christmas Day in 2021.

Read the full article here.

9. Earth will spin faster today to create 2nd-shortest day in history

The second shortest day on record took place this year on July 22, but it was only 1.34 milliseconds shorter. The record didn't last long; it was broken again on Aug. 5.

What causes these variations? Well, Earth's rotation isn't perfectly constant because of variables like the gravitational pull of the moon on our planet, masses on our planet itself shifting (like its liquid core) and seasonal changes. And even though we can't actually feel the difference in rotation, it's maybe nice to know that forces beyond the context of our reality are shifting and aligning to keep our clocks ticking and our journey through the universe a healthy cruise.

Read the full article here.

8. Failed Soviet Venus lander Kosmos 482 crashes to Earth after 53 years in orbit

It was a bittersweet moment on May 10 this year, when a Soviet-era spacecraft, Kosmos 482, plunged back to Earth after more than five decades in orbit.

Kosmos 482's destiny was to ride the tides around Venus, but because of a failure during launch, the spacecraft never made it past our planet's orbit. And for the last five decades, it had remained in limbo there, unable to continue its journey or return home, until gravity closed the chapter.

At last, it's home.

Read the full article here.

7. Russian 'Noah's Ark' satellite carrying 75 mice and 1,500 flies lands back on Earth

Speaking of in-orbit objects that returned home, so did a spherical Russian spacecraft carrying 75 mice, 1,500 flies, microorganisms and plant seeds spent 30 days in orbit, exposing its living cargo to cosmic radiation and microgravity before returning to Earth.

While 10 mice died and some flies didn’t survive, most of the animals came back alive, giving scientists valuable insight into how living organisms cope with spaceflight.

Read the full article here.

6. Cosmonaut removed from SpaceX's Crew 12 mission for violating national security rules: report

In early December, an investigative report from Russian news site The Insider revealed that cosmonaut Oleg Artemyev was removed from SpaceX's Crew 12 mission after allegedly leaking confidential SpaceX documentation and photos.

This mission, scheduled to launch to the International Space Station as early as February, now lists cosmonaut Andrei Fedyayev as Artemyev's replacement on the four-person crew.

Read the full article here.

5. Scientists analyze 76 million radio telescope images, find Starlink satellite interference 'where no signals are supposed to be present'

And on the note of SpaceX, the rise of satellite megaconstellations spearheaded by Elon Musk's company continues to make headlines for the negative impact it has on astronomy observations. Though other satellites are contributors to the issue of signal interference in night sky images — notably AST SpaceMobile's Bluewalker 3 — SpaceX's Starlink internet satellites are quite the polluters in this domain. There are over 10,000 deployed satellites, with more on the way.

This article is one of several that investigate how bad the Starlink effect is on astronomy, and how much worse it could get. A new study from this month, for instance, suggests satellite constellations like Starlink could obscure most space telescope observations by the late 2030s.

Read the full article here.

4. What time is Sept. 7 blood moon total lunar eclipse?

Number four on this list represents several blood moon stories from this year, as humanity's desire to view our lunar friend became quite clear to me while we searched through our most-read stories.

The blood moon, for context, happened because a total lunar eclipse was visible across Asia and Europe overnight from Sept. 7 through Sept. 8. The moon’s deep red hue appeared as it passed through Earth's shadow, with the exact shade shaped by conditions in Earth's atmosphere — a process explained in detail through an accompanying infographic.

It's also hard to forget how much the 2024 total solar eclipse captivated the world; it would seem space traffic is just as mesmerizing as space traffic control to us.

Read the full article here.

3. NASA's Perseverance rover hits the Mars rock gold mine: 'It has been all we had hoped for and more'

The Perseverance rover had some major wins this year while scouring the Martian surface for clues about the history of the Red Planet. One of them is the absolute bounty of peculiar rocks it found at a spot near Jezero Crater called "Witch Hazel Hill."

While exploring the region, the rover uncovered intriguing specimens, including once-molten rocks and, for the first time, material from the crater rim itself. One particularly prized sample, dubbed Silver Mountain, captivated scientists with its unusual textures — and will likely remain a highlight of the mission for years to come.

Read the full article here.

2. Northern lights may be visible in these 23 US States June 1

Similar to the deal with the blood moon conglomerate, this article represents all the northern lights stories that were running off the charts this year.

The current solar cycle has been kind enough to allow humans across the world to see the northern lights right in their backyards, even if they don't live in the frigid polar areas of our globe. And after getting a taste of what it's like to see these surreal light shows, it appears to have become a chase for many.

What'll happen when a solar cycle doesn't treat us this well in the future? Hello darkness my old friend?

Read the full article here.

1. Trump's signing of 'One Big Beautiful Bill' includes $85 million to move space shuttle Discovery from Smithsonian to Texas

Welcome to our number one most-read story this year: A rundown of how the Trump administration's "Big Beautiful Bill" allocated money to move the iconic space shuttle Discovery (currently located at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum in Washington D.C.) to Space Center Houston, the official visitor center for NASA's Johnson Space Center in Texas.

This idea has been met with much disdain from experts, in part because it would entail sort of chipping up Discovery into different pieces. Not to mention, it'd be pretty hard to complete the task — and the money involved could theoretically be used for other stuff.

It's fitting to have this story at our top spot because of how science has been flipped upside down this year due to changes implemented by the Trump administration. Several of Space.com's stories in 2025 have been dedicated to peeling back the layers of how the administration — since taking office at the start of this year — has led to mass layoffs of scientists, language changes on scientific websites, an increase in quiet censorship and arguably illegal moves from major organizations like NASA.

Considering the amount of dramatic news we see on this list alone, both directly and indirectly, it will be interesting to see what our 2026 "most read stories" list will look like.

Read the full article here.

Every week, Space.com delivers the latest discoveries, launches, and cosmic curiosities from across the universe. From groundbreaking research aboard the International Space Station to dazzling new images from the James Webb Space Telescope, the stories are as vast and varied as space itself. But how closely have you been paying attention?

To celebrate the thrill of space exploration and the joy of learning, we've created a special crossword puzzle built entirely from this week's top Space.com stories. It's a fun, brain-tickling way to revisit the highlights, whether you're a casual stargazer or a die-hard astrophysics fan.

Expect clues that span planetary science, rocket launches, stargazing, and entertainment tied to the stars. If you read about it on Space.com last week, it might just show up in this puzzle. And if you didn't? Well, now's your chance to catch up while flexing your trivia muscles.

So channel your inner astronaut, and dive into this week's interstellar quiz. The answers are out there, you just have to connect the clues.

Try it out below and see how well you do!

Every week, Space.com delivers the latest discoveries, launches, and cosmic curiosities from across the universe. From groundbreaking research aboard the International Space Station to dazzling new images from the James Webb Space Telescope, the stories are as vast and varied as space itself. But how closely have you been paying attention?

To celebrate the thrill of space exploration and the joy of learning, we've created a special crossword puzzle built entirely from this week's top Space.com stories. It's a fun, brain-tickling way to revisit the highlights, whether you're a casual stargazer or a die-hard astrophysics fan.

Expect clues that span planetary science, rocket launches, stargazing, and entertainment tied to the stars. If you read about it on Space.com last week, it might just show up in this puzzle. And if you didn't? Well, now's your chance to catch up while flexing your trivia muscles.

So channel your inner astronaut, and dive into this week's interstellar quiz. The answers are out there, you just have to connect the clues.

Try it out below and see how well you do!

Every week, Space.com delivers the latest discoveries, launches, and cosmic curiosities from across the universe. From groundbreaking research aboard the International Space Station to dazzling new images from the James Webb Space Telescope, the stories are as vast and varied as space itself. But how closely have you been paying attention?

To celebrate the thrill of space exploration and the joy of learning, we've created a special crossword puzzle built entirely from this week's top Space.com stories. It's a fun, brain-tickling way to revisit the highlights, whether you're a casual stargazer or a die-hard astrophysics fan.

Expect clues that span planetary science, rocket launches, stargazing, and entertainment tied to the stars. If you read about it on Space.com last week, it might just show up in this puzzle. And if you didn't? Well, now's your chance to catch up while flexing your trivia muscles.

So channel your inner astronaut, and dive into this week's interstellar quiz. The answers are out there, you just have to connect the clues.

Try it out below and see how well you do!

Every week, Space.com delivers the latest discoveries, launches, and cosmic curiosities from across the universe. From groundbreaking research aboard the International Space Station to dazzling new images from the James Webb Space Telescope, the stories are as vast and varied as space itself. But how closely have you been paying attention?

To celebrate the thrill of space exploration and the joy of learning, we've created a special crossword puzzle built entirely from this week's top Space.com stories. It's a fun, brain-tickling way to revisit the highlights, whether you're a casual stargazer or a die-hard astrophysics fan.

Expect clues that span planetary science, rocket launches, stargazing, and entertainment tied to the stars. If you read about it on Space.com last week, it might just show up in this puzzle. And if you didn't? Well, now's your chance to catch up while flexing your trivia muscles.

So channel your inner astronaut, and dive into this week's interstellar quiz. The answers are out there, you just have to connect the clues.

Try it out below and see how well you do!

Every week, Space.com delivers the latest discoveries, launches, and cosmic curiosities from across the universe. From groundbreaking research aboard the International Space Station to dazzling new images from the James Webb Space Telescope, the stories are as vast and varied as space itself. But how closely have you been paying attention?

To celebrate the thrill of space exploration and the joy of learning, we've created a special crossword puzzle built entirely from this week's top Space.com stories. It's a fun, brain-tickling way to revisit the highlights, whether you're a casual stargazer or a die-hard astrophysics fan.

Expect clues that span planetary science, rocket launches, stargazing, and entertainment tied to the stars. If you read about it on Space.com last week, it might just show up in this puzzle. And if you didn't? Well, now's your chance to catch up while flexing your trivia muscles.

So channel your inner astronaut, and dive into this week's interstellar quiz. The answers are out there, you just have to connect the clues.

Try it out below and see how well you do!

Every week, Space.com delivers the latest discoveries, launches, and cosmic curiosities from across the universe. From groundbreaking research aboard the International Space Station to dazzling new images from the James Webb Space Telescope, the stories are as vast and varied as space itself. But how closely have you been paying attention?

To celebrate the thrill of space exploration and the joy of learning, we've created a special crossword puzzle built entirely from this week's top Space.com stories. It's a fun, brain-tickling way to revisit the highlights, whether you're a casual stargazer or a die-hard astrophysics fan.

Expect clues that span planetary science, rocket launches, stargazing, and entertainment tied to the stars. If you read about it on Space.com last week, it might just show up in this puzzle. And if you didn't? Well, now's your chance to catch up while flexing your trivia muscles.

So channel your inner astronaut, and dive into this week's interstellar quiz. The answers are out there, you just have to connect the clues.

Try it out below and see how well you do!

Legend had it that these eerie night-time displays of colored lights originated from the far-northern seas or from the reflection of sunlight off of polar ice. I highly recommend seeking out the "The Ballad of the Northern Lights" penned by a British-Canadian poet and writer, often called "the Bard of the Yukon," Robert W. Service (1874-1958).

I was introduced to Service as a young boy, listening to humorist Jean Shepherd on his popular nightly radio show aired on WOR/710 in New York. On one frigidly cold night, "Shep" decided to read Service's story of three miners who traveled north into the frozen tundra of the arctic. Only one of the three survived and toward the end of the story, he is found in a bar and describing what he claimed was the source of the northern lights to another bar patron:

'Some say that the Northern Lights are the glare of the arctic ice and snow. And some say they're electricity — nobody seems to know. But I'll tell you now—and if I lie, may my lips be stricken dumb. It's a mine — a mine of the precious stuff that men call radium. It's a million dollars a pound, they say, and there's tons and tons in sight. You can see it gleam in a golden stream in the solitudes of night.'

Atmospheric antics

Service's explanation, of course, was wrong. The truth of the matter is, that this colorful phenomenon occurs in the outer layers of our atmosphere 60 to 600 miles up, known as the ionosphere. Whenever a flare erupts on the sun, sharp streams of electrified, subatomic particles — solar winds — flow through space toward Earth. 

They travel at speeds of between two to 5 million mph, and are attracted toward the north and south magnetic poles. Ultimately, they collide with molecules and atoms of rarefied gases one or two days later. These atoms are temporarily stripped of some of their electrons by the collision or near collision. The atoms absorb energy in the process and, within a millionth of a second, regain their lost electrons, re-emitting this energy in the form of light composed of various colors. 

Actually, the sun is constantly spraying our planet with electrified particles. Around the north and south magnetic poles, the skies are perpetually glowing with solar overcharge. Up in the polar regions — Alaska, northern Canada, Iceland and Greenland, some form of auroral activity is evident on most any clear, dark night. But should a major solar flare erupt, the zone of auroral visibility can be pushed well to the south, allowing those in the contiguous US a rare chance to see the shifting, glowing, diffuse dance of yellow, pink and green lights for themselves. 

Auroras are difficult to describe. They seem to come and go; arcs start at the horizon and spread upward; fluttering streamers, curtains and rays sometimes can extend toward the zenith. The varieties and forms that an aurora can take are almost infinite.

Best time to see the northern lights

Around the equinoxes, the Earth's axis is side-on to the sun, which happens to sync with the magnetic field of the solar wind. That means that around the time of an equinox, charged particles are more likely to be accelerated down the field lines of Earth's magnetic poles, enhancing the possibility of making an auroral sighting. And some of the most spectacular auroras have occurred around this time of year. 

On March 23, 1969, as seen from Jones Beach, Long Island, the entire sky was aurora-covered save for 20 degrees above the sea horizon to the south. From Willimantic, Connecticut, an observer likened the rays to the ribs of an open umbrella.

On April 12, 1981, a bright aurora consisting of colors ranging from reddish rust to turquoise and aquamarine was seen as far south as Phoenix, Arizona.

Then on March 13, 1989, what even veteran observers remarked as ‘one of the grandest displays in memory’ took place. I was living in Levittown, Long Island, New York at the time and my wife Renate and I were awakened at 1:30 a.m. by an acquaintance who said he believed he was seeing an aurora from light-polluted Union, NJ. We opened up our north-facing bedroom window just in time to catch a sudden explosion of green and blue light which soared all the way to the zenith. Upon rushing outside, we saw other parts of the sky pulsing with stunning shades of reds and pinks. This remarkable aurora was seen all the way down to the Gulf Coast, and its associated magnetic storm tripped circuit breakers on Hydro-Quebec's power grid, plunging millions into darkness for nine hours.

Aurora sightings are possible around the fall equinox

The time around the September equinox can also favor aurora sightings. On Sept. 18, 1941, a dazzling auroral display was seen as far south as Jacksonville, Florida. My mother often told me of how, as a little girl growing up on the upper east side of Manhattan, she and my grandparents were witnesses to a sensational Northern Lights display. 

She said that many crowded the city streets watching the spectacular show in amazement. One elderly Italian woman started crying out that the end of the world was at hand; she was ultimately calmed by my grandfather (who spoke fluent Italian) and explained to her what was transpiring above her head. 

It was my grandfather who, as a teenager, also witnessed a total solar eclipse in New York, and would later spark my interest in astronomy by taking me to my first total eclipse in 1972. He had a good knowledge of things pertaining to space and the sky.

Sorry Dodgers fans!

But that 1941 auroral show provided to be more of an annoyance to fans of the Brooklyn Dodgers, who missed 15 minutes of that day's broadcast between the Dodgers and Pirates at Pittsburgh's Forbes Field. That's because the geomagnetic storm had temporarily blacked-out radio communications and during that interval, the Pirates scored four runs, much to the chagrin of Dodger fans straining to hear the game. 

According to The New York Times, ‘Thousands of Brooklyn followers meanwhile had telephoned the station and displayed little satisfaction with the explanation that the sun was to blame.’

When is the next best northern lights display?

Solar activity is on the rise and is expected to peak in late 2024 or 2025, but a major flare could erupt at almost any time. To get updates on the next possible auroral display which might be visible from your area check out the website SpaceWeather.com, which provides the latest news and information about the sun-earth environment. 

Joe Rao serves as an instructor and guest lecturer at New York's Hayden Planetarium. He writes about astronomy for Natural History magazine, the Farmers' Almanac and other publications. Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook

Billionaire investor Paul Allen has unveiled a new company, Stratolauch Systems, to provide private rocket launches into Earth orbit from a giant aerial launch platform made up of the biggest airplane in history. The novel launch system will use a giant twin-boom airplane with a wingspan longer than a football field and launch a rocket and space capsule designed by the private spaceflight company SpaceX. See how the Stratolaunch system stacks up in the SPACE.com infographic above. 

• Stratolaunch Images: Paul Allen's Giant Rocket-Launching Plane
• Billionaire Paul Allen's New Space Project Has Deep Roots
• Video: Operation: Stratolaunch - Dream Team Announces New to Space Venture

SpaceX Dragon V2 Preview Image - Control Panel

A glimpse at the control panel of SpaceX's manned Dragon V2. The unveiling of Dragon V2 takes place on May 29, 2014. SpaceX will webcast the event directly from their state-of-the-art design and manufacturing facility in Hawthorne, California. [Read the Full Story Here]

SpaceX Dragon V2 Preview Image - Seat Belt

A glimpse at one of the seats on Dragon V2 – SpaceX’s next generation spacecraft designed to carry astronauts to space. The unveiling will take place on May 29, 2014. [Read the Full Story Here]

SpaceX's Passenger-Carrying Dragon Capsule (Infographic)

Already tested as a cargo carrier, the Dragon spacecraft can also be fitted out to shuttle passengers to low orbit and to the International Space Station. See how SpaceX's Dragon capsules work in this SPACE.com infographic.

SpaceX Falcon 9 Rocket Octaweb

The new circular Octaweb engine arrangement of SpaceX's nine Falcon 9 Merlin 1D engines is seen in this image. [Read the Full Story Here]

SpaceX Falcon 9 Rocket V 1.1

An upgraded SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket stands poised to launch from Space Launch Complex 4 at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California in September 2013. Liftoff set for Sept. 29, 2013. [Read the Full Story Here]

SpaceX New Falcon 9 Engine Test

SpaceX's new upgraded Falcon 9 rocket undergoes an static fire engine test on Sept. 19, 2013 ahead of a Sept. 29 launch testfrom Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. [Read the Full Story Here]

SpaceX Falcon 9 Rocket Night View

SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon space capsule stand poised to launch to the International Space Station just one hour before liftoff (8:35 p.m. ET) from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla., on Oct. 7, 2012.

Dragon Grappled by ISS

The SpaceX Dragon commercial cargo craft is grappled by the International Space Station's Canadarm2 robotic arm on Oct. 10, 2012 during the spacecraft's first cargo delivery mission for NASA under a $1.6 billion deal for commercial cargo delivery.

SpaceX Grasshopper Rocket's Highest Test: March 7, 2013

On March 7, 2013, SpaceX’s Grasshopper doubled its highest leap to date to rise 24 stories or 262.8 feet (80.1 meters), hovering for approximately 34 seconds and landing safely using closed loop thrust vector and throttle control.

Mannequin Cowboy on SpaceX's Grasshopper Rocket

A mannequin cowboy dressed in black, nicknamed Johnny, rode SpaceX's Grasshopper reusable rocket during its highest ever test flight on March 7, 2013. The flight in Texas reached a height of 263 feet (80 meters).

SpaceX Dragon Meets Falcon 9

Technicians move a SpaceX Dragon capsule into place at the nose of the company's Falcon 9 rocket during preparations to launch the spacecraft on a cargo flight to the International Space Station.

SpaceX's Falcon 9 Rolls Out

The Space Exploration Technologies Corp., or SpaceX, Falcon 9 rocket with Dragon capsule attached on top is lifted into the vertical position during a rollout demonstration test at Space Launch Complex-40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. This image was taken Oct. 2, 2012.

SpaceX Dragon Approaches the ISS

The SpaceX Dragon commercial cargo craft makes its relative approach to the International Space Station prior to grapple by the station's Canadarm2 robotic arm, controlled by Expedition 33 crew members. This image was taken Oct. 10, 2012.

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk with Falcon 9 Rocket

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk stands next to the company's Falcon 9 rocket, which blasted SpaceX's Dragon capsule into orbit in December 2010.

Engines Ignite for SpaceX Falcon 9 Launch

Space Launch Complex 40 on Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida comes alive as the Merlin engines ignite under the Falcon 9 rocket carrying a Dragon capsule to orbit on Oct. 7, 2012.

Falcon 9 and Dragon Liftoff

Liftoff of Falcon 9 and Dragon from Launch Complex 40 in Cape Canaveral, Fl. on Oct. 7, 2012.

SpaceX Dragon Commercial Cargo Craft Approaches ISS

Backdropped by a cloud-covered part of Earth, the SpaceX Dragon commercial cargo craft makes its relative approach to the International Space Station prior to grapple by the station's Canadarm2 robotic arm, controlled by Expedition 33 crew members. This image was taken Oct. 10, 2012.

SpaceX Dragon Splashdown

The SpaceX Dragon capsule splashes down in the Pacific Ocean Oct. 28, 2012 after its first caro delivery mission to the International Space Station.

SpaceX Grasshopper's Highest Hop, Dec. 17

The SpaceX Grasshopper rocket prototype vertically launched and landed in its most impressive test flight to date on Dec. 17.

SpaceX's Grasshopper

Grasshopper consists of a Falcon 9 rocket first stage, Merlin 1D engine, four steel landing legs with hydraulic dampers, and a steel support structure. For a sense of its scale, note the blue pick-up truck to the left of Grasshopper in the photo above.

SpaceX's Falcon 9 Unique View

A unique view from the ground looking up shows the Space Exploration Technologies Corp., or SpaceX, Falcon 9 rocket with Dragon capsule attached after it was lifted into the vertical position during a rollout demonstration test to Space Launch Complex-40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. This image was taken Oct. 2, 2012.

SpaceX Dragon Leaves Space Station

The private Dragon capsule built by SpaceX is seen at the end of the International Space Station's robotic arm during its undocking on Oct. 28, 2012, in this camera view. The Dragon capsule made the first commercial cargo delivery to the space station for NASA.

Elon Musk and Cheering SpaceX Employees

SpaceX founder Elon Musk stands before cheering SpaceX employees at their Los Angeles facility following the successful launch of their Falcon 9 rocket on May 22, 2012.

SpaceX's Falcon 9 Heavy Rocket Art

An artist's illustration of a SpaceX Falcon 9 Heavy rocket launching into space.

Falcon Heavy Rocket

Illustration of SpaceX's Falcon Heavy rocket, which the company says will be the most capable rocket operating today.

SpaceX's Falcon 9 Heavy Rocket Explained

This SpaceX fact sheet points out the major differences between the company's Falcon 9 rocket and its planned Falcon 9 Heavy booster.

Falcon 1 at Sunrise

SpaceX's Falcon 1 rocket is being readied for a second test launch in January 2007.

SpaceX's Falcon 1

SpaceX's Falcon 1 Flight 4 on the launch pad at Omelek Island in the Kwajalein Atoll of the Marshall Islands on Sept. 19, 2008.

SpaceX Successfully Launches Falcon 1 Rocket Into Orbit

SpaceX's fourth Falcon 1 rocket successfully launches into orbit from the Kwajalein Atoll on the Pacific Ocean late Sunday, Sept. 28, 2008.

SpaceX's Dragon Test Article

The Dragon test article is displayed at SpaceX Headquarters. It will be used for upcoming testing.

A rocket carrying NASA's latest high-tech relay satellite streaks into orbit from a launch pad in Florida in an amazing image captured by a space agency photographer.

Photographer Tony Gray took this long-exposure photograph of an unmanned United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket hurtling NASA's newest Tracking and Data Relay Satellite, called the TDRS-L, into orbit on Jan. 23 from a pad at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. The light from the rocket engines illuminated a beach restoration site filled with construction vehicles.

The TDRS-L satellite is the second of three new satellites designed to keep NASA's operations going by extending the lifespan of the Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System (TDRSS), a fleet of eight satellites in geosynchronous orbit. The spacecraft provide tracking, telemetry, command and high bandwidth data return services for numerous science and human exploration missions orbiting Earth, including NASA's Hubble Space Telescope and the International Space Station.

TDRS-L utilizes a high-performance solar panel designed to provide more power to meet growing S-band communications requirements. TDRSS makes up one of NASA's Space Communication and Navigation’s SCaN three networks providing space communications for the U.S. space agency's missions.

The first of the third-generation satellites, TDRS-K, launched on Jan. 30, 2013, and TDRS fleet accepted it in mid-August. NASA plans to launch TDRS-M in 2015.

Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook or Google+. Originally published on Space.com.

This stunning space wallpaper shows a rainbow of lunar transits as seen by NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory. The observatory watches the sun in many different wavelengths of light, which are each colorized in a different color. [ Full Story ]

NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory Sees Lunar Transit on Jan. 30, 2014

A rainbow of lunar transits as seen by NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory. The observatory watches the sun in many different wavelengths of light, which are each colorized in a different color.

Long Filament on the Sun

A long filament snaked across half the sun during the week of Jan. 19-23, 2014. This one, if it were straightened out, would be about 500,000 miles (804,000 km) long. Filaments consist of elongated clouds of cooler gases, tethered above the solar surface by powerful magnetic forces. They often exhibit instability and remain prone to erupting, although so far this one has remained intact. The images, taken in extreme ultraviolet light, actually show ionized helium at about 108,000 degrees F (60,000 degrees C).

Lunar Transit Seen by Solar Dynamics Observatory

NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory captured this image of the moon crossing in front of its view of the sun on Jan. 30, 2014, at 9:00 a.m. EST.

Solar Fireworks: Sun Flare of July 3, 2013

The sun unleashed an M1.5-class solar flare (lower left) on July 3, 2013, a solar fireworks to the traditional Fourth of July holiday in the United States. [a href="http://www.space.com/21835-solar-flare-sun-fireworks-video.html">Read the Full Story]

Sun Emits Mid-Level Flare

NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory captured this image of an M5.7-class flare on May 3, 2013, at 1:30 p.m. EDT. This image shows light in the 131-angstrom wavelength, a wavelength of light that can show material at the very hot temperatures of a solar flare and that is typically colorized in teal.

Prominence Eruption

A burst of solar material leaps off the left side of the sun in what’s known as a prominence eruption. This image combines three images from NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory captured on May 3, 2013, at 1:45 pm EDT, just as an M-class solar flare from the same region was subsiding. The images include light from the 131-, 171- and 304-angstrom wavelengths.

Gigantic Rolling Wave Captured on the Sun

A coronal mass ejection (CME) erupted from just around the edge of the sun on May 1, 2013, in a gigantic rolling wave. CMEs can shoot over a billion tons of particles into space at over a million miles per hour. This CME occurred on the sun’s limb and is not headed toward Earth.

Full Year Composite of the Sun

This image is a composite of 25 separate images spanning the period of April 16, 2012, to April 15, 2013. It uses the SDO AIA wavelength of 171 angstroms and reveals the zones on the sun where active regions are most common during this part of the solar cycle.

Strong Solar Flare: April 11, 2013 - Full Disk

This full-disk view of the sun was captured by NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory on April 11, 2013, during the strongest solar flare yet seen in 2013.

Solar Eruption of March 12, 2013

This screenshot from a video taken by NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory spacecraft shows a coronal mass ejection (center) erupting from the sun on March 12, 2013.

Solar Plasma Rain Falls on the Sun

A close-up of a spectacular loop of solar plasma "rain" on the sun as seen by NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory spacecraft on July 19, 2012. NASA released a video of the amazing sight on Feb. 20, 2013.

NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory Sees Huge Solar Flare

Solar Dynamics Observatory captured the flare, shown here in red/orange as that is the color typically used to show light in the 304 Angstrom wavelength. The flare began at 10:38 PM ET on Jan. 22, peaked at 10:59 PM and ended at 11:34 PM.

Quiet Sun During Solar Max

This image shows the Earth-facing surface of the Sun on February 28, 2013, as observed by the Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager (HMI) on NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory. HMI observed just a few small sunspots on an otherwise clean face, which is usually riddled with many spots during peak solar activity.

Two Sunspots February 2013

The bottom two black spots on the sun, known as sunspots, appeared quickly over the course of Feb. 19-20, 2013. These two sunspots are part of the same system and are over six Earths across.

Solar Flare Captured by Solar Dynamics Observatory

NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory observed the massive solar flare that erupted on the sun on Jan. 23, 2012 (0359 GMT; 10:59 p.m. EST).

Solar Prominence Sun 'Twister' - Solar Dynamics Observatory

A stalk-like prominence rose up above the sun, then split into roughly four strands that twisted themselves into a knot and dispersed over a two-hour period (July 12, 2011). NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory took a video of the sun twister.

NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory - Sun's Magnetic Rope

On the left, NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory shows the magnetic rope as the thick looped structure extending above the edge of the sun. On the right, SDO observes as the surrounding cool magnetic field lines are pushed away by the intruding magnetic rope seen on the left. Both images are taken almost simultaneously (within three seconds of each other).

M-Class Solar Flare - Solar Dynamics Observatory

A powerful M9-class solar flare erupted from the sun at 10:09 p.m. EDT on July 29 (0209 GMT July 30).

Huge Solar Flare Seen by Solar Dynamics Observatory - January 23, 2012

The images above show a HUGE solar flare as observed by the Atmospheric Imaging Assembly (AIA) on NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) at 0327, 0342, and 0412 GMT on January 23 (10:27 p.m., 10:42 p.m. and 11:12 p.m. EST on Jan. 22).

Solar Dynamics Observatory Sees Jan. 23 Solar Flare

NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory observed the M9-class solar flare that sparked the strongest radiation storm since 2005.

Solar Flare Seen by NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory

NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory captured the flare, shown here in teal as that is the color typically used to show light in the 131 Angstrom wavelength, a wavelength in which it is easy to view solar flares. The flare began at 10:38 PM ET on Jan. 22, peaked at 10:59 PM and ended at 11:34 PM.

Solar Dynamics Observatory Sees X-Class Solar Flare

NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory spotted the X1.1-class solar flare that erupted from the sun at 11:13 p.m. EST on March 4 (0413 GMT March 5).

2012 Venus Transit Seen by Solar Dynamics Observatory

This series of photographs of the 2012 Venus transit was seen by the Solar Dynamics Observatory in space, June 5, 2012.

Sunspot AR 1520 Seen by Solar Dynamics Observatory

NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory saw sunspot AR 1520 before the solar flare erupted from it on July 12, 2012.

Solar Dynamics Observatory Better than Ultra-HD

NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory takes photos that are so high-resolution that not even the most advanced Ultra-HD TVs have the definition to display them in full resolution.

Flux Ropes on the Sun

This is an image of magnetic loops on the sun, captured by NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO). It has been processed to highlight the edges of each loop to make the structure more clear. A series of loops such as this is known as a flux rope, and these lie at the heart of eruptions on the sun known as coronal mass ejections (CMEs.) This is the first time scientists were able to discern the timing of a flux rope's formation. (Blended 131 Angstrom and 171 Angstrom images of July 19, 2012 flare and CME.)

Lunar Transit Authority

Tuesday, March 8, 2011: NASA's SDO satellite photographed the moon passing in front of the sun, March 2-4, 2011.

--Tom Chao

Solar Dynamics Observatory Pre-July 4 Fireworks From the Sun

The Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) captured this M5.6 class solar flare on July 2, 2012.

SP_120906_SDOEclipseSeason.jpg

Earth Gets In The Way During SDO's Eclipse Season

SDO Combined Views of the Solar Flare on July 12, 2012

This image combines two sets of observations of the sun at 10:45 AM EDT, July 12, 2012 from the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) to give an impression of what the sun looked like shortly before it unleashed an X-class flare beginning at 12:11 PM EDT.

SDO's Ultra-high Definition View of 2012 Venus Transit - 304 Angstrom

On June 5-6 2012, SDO is collecting images of one of the rarest predictable solar events: the transit of Venus across the face of the sun. This event happens in pairs eight years apart that are separated from each other by 105 or 121 years. The last transit was in 2004 and the next will not happen until 2117. This image was captured June 5, 2012.

SDO Sees Sun Tornadoes

Tornado-like plasma twisters dance across the sun in this still from a NASA video recorded by the Solar Dynamics Observatory during a 30-hour period between Feb. 7 and 8 in 2012.

X-Class Solar Flare Seen by SDO - March 6, 2012

NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory caught the huge X-class solar flare erupting from the surface of the sun on March 6, 2012.

Solar Dynamics Observatory Independence Day Fireworks

This image shows four separate images of the M5.3 class flare from the morning of July 4, 2012.

Strong Solar Flare: April 11, 2013

NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory captured this image of a powerful M6.5 class flare, the strongest of 2013 at the time, at 3:16 EDT on April 11, 2013. This image shows a combination of light in wavelengths of 131 and 171 Angstroms.

Solar Eruption of Aug. 31, 2012

On Aug. 31, 2012, a giant prominence on the sun erupted, sending out particles and a shock wave that traveled near Earth. This event may have been one of the causes of a third radiation belt that appeared around Earth a few days later, a phenomenon that was observed for the very first time by the newly-launched Van Allen Probes. This image of the prominence before it erupted was captured by NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory.

Grasshopper Flight Oct. 7

On Oct. 7, SpaceX's Grasshopper rocket climbed 2,441 feet (744 meters) into the air before safely landing back on its launch pad in McGregor, Texas. Image uploaded Oct. 14. Read the full story and see the video of Grasshopper's highest hop yet.

SpaceX Grasshopper at 1,066 Feet: June 14, 2013

SpaceX's reusable Grasshopper reaches a new record height of just over 1,066 feet (325 meters) on June 14, 2013 during a test flight from its McGregor, Texas proving ground. This image is a still from a video recorded by an unmanned hexacopter drone. [Read the Full Story]

SpaceX Grasshopper Test Flight: June 14, 2013

SpaceX's reusable Grasshopper rocket prototype rises skyward from its McGregor, Texas launch pad during a June 14, 2013 test flight that reached 1,066 feet (325 meters) before descending back to Earth. This still was taken from a video recorded by a small unmanned hexacopter. [Read the Full Story]

SpaceX's Grasshopper Rocket Makes Test Flight in June 2013

This screenshot from a SpaceX video shows the company's prototype resuable rocket, dubbed "Grasshopper," rising into the Texas skies on June 14, 2013. Grasshopper reached a maximum altitude of 1,066 feet before returning safely to its launch pad. [Read the Full Story]

SpaceX's Grasshopper on the Launch Pad

SpaceX's Grasshopper Vertical Takeoff Vertical Landing (VTVL) vehicle stands ready to launch on its 820-foot (250 meters) test flight on April 19, 2013.

SpaceX's Grasshopper Takes Off on 820-Foot Flight

SpaceX's Grasshopper 10-story Vertical Takeoff Vertical Landing (VTVL) vehicle took off on its 820-foot (250 meters) test flight on April 19, 2013.

paceX's Grasshopper 820-Foot Test Flight Hovering

SpaceX's Grasshopper 10-story Vertical Takeoff Vertical Landing (VTVL) vehicle reached new heights on April 19, 2013.

SpaceX's Grasshopper 820-Foot Flight

SpaceX's Grasshopper vehicle flew 820 feet, tripling its March 7th leap. The rocket is seen here at the moment of landing, still in vertical attitude, with a ring of smoke and dust kicked up by the engines. Test conducted April 19, 2013.

SpaceX's Grasshopper Rocket Makes Highest Leap Yet

SpaceX's reusable rocket prototype Grasshopper soared 820 feet (250 meters) into the air on April 19, 2013. A tiny "hexacopter" probe, which took footage of the flight, is visible as a black speck slightly above and to the left of the rocket in this picture.

Mannequin Cowboy on SpaceX's Grasshopper Rocket

A mannequin cowboy dressed in black, nicknamed Johnny, rode SpaceX's Grasshopper reusable rocket during its highest ever test flight on March 7, 2013. The flight in Texas reached a height of 263 feet (80 meters).

SpaceX Grasshopper Rocket's Highest Test: March 7, 2013

On March 7, 2013, SpaceX’s Grasshopper doubled its highest leap to date to rise 24 stories or 262.8 feet (80.1 meters), hovering for approximately 34 seconds and landing safely using closed loop thrust vector and throttle control.

SpaceX's Grasshopper Lifts Off

On March 7, 2013, SpaceX’s Grasshopper doubled its highest leap to date to rise 24 stories or 262.8 feet (80.1 meters), hovering for approximately 34 seconds and landing safely using closed loop thrust vector and throttle control.

SpaceX's Grasshopper Test Flight

On March 7, 2013, SpaceX’s Grasshopper doubled its highest leap to date to rise 24 stories or 262.8 feet (80.1 meters), hovering for approximately 34 seconds and landing safely using closed loop thrust vector and throttle control.

SpaceX's Grasshopper: Dec. 17, 2012

The SpaceX Grasshopper rocket prototype vertically launched and landed in its most impressive test flight to date on Dec. 17.

SpaceX's Grasshopper

Grasshopper consists of a Falcon 9 rocket first stage, Merlin 1D engine, four steel landing legs with hydraulic dampers, and a steel support structure. For a sense of its scale, note the blue pick-up truck to the left of Grasshopper in the photo above.

SpaceX Grasshopper 2nd Test Flight

SpaceX's Grasshopper vertical takeoff and landing test vehicle (VTVL) hops nearly two stories (17.7 feet/5.4 meters) during a Nov. 1, 2012 test flight.

SpaceX's Grasshopper Rocket: 1st Flight

The reusable rocket prototype Grasshopper built by private spaceflight company SpaceX makes a 6-foot test flight on Sept. 28, 2012.

The Angry Birds have landed at NASA's gateway to space.

Rovio's wildly popular game franchise is hosting an interactive exhibit at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Cape Canaveral, Fla. — the public face of NASA's spaceport that launched moon rockets and space shuttles.

"Angry Birds Space Encounter is both a fun and education experience," Bill Moore, chief operating officer of the space center's visitor complex for Delaware North Companies Parks & Resorts, said in a statement. [Photos of Angry Birds Space … in Space]

The exhibition, which opened at the Kennedy Space Center on March 22, has six different Angry Birds experiences for visitors to choose from, according to an exhibit description from the space center:

• Create Your Own Angry Bird: Guests design their own Angry Bird by choosing from an array of body styles and accessories. When the bird is complete, guests can print their bird as a keepsake.
• Eggsteroids Slingshot: Ready, set, squawk! Guests take their best shot — slingshot, that is — at King Pig and Corporal Pig, competing with fellow players using mini Angry Birds launched in a slingshot to zap the Space Pigs.
• Cold Cuts Tile Puzzle: Guests line up a universe of planets and Angry Birds to solve sliding puzzles, with three levels of difficulty, featuring images of Super Red, Ice Bird, The Incredible Terence and Space King, Pig in a Bubble.
• Danger Zone: Proceed with caution! The Danger Zone features a mirrored labyrinth challenge to find the hidden Angry Birds. Guests discover surprises along the way.
• Red Planet Lazer Challenge: The Angry Birds need help finding their prized golden eggs! Guests journey to the surface of the Red Planet to search for the mythical eggs but need to watch out for laser beams that create obstacles along the course, making the mission more difficult.
• Angry Birds Game Zone: Guests can play the actual Angry Birds Space game in a tournament against fellow guests, mastering selected levels and discovering little-known hints to zap the pigs.

This isn't the first time Angry Birds has partnered with NASA. Rovio, the game's parent company, collaborated with the space agency when they released "Angry Birds Space" for a variety of computer and mobile devices. They teamed up again for "Angry Birds Space: Red Planet," which saw NASA's Mars rover Curiosity join the game franchise.

A message on Twitter from NASA to the game company set the idea for making a space-themed Angry Birds in motion.

"Hey @RovioMobile, our computers are a bit better than they were in '69," NASA officials wrote on the social media website. "We might be able to help you launch birds if you find pigs in space."

At the end of June, the space center will hold a grand opening event in honor of the Space Shuttle Atlantis' new home at Kennedy.

Follow Miriam Kramer @mirikramer and Google+. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook and Google+. Original article on SPACE.com.

NEW YORK — An astrophotographer who has snapped images of the cosmos from a driveway in Connecticut is taking center stage in a Brooklyn space art exhibit.

Robert Gendler has loved snapping pictures of the night sky for years. What started off as a vague childhood interest in the cosmos has become a hobby that Gendler has carried with him through most of his adult life.

"I picked it up as a hobby in Connecticut and started taking pictures," Gendler said. "It became a real passion."

Gendler's work is being presented here at the Grumpy Bert gallery in a show entitled "The Universe in Color." His work went on display this month and will remain on the gallery's walls until Sunday (March 31). Usually, his photos have a home in the hospital where Gendler works as a radiologist.

"I have a passion for the visual," Gendler said of his hobby and chosen profession.

The astrophotographer's work has changed in recent years. Gendler used to set up a telescope with a camera attached on his driveway to take photos of stars, galaxies and other cosmic bodies.

In recent years, however, light pollution has gotten in the way of Gendler's work. In 2005, he moved his equipment to an observatory in New Mexico, and began taking his photos remotely. A few years later, Gendler started using telescopes in Australia to get a sense of the Southern Hemisphere.

"There are many exciting objects in the south," added Gendler. 

For the most part today, Gendler does not take the photos himself. Recently, he has become interested in crafting "mosaic images" from data collected by space agency-operated telescopes.

Astronomers point high-powered telescopes at the same heavenly bodies from different perspectives around the world, and most of the collected data is publicly available on the Internet, said Gendler. He takes those photos and combines them to make new, more detailed images of astronomical phenomena.

It takes Gendler tens of hours to create just one photo.

This time-intensive method is paying off. Gendler's mosaic work has been featured by the Hubble Heritage Program. His composite image of the M106 spiral galaxy was created using images taken by three different cameras on the Hubble Space Telescope.

Gendler's photos are on display and sale at Grumpy Bert through March.

Follow Miriam Kramer @mirikramer and Google+. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebookand Google+. Original article on SPACE.com.

NEW YORK — A keepsake from NASA's nearly disastrous Apollo 13 moon mission of 1970 nabbed top spot in an auction Monday (March 25) of more than 300 artifacts from the early years of the U.S. space program.

The space history artifacts  — sold by Bonhams — included an engine burn note detailing how the crew can return to Earth annotated by astronaut Jim Lovell during the Apollo 13 mission that went for $84,100 and various items from the space agency's first mission to the moon.

"Documents from Apollo 11 also impressed bidders, including an Apollo 11 Command and Service Module maneuver card selling for $64,900 and a postal cover taken to the moon during the mission which achieved $35,000," officials from Bonhams wrote in a statement. "An Apollo 11 activation checklist carried to the lunar surface realized $25,000."

Although some items in the auction were previously owned by Apollo 11 astronaut Buzz Aldrin, none of the articles being sold were currently owned by the moonwalker.

Officials with the auction house noted a few pieces of space history that outperformed expected estimates. An Apollo 17 lunar surface checklist sold for $28,750 largely because it was "heavily soiled with lunar dust."

"As auctions like Bonhams' recent sale and private efforts such as Jeff Bezos' ocean salvage of two Apollo F-1 engines demonstrate, interest in collecting and preserving space history artifacts remains strong," Robert Pearlman, editor of the space history-focused collectSPACE.com, a SPACE.com partner site said. "These tangible remnants of our early space exploration efforts may change hands over the years, but in doing so they are saved for future generations."

Pearlman also notes that these artifacts can serve as artwork for their new owners.

"Checklists and flight plan pages may not be conventional works of art, but to a space history enthusiast, they are an eye-catching display of what it took to fly astronauts to the moon and back," Pearlman said.

Bonhams will host another "space history" sale in the spring of 2014.

Follow Miriam Kramer @mirikramer and Google+. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook and Google+. Original article on SPACE.com.

NEW YORK — It's dark and quiet in here.

The only light in the cavernous room at the Park Avenue Armory comes from a handful of red-tinted stage lights illuminating the "lunar surface" in the middle of the performance space.

It takes a minute for your eyes to adjust, so it's even more disorienting when someone hands you a white cape and tells you to take off your shoes.

This is the beginning of OKTOPHONIE, the newest sold-out performance experience to grace the halls of the armory.

Visual artist Rirkrit Tiravanija developed the 69-minute OKTOPHONIE light show to accompany Karlheinz Stockhausen's electronic composition of the same name. The "lunar surface" is a circular piece of white carpet in the center of the armory's Wade Thompson Drill Hall.

Most of the room is empty, save for about 375 cushions arranged on the carpet that serve as chairs for the audience members.

Stockhausen had originally wanted the music for OKTOPHONIE, a piece called "Oktophonie," to be performed in an area resembling outer space, Rebecca Robertson, the Park Avenue Armory's president and executive producer, told SPACE.com.  ['Space Program: Mars' – Art at Park Avenue Armory (Gallery)]

The "lunar surface" does not actually look like the actual face of the moon. However, the combination of lights and sound does give a distinctly "space travel-like" tenor to the show. It can be scary, off-putting and uncomfortable at times — much as traveling through space could be for the less experienced.

Except for minimal lighting, the room is pitch black. Dressing the audience in white creates the eerie sense of an uneasy community established by a group of strangers in uniform.

Tiravanija crafted a "ritualistic" way of experiencing Stockhausen's space-centric vision for his music, Robertson said.

The music itself is droning and atonal. Stockhausen used sounds from his everyday life to punctuate the piece as well, Robertson said. During World War II, the composer was stationed in a field hospital in Germany, and he uses the sounds of fighter planes flying overhead as part of the "Oktophonie" music, said Robertson.

Stockhousen's composition is not performed by a live band; instead a recording of the piece plays through eight speakers mounted on a cube hanging from the armory's ceiling, surrounding the area where the audience sits. Those eight speakers are also responsible for OKTOPHONIE'S name.

They produce a form of audio called "octophonic sound," meant to envelop the audience in the composer's vision.

"It's a prescribed experience by a maverick composer," Robertson said.

OKTOPHONIE will be showing at the Park Avenue Armory until this Wednesday (March 27).

Follow Miriam Kramer @mirikramer and Google+. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook and Google+. Original article on SPACE.com.

THE WOODLANDS, Texas — The equator of Jupiter's icy moon Europa may be covered with huge spikes of ice, scientists say.

Astronomers have known for some time that Jupiter's moon Europa is icy, and now scientists are trying to understand just what form that ice takes by using some of the coldest places on Earth as analogues. Huge ice spikes, known as penitents, found on Earth could form on Europa, they said.

"It's a pretty obscure geological feature on the Earth," Dan Hobley, an astronomer at the University of Virginia, told SPACE.com after he presented his findings at the 44th annual Lunar and Planetary Science Conference.

The 3.3 to 16.4 foot (1 to 5 meter) spikes of ice only grow in certain parts of the Andes mountains on Earth, but those areas of the world serve as good proxies for what Europa's geology might be like, Hobley said. [Photos of Europa, Jupiter's Mysterious Icy Moon]

It takes a very specific set of circumstances for penitentes to form, Hobley said. The angle of the sun has to hit the ice in just the right way to keep the spikes of ice standing on end and buried deep into the ground. The blades grow in very dry conditions and can thrive in dirt-filled or clean circumstances.

As far as scientists can tell right now, all of those environments exist along Europa's equator, Hobley said.

Although Europa has been observed using radar and spectroscopy, scientists have not been able to understand exactly what the surface of this moon looks like. The geological features of Europa seem "basically random," Hobley said, but the existence of penitentes could offer an explanation.

Scientists have found that Europa's equator is warmer than it should be, and penitentes could explain that mysterious temperature, Hobley said. The ice spines reflect heat onto one another, creating a warmer area because the sunlight gets trapped bouncing from ice spike to ice spike, Hobley explained.

The scientist and his colleagues are interested in understanding what the surface of Europa looks like, partially because it's a first step towards designing a viable lander that could safely touch down on the moon's frozen surface.

But it might not be that simple, Hobley said.

The icy shell of Europa's surface might shift occasionally, displacing the area of the alien world that used to be its equator. Penitentes don't naturally form in higher latitudes, so if the shell does shift, that could create a problem for astronomers trying to map exactly where to set down a lander.

"We're at the state where this is a good, solid guess," Hobley said.

Follow Miriam Kramer @mirikramer and Google+. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook and Google+. Original article on SPACE.com.

A new NASA video has captured two cosmic wonders — a comet and a massive solar storm — with the Earth in the background as seen by a sun-watching spacecraft.

In the video, the Comet Pan-STARRS can be seen streaking through the inner solar system, orbiting the sun over the course of five days (March 10-15). As Pan-STARRS makes its ways into view, a coronal mass ejection (CME) — an explosion of plasma from the surface of the star — shoots towards Earth.

"The bright light on the left comes from the sun and the bursts from the left represent the solar material erupting off the sun in a CME," officials with NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio wrote in a video description.

The dramatic video of Comet Pan-STARRS and the sun stormwas captured by one of NASA's twin Stereo spacecraft ( the name is short for Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory) .. Launched in 2006, the two Stereo probes work together to provide a constant watch on the sun's solar weather events. One Stereo probe orbits just ahead of the Earth while the other trails behind. [How to see the comet]

"While it appears from Stereo's point of view that the CME passes right by the comet, the two are not lying in the same plane, which scientists know since the comet’s tail didn’t move or change in response to the CME's passage," NASA officials wrote.

Comet Pan-STARRS put on a brilliant show in the Southern Hemisphere before becoming visible to stargazers in the North during the first part of March. Astronomers using the Panoramic Survey Telescope and Rapid Response System (or Pan-STARRS) atop a volcano in Hawaii initially spotted the comet in June 2011.

Pan-STARRS is one of two comets expected to put on a show this year. Since reaching its maximum brightness earlier in March, Comet Pan-STARRS has been getting steadily dimmer, but it should be visible low on the western horizon, just after sunset, to stargazers with binoculars or small telescopes, NASA officials have said.

Comet ISON should make its first appearance in April, and some astronomers think it could be the brightest comet in a generation.

NASA's Stereo spacecraft are one of several missions that constantly monitor the sun for signs of solar flares and eruptions. The sun is currently in an active phase of its 11-year solar weather cycle. The current cycle is known as Solar Cycle 24 and is expected to reach its peak this year.

Editor's note: If you snap an amazing photo of Comet Pan-STARRS, or any other celestial object, and you'd like to share it for a possible story or image gallery, please send images and comments, including location information, to Managing Editor Tariq Malik at spacephotos@space.com.

Follow Miriam Kramer @mirikramer and Google+. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook and Google+. Original article on SPACE.com.

In light of Earth's most recent brushes with asteroids, the Science, Space and Technology Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives is holding a hearing today (March 19) to assess what kind of threat space rocks pose.

The first in a series of meetings, "Threats from Space: A Review of U.S. Government Efforts to Track and Mitigate Asteroids and Meteors, Part 1," will examine ways in which the government — with help from agencies like NASA and the Air Force — can help protect the Earth from dangerous asteroids that could impact our planet.

Today's hearing will begin at 10 a.m. EDT (1400 GMT), and will be streamed live online. You can watch the asteroid threat House hearing on SPACE.com, courtesy of NASA.

"Today’s events are a stark reminder of the need to invest in space science," Rep Lamar Smith (R-Texas), chairman of the Science, Space and Technology committee, said in on Feb. 15, when a meteor exploded over Russia on the same day that a large asteroid buzzed close by Earth.

On that day, the 150-foot-wide (40 m) asteroid, 2012 DA14 flew harmlessly by Earth as predicted by NASA scientists. Astronomers had been monitoring the space rock since last year when it was discovered by amateur astronomers in Spain. Scientists observed the rock as it passed within 17,200 miles (27,681 km) of the Earth's surface (a close shave in astronomical terms). [See Pictures of asteroid 2012 DA14's Flyby]

On the same day, a smaller, previously undetected meteor exploded in the sky over a populated part of the Ural Mountains in Russia.

"An unforeseen meteor (estimated 50 feet in diameter) exploded in the sky above the Russian city of Chelyabinsk releasing the equivalent of a 300 kiloton bomb, about twenty times the explosive energy of the atomic blast used over the city of Hiroshima," congressional officials wrote in the hearing's charter.

The hearing today will focus on the basics of tracking a meteor or asteroid, according to the charter. According to the hearing's charter, some of the questions congressional representatives hope to answer include:

• Do we have the tools and technology necessary to detect and track near Earth objects?
• How often do we currently observe large meteors entering the atmosphere safely over the ocean?
• Are we tracking the right size objects, specifically the ones that can cause significant harm on Earth?
• Once we identify an object, what are our means of tracking it?
• What are our contingencies and mitigation capabilities if we determine there is a threat to the Earth from a NEO impact?
• What process exists among government agencies, both foreign and domestic, in such an instance?

Three experts will take questions during the hearing. John Holdren, the director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy in the White House, advises President Barack Obama on issues related to science and technology.

Gen. William Shelton, the current commander of the U.S. Air Force Space Command, and NASA administrator Charles Bolden will also address the committee.

NASA's Near-Earth Objects Program Office at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. is responsible for investigating many of the meteors and asteroids that could pose a threat to Earth.

"Basically, our office takes observations from astronomers all over the world and computes their orbits and then tracks their motion about 100 years into the future to see if there is any interesting close Earth approaches for comets or asteroids," Don Yeomans, the director of the NEO program told SPACE.com during a video interview.

A second congressional hearing will focus on international efforts to survey the sky for asteroids and meteors, but organizations like the United Nations are calling attention to issues involving the detection of near-Earth objects today as well.

After the destruction in Russia, the Action Team on Near-Earth Objects of the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs, led by Sergio Camacho, proposed the formation of an advisory group that would monitor dangerous near-Earth objects.

"Mr. Camacho’s team, also known as Action Team 14, recommended the formation of an International Asteroid Warning Network (IAWN), which would pool together the expertise of the world’s many existing scientific agencies and organizations to discover and track objects and generate early warnings of potential impacts," United Nations officials wrote in a statement.

Follow Miriam Kramer on Twitter @mirikramer and Google+. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook or Google+. This article was first published on SPACE.com.

A Soyuz spacecraft has safely landed on the frigid steppes of Kazakhstan, returning an American astronaut and two Russian cosmonaut to Earth after a nearly five-month mission to the International Space Station.

The Soyuz space capsule touched down at about 11:11 p.m. EDT (0311 March 16 GMT) on Friday (March 15), though it was early Saturday local time at the landing site. The spacecraft returned NASA astronaut Kevin Ford and Russian cosmonauts Oleg Novitskiy and Evgeny Tarelkin home after 142 days in space. The trio was greeted by freezing temperatures after exiting the spacecraft.

"They've landed. Expedition 34 is back on Earth," NASA spokesperson Rob Navias said during live commentary.

Originally, the international crew was set to depart from the laboratory on Thursday (March 14), but freezing rain and foggy weather on the ground prevented them from returning home. Weather conditions improved today, leading to a smooth undocking, however a bank of clouds greatly hampered visibility in the landing zone. The foggy conditions caused some last-minute alterations to the original search plan after landing, however, the Soyuz crew was still recovered successfully.

During their almost five month stay on board the station, the two cosmonauts and the astronaut orbited the Earth 2,304 times, travelling nearly 61 million miles (98,169,984 kilometers). This was Novitskiy and Tarelkin's first trip to space, the second for Ford. [See Photos of the Expedition 34 Landing ]

The three crewmembers were on board to see the docking of the unmanned Dragon capsule — owned and operated by private spaceflight firm SpaceX — at the beginning of March. A month before, the crew participated in the docking and undocking of another supply capsule, the Progress 50.

Ford, Novitskiy and Tarelkin leave three other international crewmembers on board the space station. Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield, Russian cosmonaut Roman Romanenko and NASA astronaut Tom Marshburn remained on board the station after saying goodbye to the three spaceflyers that boarded the space capsule earlier today.

Hadfield, Romanenko and Marshburn will not be the sole residents of the station for long. Cosmonauts Pavel Vinogradov, Alexander Misurkin and NASA astronaut Chris Cassidy are expected to arrive at the station on the same day of their launch from Earth on March 28.

If all goes as planned, it will mark the first time a Soyuz capsule has delivered a station crew to the International Space Station in one day. Russia's Federal Space Agency has proven the one-day flight profile during unmanned Progress cargo ship deliveries to the space station.

NASA has relied on Russia's Soyuz crafts to transport astronauts to and from low-Earth orbit since the retirement of the agency's shuttle program in 2011. NASA officials hope to eventually depend on privately built, unmanned and crewed spacecraft to bring people and cargo to and from the space station.

The $100 billion laboratory was built by space agencies representing Japan, Canada, the United States and Russia. International crews of astronauts have continually occupied the station since 2000.

This story was updated to reflect a successful landing at 11:42 EDT.

Follow Miriam Kramer @mirikramer and Google+. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook and Google+. Original article on SPACE.com.

A Soyuz spacecraft has undocked from the International Space Station and is preparing to descend into Earth's atmosphere to return an American astronaut and two Russian cosmonauts back home after nearly five months living in orbit. 

The undocking tonight (March 15) occurred smoothly, but one day later than planned, due to freezing rain and fog at the Soyuz's landing site on the steppes of Kazakhstan in Central Asia, which delayed the departure. Returning home on the Soyuz are NASA astronaut Kevin Ford and Russian cosmonauts Oleg Novitskiy and Evgeny Tarelkin.

"Okay guys, good luck," Russian cosomonaut Roman Romanenko said as the three spaceflyers pulled away from the station.

The trio successfully undocked their Soyuz TMA-06M space capsule from the space station at 7:43 p.m. EDT (2343 GMT) as both spacecraft sailed high over Mongolia. Their departure marked the end of the space station's Expedition 34 mission, and the beginning of its Expedition 35 increment by three other crewmembers who remained on the orbiting lab. [See photos from Expedition 34 space mission]

The U.S.-Russian Soyuz crew is scheduled to land tonight at 11:05 p.m. EDT (0305 GMT March 16), and you can watch it live on SPACE.com courtesy of NASA. The space agency will air a live webcast of the Soyuz's deorbiting and landing beginning at 9:45 p.m. EDT (0245 GMT March 16). It will be early Saturday local time at the Soyuz landing site at the time of touchdown. 

The three astronauts have spent 142 days on board the space station. This is Ford's second trip to space, but it marks the first trip for both Novitskiy and Tarelkin.

Novitskiy, Tarelkin and Ford said their goodbyes to Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield, NASA astronaut Tom Marshburn and Russian cosmonaut Roman Romanenko — the three astronauts staying on board the International Space Station — before the hatch closed earlier today.

The new space station mission — Expedition 35 — officially began when the Soyuz spacecraft undocked from the orbiting laboratory at 7:43 p.m. EDT (2343 GMT).

On Wednesday, Ford ceremonially passed the command of the football field sized station onto the newest commander, Hadfield. This marks the first time a Canadian astronaut has led an International Space Station crew.

"They showed us how to live in space," Hadfield said of the three astronauts heading back to Earth during the change of command ceremony.

Hadfield, Romanenko and Marshburn will not be the sole residents of the station for long. Cosmonauts Pavel Vinogradov, Alexander Misurkin and NASA astronaut Chris Cassidy are expected to arrive at the station on the same day of their launch from Earth on March 28.

If all goes as planned, it will mark the first time a Soyuz capsule has delivered a station crew to the orbiting laboratory in one day. Russia's Federal Space Agency has proven the one-day flight profile during unmanned Progress cargo ship deliveries to the space station.

NASA has relied on Russia's Soyuz crafts to transport astronauts to and from low-Earth orbit since the retirement of the agency's shuttle program in 2011. NASA officials hope to eventually depend on privately built, unmanned and crewed spacecraft to bring people and cargo to and from the space station.

The $100 billion laboratory was built by space agencies representing Japan, Canada, the United States and Russia. International crews of astronauts have continually occupied the station since 2000.

Follow Miriam Kramer @mirikramer and Google+. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook and Google+. Original article on SPACE.com.

The announcement this week that Mars definitely could have supported some form of life in the ancient past is an unmistakable reminder that future missions to the Red Planet should focus on bringing Martian rock samples back to Earth, a celebrated planetary scientist says.

NASA unveiled the discovery on Tuesday (March 12) with a bold announcement that Mars could have supported primitive life at some point billions of years ago. The Martian find was made with the help of NASA's Mars rover Curiosity, the largest rover ever to explore the Red Planet. But in order to create a clear picture of the story of habitability and life on Mars, scientists will need to get their hands on fresh samples of the planet collected by an ambitious future mission.

"On the one hand, it shows what we can do with instruments on the surface of Mars," Bruce Betts, the director of projects at the Planetary Society, told SPACE.com. "We'll always be able to do more with our labs on Earth than what we can do on Mars."

The Curiosity rover was able to bore into a Martian rock and find evidence of a habitable environment, but more comprehensive work can be done in labs on Earth, Betts said.

For this reason, scientists like Betts have campaigned to have sample return added as non-negotiable for the next mission to the Red Planet.

NASA is taking the concept seriously. Sample return is at the top of the space agency's list when planning for missions to Mars in the next decade, Betts added. NASA has placed it as the highest priority for any new missions to the Red Planet. [The Search for Life on Mars (A Photo Timeline)]

"You want rocks that are carefully collected," Betts said.

It's important to know exactly where the rocks are coming from, Betts said. If scientists know the context in which the rocks were found, it will help them analyze them in a broader context. 

Although there are no solid plans to build sample return into a mission currently in development, future NASA missions are using other means to investigate the Martian interior and exterior.

The MAVEN mission — a Mars orbiter launching later this year — will investigate the ionosphere of the Red Planet to see how carbon dioxide, oxygen and other compounds could have dissipated over time, leaving Mars with the cold, arid atmosphere scientists see today. 

NASA's InSight Mars is a lander that will burrow deep into the Martian dirt to learn more about the planet's geological evolution. It is on track to launch in 2016. The agency is also planning to launch a new Mars rover in 2020, but it won't have the capability for sample return. 

Europe and Russia are also planning new Mars missions together, including an orbiter and the ExoMars rover.

NASA's announcement on Tuesday means that astronomers are one step closer to understanding what a primitive Mars could have looked like, something that missions in the future will help clarify, Betts added.

"I think the findings like today's continue to increase the interest in Mars as a complex and interesting place," Betts said.

Follow Miriam Kramer @mirikramer and Google+. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook and Google+. Original article on SPACE.com.

An American astronaut and two Russian cosmonauts are stuck in space for one more day after freezing rain and fog on Earth prevented them from landing in Central Asia on Thursday (March 14), NASA officials say.

The foul weather, which one Russian space agency official described simply as "horrible," means NASA astronaut Kevin Ford and cosmonauts Oleg Novitskiy and Evgeny Tarelkin had to delay their return from the International Space Station for at least 24 hours. The three men have been living in space for 141 days and were preparing to enter their Soyuz spacecraft for a landing on the frigid steppes of Kazakhstan tonight.

"We are waving off landing," NASA spokesperson Rob Navias said during live mission commentary. "No Soyuz landing tonight."

The rain and fog in Kazakhstan is not a threat to the Soyuz spacecraft and crew, Navias said. But the recovery helicopters essential for retrieving the astronauts after landing would not be able to make it to their staging grounds for the landing because of bad weather conditions. [See photos of the Expedition 34 space station mission]

"I talked to our colleagues in Kazakhstan last night and the weather is really horrible, and a decision was made not to risk, and we suggest that we delay the landing." chief Russian flight director Vlademir Solovyev said through a translator on NASA TV. 

Ford, Novitskiy and Tarelkin were originally scheduled to undock their Russian-built Soyuz TMA-06M spacecraft at the International Space Station tonight at 8:30 p.m. EDT (0030 March 16 GMT), with an expected landing of 11:56 p.m. EDT (0356 March 16 GMT).

Landing is now scheduled to occur on Friday (March 15) at 11:06 p.m. EDT (0306 March 16 GMT), NASA officials said.

This is not the first time weather has affected a Soyuz spacecraft's landing. In 2009, another Soyuz craft had its return to Earth delayed by a day because snowy conditions on the ground made the landing potentially unsafe.

Ford, Novitskiy and Tarelkin have spent nearly five months on board the station. The mission is Ford's second spaceflight and the first trip to space for Novitskiy and Tarelkin.

When Ford and his two crewmates depart the station, three other spaceflyers — Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield, Russian Roman Romanenko and American Tom Marshburn — will remain aboard orbiting lab to await a new set of crewmembers.

That new crew will launch on March 28 to ferry cosmonauts Pavel Vinogradov, Alexander Misurkin and NASA astronaut Chris Cassidy to the space station.

NASA has relied on Russia's Soyuz crafts ferry astronauts between the Earth's surface and orbit since the retirement of the agency's shuttle program in 2011. Officials with the space agency hope to instead depend on privately built unmanned and crewed spacecraft to bring people and cargo to and from the space station.

Follow Miriam Kramer @mirikramer and Google+. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebookand Google+. Original article on SPACE.com.

An historic telescope could be on its way to an upgrade.

The Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Ariz., launched a two-month-long "crowdfunding" campaign Wednesday (March 13) to help raise money to restore its vintage Clark Telescope.

Now designated a National Historic Landmark, the 24-inch refracting telescope was once used to map the moon, study Mars and observe the expanding cosmos .

"The telescope was built in 1896 and it hasn't been completely taken apart since 1897," Kevin Schindler, the outreach manager for Lowell said.

Officials with the observatory are hoping to raise at least $256,718 to help keep the telescope in working order.

For the past 20 years, the Clark Telescope has been used as a tool for public outreach, not research, Schindler said. More than 1 million people have looked through the eyepiece of the telescope to observe various celestial bodies in the night sky, he added.

All that wear and tear, however, has left the telescope in bad health.

"It's really getting to the critical point," Schindler said. "We don't want it to get any worse. If we're going to close it, we want to have a plan in place."

Today, when the telescope is pointed at one particular object in the sky, it does not stay in place, Schindler added. Although officials at the observatory are hoping to restore the telescope back to working order, they are not interesting in modernizing it.

Both the dome and the telescope need work, Shindler said, but they do not want to change its "historic flavor." The kitchen chair on the observing ladder used by the observatory's namesake astronomer Percival Lowell and other quirky objects were added to the telescope throughout the years will remain in place.

In all, the renovation is expected to take about nine months from start to finish.

Officials at Lowell picked Wednesday as the kickoff date for a variety of reasons, Schindler said. March 13 would have been Lowell's 158th birthday, and it was also the anniversary of the announcement that marked the discovery of Pluto in 1930. Uranus was found on the same day in 1781 as well.

As of the writing of this story, the campaign has raised more than $5,870. For more information on the Clark Telescope project, visit the Restore the Clark IndieGoGo website.

Follow Miriam Kramer @mirikramer and Google+. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook and Google+. Original article on SPACE.com.

Three astronauts are scheduled to return to Earth today (March 14) after 141 days on board the International Space Station.

NASA astronaut Kevin Ford and Russian cosmonauts Oleg Novitskiy and Evgeny Tarelkin's will board a Russian Soyuz spacecraft tonight at 5:15 EDT (2115 GMT) after a brief farewell ceremony, and are expected to land at 11:57 p.m. EDT (0357 GMT), touching down on the frigid steppes of Kazakhstan in Central Asia.

You can watch the landing live on SPACE.com courtesy of NASA. The space agency will begin broadcasting the farewell ceremony at 4:45 p.m. EDT (2045 GMT) on its NASA TV channel and webcast. The Soyuz TMA-06M spacecraft returning Ford, Novitskiy and Tarelkin home will undock from the space station at 8:30 p.m. EDT (0030 GMT).

On Wednesday, the departing station crew held a brief change of command ceremony with the three spaceflyers remaining behind the space station, marking the end of Expedition 34 mission and the official beginning the Expedition 35 increment. During the ceremony, Ford — who commanded the Expedition 34 crew — handed control of the space station to Canadian Space Agency astronaut Chris Hadfield.

"It's not a competition," Ford said of the culture on the International Space Station. "It's about 15 of the most affluent countries on the planet coming together and doing something for the future."

The Expedition 34 mission is Ford's second career spaceflight and the first mission for both Tarelkin and Novitskiy. [See photos of the Expedition 34 space station mission]

"I tell you, they are like brothers to me. They say they consider me their 'papa,' and I'm not sure how to take that," Ford joked of Novitskiy and Tarelkin.

In honor of Hadfield's new rank as the first Canadian space station commander, Expedition 34 commander Ford played the Canadian national anthem during the command change ceremony.

"Chris brings his super, super special talents to the table," Ford said of the new commander. "He is a uniquely talented person on the planet and now a uniquely talented person off the planet."

Hadfield and his crewmates — NASA astronaut Thomas Marshburn and Russian cosmonaut Roman Romanenko — won't be on their own for long. Three more spaceflyers will replace the Earth-bound Ford, Tarelkin and Novitskiy later this month, bringing the space station crew back up to its full six-person size.

Cosmonauts Pavel Vinogradov, Alexander Misurkin and NASA astronaut Chris Cassidy are due to launch toward the International Space Station on March 28 and arrive at the orbiting lab the same day. The flight will mark the first time a Soyuz space capsule has launched a station crew and arrived at the orbiting lab in one day.

Russia's Federal Space Agency has proven the one-day flight profile during unmanned Progress cargo ship deliveries to the space station.

Since the retirement of NASA's space shuttle program in 2011, the space agency has relied on Russia's Soyuz spacecraft to transport astronauts to and from the space station. The U.S. space agency plans to rely on new privately built unmanned and crewed spacecraft to ferry astronauts and cargo to the space station.

The $100 billion International Space Station was constructed by space agencies representing the United States, Russia, Europe, Japan and Canada. Assembly began in 1998, and rotating crews of astronauts have continuously occupied the space station since 2000.

Follow Miriam Kramer @mirikramer and Google+. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook and Google+. Original article on SPACE.com.

A flotilla of 10 or more tiny undiscovered moons might lurk in Pluto's orbit, complicating a spacecraft's planned flyby of the distant dwarf planet in 2015, new simulations suggest.

This preliminary finding could make life even more difficult for the team planning NASA's New Horizons mission, which is slated to take the first-ever up-close look at the Pluto system in July 2015. After Pluto's fifth known moon, a small satellite known as P5, was discovered last year, officials said they may need to redraw the spacecraft's path to avoid such obstacles.

"It has our attention," New Horizons principal investigator Alan Stern told SPACE.com via email, referring to the new research. He added he hasn't thoroughly analyzed the work yet.

The study was submitted to The Astronomical Journal and is currently available on the prepublishing site Arxiv. [Photos: Pluto and its 5 Moons]

Dusty mystery

The potential moons, which would each measure just 0.6 miles to 1.8 miles (1 to 3 kilometers) across, arose in a simulation looking at how Pluto's known small satellites came to be.

Earlier in Pluto's history, a dust cloud surrounded the dwarf planet. Researchers still aren't sure where that dust came from, though they have some ideas.

Pluto's largest moon Charon, for example, might have slammed into the dwarf planet, producing debris. Alternatively, Pluto's gravity could have swept up dust lingering from the protoplanetary disk that formed the solar system.

However the debris appeared, researchers believe Pluto's four known smaller moons — P4, Nix, P5 and Hydra — gradually formed as the dust collided and clumped together, forming bigger and bigger objects.

To watch that in action, one scientific duo implemented calculations they previously used to look at planet formation and the origins of objects in the Kuiper Belt, a gigantic collection of icy bodies beyond Neptune's orbit.

Likely invisible from Earth

The duo, led by Scott Kenyon of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, stepped their computer simulations through what happened after the debris was generated.

The computer program treats smaller particles statistically. Once objects get above a certain size, roughly 0.62 miles (1 km) across, then the program renders them individually.

That's when the tiny satellites pop up. It's hard to say how many there are, the researchers said, as it's difficult to simulate collisions among these tiny satellites. There could be anywhere from one to more than 10 objects lurking beyond Hydra's orbit.

While the team can simulate these satellites, they said it's unlikely they could be spotted (if they exist at all) from Earth.

The brightness of the potential objects dance with the edge of the Hubble Space Telescope's capabilities, Kenyon said, and they are likely beyond the reach of even the most sensitive ground-based telescopes, such as the Keck Observatory in Hawaii.

"Pluto is so bright," Kenyon said, explaining that the light washes out its satellites. "I don’t think a ground-based telescope would have a chance, and it’s at the limit of what HST can do."

New Horizons might be able to spot smaller satellites before it gets there, but Kenyon said he wasn't sure when the objects would appear big enough for the spacecraft to detect. The satellites would be "easily visible" during the spacecraft's closest approach to Pluto in 2015, the paper noted.

Implications for exoplanets

While the discovery of P4 (and, during their research, P5) motivated the scientists' look at the Pluto system, the research also has implications for understanding how exoplanets form around binary or double stars.

Pluto and Charon are so close in size that Pluto is often considered a binary dwarf planet. Since NASA's planet-hunting Kepler space telescope has found lots of planets around binary stars, modeling Pluto's system could be a "laboratory," Kenyon said, to understand how distant planets form as well.

"We would use the same machinery, the same kind of calculation, to make planets around binary stars as to make satellites around binary planets," he said. "It improves our understanding, and we can extend it to exoplanets."

As for how the dust came to be, Kenyon said New Horizons could solve that mystery. Charon is much brighter and icier than other Kuiper Belt objects. If Pluto's small moons look similar to Charon, they probably formed from a giant impact.

"New Horizons will have enough measurements to infer differences in composition in the satellites around Pluto-Charon," he said. "We’ll have a better idea of what the origin of the material is."

Follow Elizabeth Howell @howellspace, or SPACE.com @Spacedotcom. We're also on Facebook and Google+. Originally published on SPACE.com.

What's the name of the bright comet currently visible in the western sky at sunset?

Look around the Internet and you'll find many different names for Comet Pan-STARRS, which is visible in the twilight sky of the Northern Hemisphere this week, weather permitting.  Some NASA statements refer to the comet as PANSTARRS, while others use the object's official designation C/2011 LR (PANSTARRS).

Comet Pan-STARRS made its closest approach to the sun on Sunday (March 10), with stargazers reporting to SPACE.com that it is visible to the naked eye if you know when and where to look. This week, the comet is visible low in the western sky, just after sunset. [How to see the comet]

The official body that governs the names of everything astronomical is the International Astronomical Union. Remember them? They are the people who reclassified Pluto a dwarf planet in 2006.While observing the comet may seem straightforward, the specifics of its name are a bit more complicated.

The IAU's rules for comet names, which are republished from the group's website below, say that each comet's moniker should include:

1) "A prefix, alluding to the type of comet, that can be any of the following- P/ for a periodic comet.

- C/ for a comet that is not periodic.

- X/ for a comet for which a meaningful orbit cannot be computed.

- D/ for a periodic comet that no longer exists or is deemed to have disappeared.

2) The year of discovery, including:

- An uppercase letter identifying the half-month of observation during that year (A for first half of January, B for second half and so on).

- A number representing the order of discovery within that half month.

3) When a periodic comet is observed after its second apparition, the IAU’s Minor Planet Center (MPC) gives it a permanent number indicating the order of the discovery.

4) To complete the designation a comet is given the name of its two first discoverers (last name for an individual or one word or acronym for a team of astronomers). The names appear in chronological order and are separated by a hyphen. In very rare cases the title can consist of three discoverers, or even be generic."

If you had X-ray vision and could see the names attached to the comets currently in the evening sky, you'd see the vast variety of names that are possible. Most people are surprised at just how many comets are actually in the sky at any given time. Most of these are too faint to be seen except by large telescopes.

When the comet currently gracing our western sky was discovered in late June 2011, the CBAT gave it the name "C/2011 L4 (PANSTARRS)."

There are no problems with the first part of the name, "C/2011 L4." The disagreements come with the name in parentheses. Because it was discovered by the members of a project as a group, the CBAT used the acronym of the group. The group's name is a mouthful: the Panoramic Survey Telescope & Rapid Response System. On their website and in their logo, they use the acronym "Pan-STARRS."

Wikipedia uses Pan-STARRS to refer to the project, but PANSTARRS to refer to the comet, and this is probably the most correct. Do a search for "panstarrs" on NASA's webpage, and you find three different spellings in the first five hits: the two above plus "PanSTARRS" without the hyphen. I've even seen it spelled "PanSTARRs," which is obviously wrong.

The problem with a hyphen in "Pan-STARRS" is that hyphens are used in comet names very specifically to indicate that a comet has two discoverers. For example, Comet C/1995 O1 (Hale-Bopp) was named thus to indicate its co-discovery by Alan Hale and Thomas Bopp.

No matter how you spell it, the Pan-STARRS project is a "discovery machine." Its entire purpose is to discover asteroids and comets, and it's doing so very efficiently. Just look at all the comets named for Pan-STARRS in the related sky map to this story.

Whatever name it goes by, it's a lovely comet, and worth a look.

Editor's note: If you snap an amazing photo of Comet Pan-STARRS, or any other celestial object, and you'd like to share it for a possible story or image gallery, please send images and comments, including location information, to Managing Editor Tariq Malik at spacephotos@space.com.

This article was provided to SPACE.com by Starry Night Education, the leader in space science curriculum solutions. Follow Starry Night on Twitter @StarryNightEdu. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook or Google+. Original article on SPACE.com.

When it comes to life across the cosmos, the universe might just be an "awful waste of space" after all.

A new theory presented at a conference this week would confirm the worry of Ellie Arroway, Jodie Foster's character in the film "Contact," that life might not exist on other worlds.

Some scientists think that just because exoplanets could have habitable environments, that does not mean that life evolved there.

"The pervasive nature of life on Earth is leading us to make this assumption," Charles Cockell, the director of the U.K. Center for Astrobiology at the University of Edinburgh, said in a statement."On our planet, carbon leaches into most habitat space and provides energy for microorganisms to live. There are only a few vacant habitats that may persist for any length of time on Earth, but we cannot assume that this is the case on other planets."

Cockell's hypothesis states that, although habitable alien planets might abound in solar systems around the universe, it does not mean these locales harbor extraterrestrial life.

"It is dangerous to assume life is common across the universe. It encourages people to think that not finding signs of life is a 'failure,' when in fact it would tell us a lot about the origins of life," added Cockell.

It is also possible that scientists will not be able to detect alien signs of life, even if it exists, Cockell said. Life might be markedly dissimilar from planet to planet, making it unlikely that astronomers on Earth will see recognizable signatures of life. But not all hope is lost.

"Professor Cockell explains that in coming decades, increasingly powerful telescopes and developments in spectroscopy may allow us to look for the signals of life on planets beyond our solar system," officials from the Royal Society, the United Kingdom's national academy of science, said in a statement."However, regardless of this, our view is still going to be heavily influenced by our knowledge of life on Earth."

Cockell presented his theory at a conference sponsored by the Royal Society.

Follow Miriam Kramer @mirikramer or Google+. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook or Google+. Original article on SPACE.com.

Comet Pan-STARRS in the Northern Sky

It may not be the brightest comet in recent memory, but comet Pan-STARRS put on quite a show in the Southern Hemisphere, and now it's moving north.

Here are a few things to remember about this rare naked-eye comet:

FIRST STOP: You'll Never See It Again

You Will Never See it Again

Comet Pan-STARRS has an elliptical orbit around the sun that will likely leave it in a 110,000-year path around the sun. It likely took millions of years to make its way into the inner solar system, however. That means if you miss it this year, you'll have to find the secret of immortality to try and catch Pan-STARRS on its next pass. [How to See Comet Pan-STARRS]

NEXT: It's From the Oort Cloud

It Comes from the Oort Cloud

The Oort cloud is a mass of icy bodies orbiting the sun out to a distance of about 93 trillion miles (150 trillion km) away - about 100,000 astronomical units - according to NASA. It gave birth to Comet Pan-STARRS, which was flung from the cloud into an orbit that will bring it closer to the sun than it has ever been before. [Comet Pan-STARRS Explained (Infographic)]

NEXT: A Sungrazing Comet

It is a 'Sungrazing' Comet

Pan-STARRS and other comets from the Oort cloud like it come so close to the sun that they get close to breaking apart. If they survive their close encounters with the star, however, they could shine more brightly than most other objects in the sky. [Comet Pan-STARRS Observing Tips (Video)]

NEXT: It Almost Faded Away

It Almost Disappeared from View

Astronomers thought that Comet Pan-STARRS wouldn't brighten in the northern sky. Some predicted that the comet's magnitude would fade, making it difficult to see once it passed above the equator, but now scientists expect that the comet may brighten even more when it passes about 28 million miles (45 million km) from the sun on Sunday, March 10 and be visible throughout March before fading in April. [Amazing Photos of Comet Pan-STARRS

NEXT: It's Not Alone

One of Three Comets This Year

In the Southern Hemisphere, Pan-STARRS was seen in the same part of the sky as Comet Lemmon.

Come November, after Pan-STARRS has faded from view, Comet ISON could put on the show of a generation, shining more brightly than any comet in recent memory, if predictions hold true. [FULL STORY: 2013 Is Year of the Comets]

NEXT: Going, Going, Gone

Not Around for Long

After Pan-STARRS makes its closest brush with the sun on March 10, the comet will begin to dim. Skywatchers with telescopes and binoculars might still be able to see the sungrazer until early April, but it will fade out of naked-eye visibility before the end of March.

Editor's note: If you snap an amazing photo of Comet Pan-STARRS, or any other celestial object, and you'd like to share it for a possible story or image gallery, please send images and comments, including location information, to managing editor Tariq Malik at spacephotos@space.com.

Stargazers, take note:  Comet Pan-STARRS is in the northern sky and can be seen with the naked eye … at least for now.

The comet is set to be at its brightest in the Northern Hemisphere on Sunday (March 10) when it makes its closest approach to the sun. Comet Pan-STARRS already made its closest brush with Earth Tuesday (March 5) when it passed about 102 million miles (164 million kilometers) away from the planet.

Here are six interesting facts to keep in mind when you look for the comet low in the twilight sky this weekend:

1) You will never see it again

Comet Pan-STARRS, officially , has a long elliptical orbit around the sun. Really long. The cosmic ball of dirt and ice takes more than 100 million years to complete a full cycle around the star, according to astronomers with the McDonald Observatory at the University of Texas, Austin. [How to see the comet]

Comet Pan-STARRS was discovered in June 2011 by a team of astronomers using the Panoramic Survey Telescope and Rapid Response System (or PANSTARRS) telescope in Hawaii.

2) It comes from the edge of the solar system

Pan-STARRS was flung into the inner solar system from the Oort cloud, a mass of icy bodies orbiting the sun from just beyond the orbit of Neptune out to a range 100,000 times the distance between the Earth and sun, NASA officials have said. A rogue comet's orbit is occasionally changed, bringing it closer to the sun than it has ever been before. 

3) It is a "sungrazing" comet

When a comet enters the inner solar system from the Oort cloud on a course that brings it extremely close to the sun, the object is known as a "sungrazer." On Sunday, Comet Pan-STARRS will be about 28 million miles (45 million km) from the sun.

Sungrazing comets have irregular orbits, making them unpredictable. Sometimes, their trajectories can even bring the comets close enough to collide with the sun. But if a sungrazer survives its close brush with the star, like Pan-STARRS has, the comet can brighten magnificently.

4) It almost faded away

While astronomers initially thought that Comet Pan-STARRS could dazzle stargazers with its brightness, the comet exhibited some early signs that it wouldn't brighten as expected in the northern sky. Some astronomers predicted that the comet's magnitude — a measure of its brilliance — would fade, making it difficult to see once it passed above the equator, but now scientists expect that the comet may brighten even more when it passes close by the sun on Sunday, before fading quickly thereafter.

5) Comet Pan-STARRS isn't alone in the sky

The year 2013 could be the year of the comets. Pan-STARRS already shared the southern sky with Comet Lemmon. While Lemmon won't make an appearance in the Northern Hemisphere this year, some stargazers did catch the two comets in a celestial pairing when they briefly shone in the same part of the sky.

In November, another sungrazing comet is expected to make waves with skywatchers. Comet ISON could be the brightest comet to streak across the skies in a generation if it survives its close brush with the sun.

6) Time is short to see Comet Pan-STARRS

While it only just appeared in the Northern Hemisphere this week, Pan-STARRS will be gone before you know it. The comet can be seen with the naked eye, though it still may be difficult to spot.

"There is a catch to viewing Comet Pan-STARRS," Amy Mainzer, the principal investigator of NASA's near-Earth object hunting NEOWISE mission at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., said in a statement Thursday (March 7). "This one is not that bright and is going to be low on the western horizon, so you'll need a relatively unobstructed view to the southwest at twilight and, of course, some good comet-watching weather."

After Pan-STARRS makes its closest brush with the sun on Sunday, the comet will begin to dim. Stargazers with telescopes and binoculars might still be able to see the sungrazer until early April, but it will fade out of naked-eye visibility before the end of March.

Editor's note: If you snap an amazing photo of Comet Pan-STARRS, or any other celestial object, and you'd like to share it for a possible story or image gallery, please send images and comments, including location information, to managing editor Tariq Malik at spacephotos@space.com.

Follow Miriam Kramer @mirikramer or Google+. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook or Google+. Original article on SPACE.com.

Chinese Space Debris Hits Satellite

On Jan. 22, 2013, debris from a Chinese anti-satellite program test hit a Russian satellite. [Read the full story.]

Russia's BLITS Satellite

Russia's small Ball Lens In The Space (BLITS) retroreflector satellite is a 17-pound (7.5 kilograms) built for satellite laser ranging experiments. It launched in 2009 and was expected to last five years in space before it was struck by Chinese space junk on Jan. 22, 2013. [Read the full story.]

Russian Satellite Hit by Chinese Space Debris

On Jan. 22, 2013, debris from a Chinese anti-satellite program test hit a Russian satellite. [Read the full story.]

China's 2007 Anti-Satellite Target: Fengyun-1C

On Jan. 11, 2007, China destroyed one of its own – an aging Fengyun-1C weather satellite – via an anti-satellite test. The debris cloud from the test has posed a risk to spacecraft and satellites in orbit ever since. [Read the full story.]

China Anti-Satellite Debris Paths

Known orbit planes of Fengyun-1C debris one month after its 2007 disintegration by a Chinese anti-satellite (ASAT) interceptor. The white orbit represents the International Space Station. [Read the full story.]

New Chinese Anti-Satellite (ASAT) Test?

In January 2013, China hinted at plans for a new anti-satellite (ASAT) test could showcase an ability to reach medium-Earth orbit. Doing so, some analysts say, would underscore that country’s ability to place the constellation of U.S. Global Positioning System navigational satellites at risk, but also a similar Chinese system. [Read the full story.]

Space Debris Diagram

China's FENGYUN 1C polar-orbiting weather satellite was destroyed during the test of a Chinese anti-satellite weapon in 2007. Analytical Graphics created an animation from which this still was taken using data tracks of the debris in June 2007. [Read the full story.]

Location of Chinese ASAT Test

China's FENGYUN 1C polar-orbiting weather satellite was destroyed during the test of a Chinese anti-satellite weapon in 2007. Analytical Graphics created an animation from which this still was taken using data tracks of the debris in June 2007. [Read the full story.]

Location of Objects Within Debris Cloud

China's FENGYUN 1C polar-orbiting weather satellite was destroyed during the test of a Chinese anti-satellite weapon in 2007. Analytical Graphics created an animation from which this still was taken using data tracks of the debris in June 2007. [Read the full story.]

The "Harlem Shake" even has NASA dancing in Mission Control.

After rocketing to the top of the Billboard charts — thanks in part to its viral success on YouTube — the song, "Harlem Shake" by Baauer has now been spoofed by employees at NASA's Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia.

The video producers put their own NASA-like spin on the hit song.

"So you think you're having a nominal countdown when all of a sudden…" the NASA producers wrote as a teaser when it went live Monday (March 4). [Watch NASA's "Harlem Shake" Video ]

The 35-second music video begins in a seemingly normal launch control room when a young woman in a spacesuit enters and starts dancing for the camera. When the song picks up, everyone is suddenly dressed in costume and dancing to the song, just as you'd expect in a "Harlem Shake" video.

The Wallops Flight Facility, based on Wallops Island on the Virginia coast, is the center of NASA's sounding rocket and balloon science programs.

The Wallops video spoof comes on the heels of many different videos paying homage to the electronica sensation. The cast from "The Today Show," "The Simpsons" and "The Daily Show" have produced half-minute versions of the song and dance, as well as the entire lineup of the Miami Heat basketball team. In the Heat's version, oddly, there is actually a team member dancing in a spacesuit, while wearing mask of a horse head instead of helmet.

This isn't NASA's first parody video, however. Students from the agency's Johnson Space Center in Houston crafted a "NASA Gangnam Style" video in a tribute to the smash hit music video by South Korean singer Psy — the original was YouTube's first video to garner 1 billion views.

To mark the landing of the Mars Rover Curiosity on the Red Planet, NASA employees from the agency's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. parodied LMFAO's song "Sexy and I Know It" with the tamer "We're NASA and We Know It."

Follow Miriam Kramer @mirikramer and Google+. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook and Google+. Original article on SPACE.com.

A comet that just made its way into the Northern Hemisphere evening sky should be at its brightest this weekend, but it may be tricky for stargazers to see.

On Sunday (March 10), the Comet Pan-STARRS is expected to make its closest approach to the sun, potentially making the comet shine even more brilliantly when it appears at twilight low in the western sky, weather permitting. But stargazers will need a bit of preparation (not to mention a clear sky) to see the comet. 

"There is a catch to viewing Comet Pan-STARRS," Amy Mainzer, the principal investigator of NASA's near-Earth object hunting NEOWISE mission at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., said in a statement Thursday (March 7). "This one is not that bright and is going to be low on the western horizon, so you'll need a relatively unobstructed view to the southwest at twilight and, of course, some good comet-watching weather."

On Sunday, Comet Pan-STARRS will pass about 28 million miles (45 million km) from the sun during its close approach. The comet made its closest pass with the Earth on Tuesday (March 5) when it flew by at about 102 million miles (164 million km) from the planet. [How to see the comet]

"It will appear in the west at sunset, from around the 8th to the 13th of March 2013, and will be visible to the naked eye up to the end of the month: Comet Pan-STARRS C/2011 L4 will traverse Cetus, Pisces, Pegasus and Andromeda," Paris Observatory officials wrote in a statement Thursday, as the comet entered the Northern Hemisphere's evening sky after months of being visible from the Southern Hemisphere.

Comet Pan-STARRS, which has the official designation C/2011 L4 (PANSTARRS), was discovered in June 2011 by astronomers using the Panoramic Survey Telescope and Rapid Response System (or PANSTARRS) telescope in Hawaii. The comet made its way into the inner solar system from the Oort cloud — a group of icy bodies orbiting the sun in a region that extends from just beyond the orbit of Neptune out to a distance of 93 trillion miles (150 trillion kilometers). 

While Pan-STARRS may start dimming after Sunday, that doesn't mean that comet observers should put away their binoculars yet. On March 12 and 13, the comet will appear close to the moon, possibly even silhouetting it according to SPACE.com stargazing columnist Geoff Gaherty, an astronomer with the Starry Night Education night sky software company.

There are even comet sighting opportunities in April.

On April 3, the comet should be in the same part of the sky as the Andromeda Galaxy. Although the comet won't still be visible with the naked eye, stargazers with telescopes could still get a nice view of the comet and galaxy, Gaherty explained.

Pan-STARRS has already put on a show for stargazers in the Southern Hemisphere. It is one of several comets in the night sky expected to dazzle observers this year. Last month, amateur astronomers managed to photograph Pan-STARRS and another celestial wanderer — Comet Lemmon — at the same time to document rare photos of two comets together in the night sky.

Later this year, another comet from the Oort Cloud could be the brightest comet to pass by the Earth in a generation. Comet ISON is expected to outshine every comet in recent memory when it makes its closest swing by the sun late November.

Editor's note: If you snap an amazing photo of Comet Pan-STARRS in the night sky, or any other celestial object, and you'd like to share for a possible story or image gallery, please send images and comments, including location information, to managing editor Tariq Malik at spacephotos@space.com.

Follow Miriam Kramer @mirikramer and Google+. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook and Google+. Original article onSPACE.com.

The key to a supernova's future is in its past, scientists say.

A new study, unveiled today (March 7), may help astronomers turn back the clock on supernovas to understand how some of these massive cosmic explosions, which signal the death of stars, can occur.

By reviewing observations of 188 supernova remnants, study leader Xiaofeng Wang, an astronomer at Tsinghua University in Beijing, and his team discovered a seemingly simple way to understand what the "progenitor" star of a stellar explosion may have looked like before the white dwarf went supernova.

Wang and his team focused specifically on a kind of star explosion known as a Type 1a supernova, which astronomers use as cosmic mile-markers to measure vast distances across galaxies. Astronomers know that Type 1a supernovas can form in one of two different scenarios, both of which include a small, dying star known as a white dwarf that is about the size of Earth, but as massive as the sun.

The team analyzed the general galactic locations of the supernovas in their survey in order to understand what the area could have looked like at the time of the actual explosion. They found the stars that went supernova in more metal-rich, and possibly younger, star systems exploded more violently than supernovas born in less metal-rich areas of a galaxy.

"The typical mass of a white dwarf is not large enough to trigger an explosion; it is suggested that either merging of two white dwarfs in a binary system or continuous accretion of mass from a companion by a white dwarf is required to reach that limit," Wang said. "But the evidence from observations are not strong enough to support one scenario and refute another one." [Amazing Photos of Supernova Explosions]

These results are one more step toward solving a mystery that has beleaguered scientists researching supernovas since the 1960s.It is likely that the more explosive supernovas are caused by a white dwarf extracting mass from a companion star like the sun or a red giant, but not another white dwarf, Wang said. The less violent supernovas are probably caused by the merging of two white dwarfs.

"The basic idea is that we use these supernovae to measure distances," Ryan Foley, an astronomer at Harvard who was not involved with the study, said. "It's how we know the universe is expanding. That's great, that we measure distances with them, but it's embarrassing that we don't yet know what stellar systems produce them."

While Wang's work is consistent with other findings, by using a broad overview of survey data, the results are not as detailed as some supernova research published in recent years, added Foley.

An earlier study led by Foley used a comprehensive examination of a group of Type 1a supernovas to see that the violently exploding stars were found in gassy environments within their area of the galaxy.

"The previous way that we've found the differences is telescope time-intensive; this new way has the potential to use very little telescope time," Foley said of Wang's work. "Overall, it's a nice result, but it's one of these things that the interpretation of the results is going to take a little time to flush out."

The research was detailed online March 7 in the journal Science.

Follow Miriam Kramer @mirikramer and Google+. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook and Google+. Original article on SPACE.com.

This year could be the "year of the comet," according to some astronomers keeping an eye on icy balls of gas and dust roaming through the solar system. Two comets will brighten the Northern Hemisphere in a potentially history-making fashion, with the first one coming into view this week.

"It has been 15 years-plus since Hale Bopp," Editor-in-chief of Astronomy Magazine David Eicher said of the last bright comet seen in the Northern Hemisphere. "We're overdue. We haven't had a really well-placed one in a long time."

The first comet set to give northerners a show is Comet Pan-STARRS. It will first pass into view in the Northern Hemisphere early this month, after streaking through the southern skies earlier in the year, Eicher said. 

The comet makes its Northern Hemisphere appearance today (March 7) and will be at its brightest, and closest to the sun, on Sunday (March 10). Previously, it was only visible from the Southern Hemisphere, where it wowed stargazers and was even visible at the same time as another southern comet, Comet Lemmon. [How to see the comet]

Then, in November, the most anticipated comet of the year should come into view for stargazers. Comet ISON  could be the brightest comet to grace the skies in memory.

"In late November, ISON should be in the morning sky," Eicher said. "It should be as bright or brighter than Venus. It could be the brightest comet that anyone alive has ever seen."

Comet Pan-STARRS may not be as impressive as ISON, but viewers can still see it with the naked eye. The comet's tail will be visible in a dark, evening sky, and it should match the brightness of Polaris, the North Star, Eicher said. 

"Go out and, in the evening sky, especially the first week of March, look to the west," Eicher said of Pan-STARRS. "It will be one of the brightest things in the sky. It will pop out. It will look like a blob, a fuzzy star, and you should be able to see a tail sticking upward from horizon."

The comet should be its brightest on March 10, but scientists aren't sure that it will brighten the way they expect, Eicher said. The ratio of dirt to ice in the comet's nucleus could affect the way the comet brightens, and scientists are not sure of Pan-STARR's exact composition, added Eicher.

Astronomers take a few different factors into account when trying to determine how bright a comet will appear from Earth. As the object's orbit brings it closer to the sun, the icy nucleus of the comet starts to melt, sloughing off gas and dirt, which creates two tails. The dirt tail is usually too dark to see, but the gas tail can create a brilliant show for those watching on the ground, Eicher said.

Both PanSTARRS and ISON are thought to come from the Oort Cloud, a mass of icy bodies orbiting the sun from up to 93 trillion miles (150 trillion km) away. Occasionally, a comet gets expelled from the cloud and finds a new orbit that brings it closer to the inner solar system.

These comets, known as "sungrazers," come so close to the sun that some of them shatter or even collide with the star. But if they survive, Eicher said, they could become some of the brightest objects in the sky. The gas trails from these comets are even more dazzling than usual because the ice in the nucleus of the comets is melting for the first time.

Astronomers are particularly excited about ISON because its orbit should bring the comet close enough to the sun and the Earth to make it one of the brightest objects in the sky come November. However, it is possible that the comet could break apart if it flies too close to the sun.

"There's no way to predict it," Eicher said of ISON. "The major factors are all favoring that it will be really bright. The tea leaves all look good, but we really aren't going to know until November. "

Editor's note: If you snap an amazing photo of Comet Pan-STARRS, Lemmon or ISON in the night sky, or any other celestial object, and you'd like to share for a possible story or image gallery, please send images and comments, including location information, to managing editor Tariq Malik at spacephotos@space.com.

David Eicher is writing a book titled "Comets: Visitors from Deep Space" that is scheduled for release later this year. 

Follow Miriam Kramer on Twitter @mirikramer and Google+. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook or Google+. Original article on SPACE.com.

A new cable television series premiering tonight (March 5) reveals a fresh take on how aliens could invade Earth.

The Science Channel's "Are We Alone?" is a two-part miniseries that uses expert testimony and some creative science fiction to explore how a technologically advanced species could travel to Earth and invade the planet.

"It's like nothing you've seen before," Hakeem Oluseyi, a Florida Institute of Technology astrophyscist interviewed in the series, told SPACE.com.

"Are We Alone?" chronicles an alien invasion from start to finish. Interstellar travelers arrive on Earth, dropping capsules that begin multiplying when they reach the surface of the planet. "Are We Alone?" attempts to explore every aspect of the invasion, from how the biological components could take over the Earth to how humans would react to the aliens.

Oluseyi thinks that an invasion is probably not the most likely way humanity will encounter aliens, however. For the most part, Earth was inhabited solely by single-celled organisms, until more complex life started taking over, Oluseyi said.

"Chances are that single-celled life is the type that's ubiquitous throughout the universe," Oluseyi said.

"Are We Alone?" kicks off a month of Science Channel programming devoted to the search for alien life. Another two-part series, called "Aliens: The Definitive Guide," details the work that scientists are doing to hunt for alien life.

"We're at this point that we're finding things we always knew were there," Oluseyi said, citing Kepler's newest discoveries. "Life is the same way. We're pretty certain that it's there, but we haven't seen it yet."

There is even a possibility of some form of primitive extraterrestrial life in the solar system, Oluseyi said. Some moons of Jupiter, like Europa, are similar enough to Earth that they could harbor life. It's even possible that alien life has entered Earth's atmosphere through a process called "panspermia."

Some studies have shown that micro-organisms can survive the intense heat and pressure created by entry into an atmosphere, Oluseyi said.

Tonight's first episode of "Are We Alone?" called "The Invasion," premieres on the Science Channel at 10 p.m. ET (check local listings). The second episode, titled "The Offspring," premieres March 12.

Follow Miriam Kramer on Twitter @mirikramer and Google+. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebookor Google+. This article was first published on SPACE.com.

Brushing your teeth is not just a daily chore for people on Earth. Good teeth are vital for astronauts in space, but not for reasons you might think.

In new video about astronauts and their teeth, the European Space Agency took the streets to find out what people across Europe thought are the reasons spaceflyers need to keep their pearly whites in good shape.

While ESA officials revealed the surprising answer to space dental health in the video's end, some public answers ranged from the sensible to outright odd.

"I think in space the circumstances are different and that your bones lose calcium, and then your teeth become bad more quickly," responded one Dutch-speaking interviewee.

Astronauts do lose bone density while living in space, but that isn't the reason they need to take care of their teeth. Other interviewees came up with more creative reasons for astronaut dental care.

"Because it is weightlessness, there is no traction between the food and the teeth," said a person interviewed in Brussels, Belgium. "So I think it is very hard, very difficult to make the food digestible in the stomach."

Another respondent thought speed might be a factor.

"Because of the speed you are travelling with? I don't know," said one interviewee in Maastricht, Netherlands.

Though he seemed unsure, the Dutch respondent actually wasn't far off from the real answer. Astronauts are required to have good teeth because of the extreme conditions created by launch and landing, ESA officials said. [Quiz: The Reality of Life in Space]

"In fact, astronauts need good teeth because the acceleration forces and vibrations during a flight into space can be very strong," an ESA narrator says in the video. "During the launch phase, an astronaut has to endure a force of up to four times their own body weight. Ill-fitting dental fillings could become loose or fall out, and the atmospheric pressure change may be painful when cavities are present."

Good dental hygiene does not stop on the ground. Spaceflyers need to continue taking care of their teeth while living on board the orbiting laboratory in preparation for their return to the surface of the Earth.

When space station residents are done with their time in orbit and return home, it's also a violent trip. The Russian Soyuz capsule responsible for taking spaceflyers to and from the $100 billion laboratory is still speeding at about 6.2 miles per hour (10 km/h) when it touches down.

So if you have hopes to be an astronaut, don't forget to brush your teeth each day. It's a good practice whether you live on Earth or not.

Follow staff writer Miriam Kramer @mirikramer . Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook or Google+. This article was first published on SPACE.com.