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Editors of EarthSky

SpaceX Dragon is back on Earth

SpaceX confirmed splashdown of Dragon in Pacific Ocean at 12:42 pm ET (1642 UTC), 155 miles SW of Long Beach, California.

Why your fingertips wrinkle when wet

If you place your fingertips in water for a few minutes, they begin to look wrinked. Why?

Oldest stone tools found in Kenya

The tools, whose makers may or may not have been some sort of human ancestor, date back to 3.3 million years ago.

Do nano-sunscreens harm sea life?

Nano particles in sunscreens have been found to harm marine worms, crustaceans, algae, fish and mussels. A new study shows their negative effect on sea urchin embryos, too.

Watch off-kilter explosion of supergiant star

This one-minute animation shows the shock wave that is created when the core of a massive star collapses.

The mystery of India’s rapid drift

India got a geologic boost that accelerated its drift toward Eurasia 80 million years ago, researchers suggest. The speed of the resulting impact created the Himalayas.

Space data protect whales from ships

A new tool tracks the locations of whales along the U.S. west coast, in order to decrease the chances of whales colliding with ships or getting tangled in fishing gear.

Traffic around Mars gets busy

With five active spacecraft now orbiting the planet, NASA has beefed up its traffic monitoring to make sure the Mars orbiters don't get too close to each other.

Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter drops nearer moon

Flight controllers at Goddard Space Flight Center completed a maneuver that lowered the spacecraft’s orbit to within 12 miles (20 km) of the moon's South Pole.

Scientists measure most distant galaxy yet

Galaxy EGS-zs8-1 sets a new distance record. It's so far away the light we receive left the galaxy over 13 billion years ago, and it is just arriving now.