The amazing beauty of an older burn area in the Valle Vidal Unit of the Carson National Forest in northern New Mexico, in late summer 2013.

Astronomers have used ESO's New Technology Telescope and the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope to explore more than 100 planetary nebulae in the central bulge of our galaxy. They have found that butterfly-shaped members of this cosmic family tend to be mysteriously aligned — a surprising result given their different histories and varied properties.

Cassini spacecraft images show the development of the largest storm seen on the planet since 1990. On Saturn, not only are storms much bigger than on Earth, they're far more violent, with vertical winds of more than 300 miles per hour.

"For decades people have known that the solar cycle depends on the poleward flow or material, changing the magnetic fields from one cycle to the next. We mapped out what we believed to be the flow pattern in the 1990s, but the results didn't quite make sense." - Philip Scherrer

A new Dartmouth study links an abrupt global change to a colder, dryer climate 12,900 years ago to the impact of an asteroid or comet in Quebec

Gardiner’s frogs from the Seychelles islands, one of the smallest frogs in the world, do not possess a middle ear with an eardrum yet can croak themselves, and hear other frogs.

Smoke from the Rim Fire choked Yosemite National Park during the busy Labor Day Weekend. The smoke is thick, entirely blocking the view of the ground from space. From the ground, the smoke obscured Yosemite’s normally pristine views.

Scientists fear not enough is being done to study long-term effects of radioactive contamination from the nuclear disasters at Chernobyl and Fukushima Daiichi.

All the Great Lakes have suffered these harmful algal blooms. Drought, invasive species, runoff and sewage, and warmer-than-average temps all contribute.

Just as bright moonlight can illuminate an earthly landscape, so bright Earthlight can illuminate a moonscape. That earthly light on the moon is called earthshine.