Sign Up for Our Amazing Newsletter!
A daily update by email. Science news, great photos, sky alerts.
Thank you! Your submission has been received!
Oops! Something went wrong while submitting the form.
Billions of orphan Jupiters adrift in Milky Way galaxy?
Astronomers have discovered 10 free-floating, Jupiter-sized planets in our galaxy and say these objects might be more common than stars.
May 19, 2011
Comet Hartley 2 is tumbling, at a changing rate
Astronomers from the Planetary Science Institute say the discovery of the changing rate of rotation of the nucleus of Comet Hartley 2 is a first.
May 17, 2011
Endeavour space shuttle takes final flight
In 1992 Dan Brandenstein commanded the first flight of the space shuttle Endeavour. He spoke with EarthSky about Endeavour's final launch May 16, 2011.
May 16, 2011
Martian Summer by Andrew Kessler
Writer Andrew Kessler spent a summer embedded with the NASA team that oversaw the Phoenix Mars Lander. His book Martian Summer recounts the experience.
May 12, 2011
Flipped orbits for some hot Jupiters
Planets form from a vast rotating cloud of gas, but some of these systems the have flipped orbits. The star is spinning one way and the planet is orbiting in the opposite direction.
May 11, 2011
Kepler mission’s extraordinary planet discoveries
Famed planet-hunter Geoff Marcy spoke on May 2, 2011 about the Kepler space telescope and its 1,235 candidate planets. Does he think we'll find intelligent life?
May 9, 2011
Comet Elenin information from Don Yeomans
Comet Elenin will sweep past Earth in late 2011. NASA's Don Yeomans says its passage is nothing unusual and no dramatic events are expected.
May 9, 2011
Space-time vortex around Earth confirmed
NASA's Gravity Probe B has confirmed an Einstein theory of a four-dimensional space-time vortex around Earth, which twists as Earth spins.
May 5, 2011
Tribute on Mars to Alan Shepard and the flight of Freedom 7
The Freedom 7 crater on Mars is 82 feet in diameter, matching the height of the Redstone rocket piloted by Alan Shepard.
May 5, 2011
Alan Shepard and 50th anniversary of America’s first spaceflight
On May 5, 1961, Alan Shepard became the first American to travel into space. His suborbital flight came less than a month after Yuri Gagarin orbited Earth once.
May 5, 2011
