NASA's Van Allen Probes enabled the scientists to gather a more precise picture of the structure of Van Allen Belts that shield our planet from the solar radiation. New research shows their shape varies depending on the energy of charged particles constituting…
Two Caltech researchers have announced today, January 20, 2016, they have found evidence of a giant planet tracing a bizarre, highly elongated orbit in the outer solar system. The object, which the researchers have nicknamed Planet Nine, has a mass about 10 times…
SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket will attempt to deliver the Jason-3 satellite to low-Earth orbit at 18:42 UTC on January 17, 2016. If all goes as planned, the Jason-3 satellite will be deployed approximately one hour after launch. This mission also marks an…
NASA's program for detecting and tracking near-Earth objects (NEOs) has now been formally established and named the Planetary Defense Coordination Office (PDCO). Its responsibility will be supervising projects oriented towards finding and characterizing…
2016 will be another full and exciting year for the European Space Agency. This ESA TV video takes a look at what's ahead. It will be a 'Martian year' in particular with the ExoMars launch next March and with the landing of its descent module in October…
The Quadrantid meteor shower will reach its peak activity, with about 80 meteors per hour (ZHR), on the night of January 3 and the early morning hours of January 4, 2015. A waning crescent moon will not interfere much with meteors and any of its fireballs. This…
We start the year with our planet reaching perihelion – closest point to the Sun – which will happen at 22:49 UTC on January 2. At the time, Earth will be 146.6 million km (91 million miles) from the Sun. The first meteor shower of the year – Quadrantids – will…
These visualizations show the Moon's phases and libration at hourly intervals throughout 2016, as viewed from both northern and southern hemispheres. Each frame represents one hour. In addition, the visualizations show the Moon's orbit position, sub-Earth…
A rare celestial event will take place on December 25, 2015. A bright full moon, although not unusual phenomena per se, rarely coincides with Christmas date and will for sure make a nice contribution to the holiday atmosphere. The full moon of December, the…
The year 2015 seems to have another festive surprise in store for astronomy lovers across the globe. After the Halloween asteroid's close flyby in October, another object will pass by our planet on Christmas Eve. Asteroid 2003 SD220 will fly by Earth at a safe…
