Looking Up by Bob Eklund

A partial eclipse of the sun will be visible across most of North America on Thursday, October 23, as the Moon partially obscures the Sun between 2:10 and 4:40 p.m. PDT. At eclipse maximum (3:29 …[READ MORE]

NASA’s Astrobiology Institute (NAI) announced that the SETI Institute has been selected as a new member of the NAI for a 5-year research program, “Changing Planetary Environments and the Fingerprints of Life.” Led by SETI’s …[READ MORE]

Up to half of the water on Earth is likely older than the solar system itself, University of Michigan astronomers theorize. The researchers’ work, published in the current issue of Science, helps to settle a …[READ MORE]

What is a planet? For generations of kids the answer was easy. A big ball of rock or gas that orbited our Sun, and there were nine of them in our solar system. But then …[READ MORE]

NASA’s Mars Curiosity rover has reached the Red Planet’s Mount Sharp, a Mount-Rainier-size mountain at the center of the vast Gale Crater and the rover mission’s long-term prime destination. “Curiosity now will begin a new …[READ MORE]

Imagine living on a planet that has two suns. One you orbit, and the other is a very bright, nearby neighbor looming large in your sky. With this “second sun” in the sky, nightfall might …[READ MORE]

The Impressionist movement of the late 19th century takes its name from French artist Claude Monet’s moody, dreamlike painting “Impression, Soleil Levant” (“Impression, Sunrise”). Now, Texas State University astronomer and physics professor Donald Olson has …[READ MORE]

NASA’s Pluto-bound New Horizons spacecraft has traversed the orbit of Neptune. It is due to make a close encounter with distant Pluto on July 14, 2015. The sophisticated piano-sized spacecraft, which launched in January 2006, …[READ MORE]

The Whirlpool Galaxy Messier 51 (M51) is seen from a distance of approximately 30 million light-years. This galaxy appears almost face-on and displays a beautiful system of spiral arms. A European team of astronomers was …[READ MORE]

On August 6, after a decade-long journey chasing its target, the European Space Agency’s Rosetta became the first spacecraft to rendezvous with a comet, opening a new chapter in solar system exploration. Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko and …[READ MORE]