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One closely-debated theory has been that heavy metals were a byproduct of collisions between dense dead stars. Now, an event observed through NASA’s Swift satellite may have provided a literal “smoking gun.”

When all the galaxies, stars, gas, dust, dark matter and all the other forms of matter and radiation are summed together, its energy still pales in comparison to dark energy. […]

Next month, an international team of researchers will begin a five-year mission to find out more about these exploding stars and what they reveal about the age and growth of the universe.

How “super” was your view of the Supermoon?

The video below shows Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo breaking the sound barrier.

The Planetary Society is the only organization now that does optical searches, so we have a telescope that looks, if you will, for laser signals from other civilizations.

Spacewarps.org is the newest project requesting public assistance with finding unusual astronomical objects: in this case, systems containing massive galaxies that bend light around them.

While recent focus has been on finding an Earth-like exoplanet in a system’s “Goldilocks zone,” one astrophysicist suggests that that zone might be made wider by taking other atmospheric conditions, such as greenhouse gas amounts, into account.

As soon as we abandon the first intuitions we have, that we’re the ones in control of everything, then we can start sailing into the inner cosmos and discovering all sorts of new planets and life forms and things like that on the inside of our skulls. 

The Moon has played a significant role in many other historical events, from the fall of Athens to Columbus’s subjugation of the Jamaican natives. 

It’s the closest star system found in almost a century, and will hopefully serve as “an excellent hunting ground for planets” and a possible destination for a future manned mission.

A new paper suggests that it’s much easier to detect oxygen in the atmospheres of planets orbiting white dwarf stars, which are dimmer than the Sun.

Scientists are hoping that some of 3,000-plus possible exoplanets discovered by NASA’s Kepler mission have moons that exist outside a circumplanetary “habitable edge.”

Last week’s events have asteroid hunters feeling both vindicated and excited as they step up efforts to develop better detection methods.

The original observation was effectively a lack of an observation. The conclusion was dinosaurs. 

The icy surface of this Jupiter moon hides a vast body of liquid that most scientists believe is water. Thanks to improved spectrometry, they now believe that that water may be salty.

NASA’s recent discovery of two Earth-like planets within the Kepler-62 solar system – the most Earth-like planets ever detected – is creating excitement in the scientific community that we’re close to finding […]

Kepler 37-B is about the size of our moon, yet is a little too close to its parent star for human comfort.

The most common stars in our galaxy were too small to be seen until recently. A new study suggests that there’s a good chance that they support Earth-like planets.

Announced this Monday, the possible planet is just one of 461 new candidates, out of a total of over 2,700, located by NASA’s Kepler space telescope since its 2009 launch.

Looking into a sliver of sky known as the Hubble Ultra Deep Field, astronomers have found light from galaxies born just after the big bang, telling scientists more about the early universe. 

The team is one of the first selected to perform research during the first official cycle of the world’s largest airborne observatory.

Named for their size and bright color, these objects allow astronomers a new look into the lifespans of galaxies and the black holes at their centers.

At 17 billion times the mass of the sun, it could be the biggest of its kind found to date, and its existence may shake up scientists’ knowledge of how galaxies are born and evolve.

Comet ISON was first spotted well beyond Jupiter’s orbit, which makes it fairly large. If it makes it past the sun it could light up the night sky by this time next year.

Launched last week, the game, called Clouds, is the newest addition to the Milky Way Project and to Zooniverse, which is home to some of the largest online citizen science endeavors.

Planetary Resources isn’t the first company formed around the mission of extracting valuable metals from the asteroid belt, but it may be the first one with some real investor belief and funding behind it.

NASA’s new X-ray telescope chanced upon a rare flare-up taking place in the center of the galaxy, home of the Sagittarius A black hole.

A new paper says the “rogue planet” is drifting in space about 100 light-years away from Earth, raising speculations as to how many others are out there.

For the amateur astronomer in your life: 16 terabytes’ worth of data from the orbiting telescope dating back to its 2009 launch. The science team wants help deciphering it all.