CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – This is one strange asteroid. The Hubble Space Telescope has discovered a six-tailed asteroid in the asteroid belt between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. Scientists say they've never seen anything like it. Incredibly, the comet-like tails change shape as the asteroid sheds dust. The streams have occurred over several months. (WATCH: ) A research team led by the University of California, Los Angeles, believes the asteroid, designated P/2013 P5, is rotating so much that its...

One theory of a newly discovered type of black-hole quasar suggests gas flows into a central black hole. More frequent particle collisions close to the black hole make the gas hot in regions that are closer to the center (shown in blue and white). Regions further away are cooler (yellow and orange). (York University/Patrick Hall) The most luminous objects in the universe keep getting more mysterious. Astronomers have discovered a new type of quasar — an incredibly bright galactic core...

Saturn is by far the showiest, most photogenic planet in the solar system. With its striped surface, stunning set of rings and 62 moons, the sixth planet from the sun is a wonder to view, whether it’s through a telescope or in an image taken from space. The latest such image is a rarity, a composite of photos taken by the spacecraft, part of a joint NASA mission with the European and Italian space agencies called Cassini-Huygens, which has been...

Comet ISON shines in this five-minute exposure taken at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center on Nov. 8. Located in the constellation of Virgo, it is now visible in a good pair of binoculars. (NASA/MSFC/Aaron Kingery) Comet ISON's highly anticipated flyby of the sun is now just two weeks away, and scientists and skywatchers alike hope the encounter gives them another reason to be thankful this holiday season. will skim just 730,000 miles above the solar surface on Thanksgiving Day, Nov....

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- NASA hopes its newest Mars spacecraft lives up to its know-it-all name. The robotic explorer called Maven is due to blast off Monday on a 10-month journey to the red planet. There, it will orbit Mars and study the atmosphere to try to understand how the planet morphed from warm and wet to cold and dry. "A maven is a trusted expert," noted NASA's space science chief, John Grunsfeld. Maven will help scientists "build a story...

NASA’s newest Mars mission is scheduled to launch from Cape Canaveral today at 1:28 p.m. For weeks leading up to today, an Air Force officer has been monitoring weather reports to ensure it’s safe for the probe-carrying rocket to take off. “Everything is looking good so far,” Launch Weather Officer Mike McAllenan, a member of the Air Force’s 45th Weather Squadron, which oversees the launches at Cape Canaveral, told weather.com. “The main weather threat is towards the end of the...

Wright Shumate sent this picture via Twitter. 'My photo of the Minotaur rocket launch and the moon. Taken from North Carolina.' WASHINGTON -- A rocket has streaked along the eastern U.S. early evening sky in an unusual sight as NASA put a smartphone and 28 other tiny satellites into orbit. NASA and the Air Force launched the private Minotaur rocket Tuesday from Wallops Island, Va., in a test flight. The NASA launch pad is getting more use, giving more Americans...

WASHINGTON -- Comet ISON is teasing the solar system as it dances with the sun and it's giving astronomers mixed signals. Will it meet a fiery death - or survive - when it whips around the sun on Thursday? The icy comet will be only about 1 million miles away from the sun's super-hot surface during its close encounter on Thanksgiving. On Monday, it looked like it was about to die even before it got there. On Tuesday, it appeared...

A Falcon 9 SpaceX rocket sits on Launch Complex 40 just before the launch window opened at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Cape Canaveral, Fla. ((AP Photo/John Raoux)) CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- A new communications satellite that has both public and government applications is still sitting on the launch pad at Cape Canaveral, Fla. The privately owned SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket has experienced several technical issues this year and two attempts to launch on Thanksgiving were aborted. SpaceX...

NEW DELHI -- India's Mars orbiter mission left Earth's sphere of influence early Sunday after performing a maneuver to put it on its way to orbit the red planet. The spacecraft fired its main engine for more than 20 minutes to reach the correct velocity to leave the Earth's orbit, the Bangalore-based Indian Space Research Organization said. "The Earth orbiting phase of the spacecraft ended. The spacecraft is now on a course to encounter Mars after a journey of about...

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- It's all up to Hubble. NASA said Monday that the Hubble Space Telescope is the best bet for figuring out whether Comet ISON disintegrated during its brush with the sun last week. A pair of solar observatories saw something emerge from around the sun following ISON's close approach on Thanksgiving Day. But scientists don't know whether the spot of light was merely the comet's shattered remains or what's left of its icy nucleus. Either way, by...

NASA scientists found faint signatures of water in the atmospheres of five distant planets. All five planets appear to be hazy. (NASA Goddard Space Flight Center) NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has detected water in the atmospheres of five planets beyond our solar system, two recent studies reveal. The are all scorching-hot, Jupiter-size worlds that are unlikely to host life as we know it. But finding water in their atmospheres still marks a step forward in the search for distant planets...