In August 2014, the ESA's Rosetta Spacecraft will rendezvous with Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko and deploy its Philae lander, as seen in this artist's impression. (ESA–C. Carreau/ATG medialab) From a Chinese rover on the moon and new spacecraft orbiting Mars, to private spaceships and the most powerful digital camera ever built, space will be practically buzzing with human activities in 2014. Here are some of the things to look out for when you're looking up next year: New arrivals at Mars Mars...

(Dan Wilcox) OTTAWA, CANADA — Scientists, engineers and legions of volunteers have worked hard to make a mock Mars habitat in Utah as realistic as possible. The (MDRS), which is run by the nonprofit Mars Society, aims to help humanity prepare for the rigors and challenges of life on the Red Planet. It was designed in line with Mars Society founder Robert Zubrin's "Mars Direct" settlement approach, which sees crews living off the land as much as possible, MDRS director...

(Andrew Kwon) Jupiter will reign as king of the night sky on Sunday (Jan. 5), visible all night long as it reaches opposition. This means that, in Earth's sky, . As the sun sets in the west, Jupiter will rise in the east. Jupiter sets in the west just as the sun is rising in the east. Because we are only two weeks past the winter solstice, the shortest day in the year, this means that Jupiter will be above...

This NASA view combines two images from NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory captured on Jan. 7, 2014. Together, the images show the location of a giant sunspot group on the sun, and the position of an X-class flare that erupted at 1:32 p.m. EST. (NASA/SDO) Tuesday's massive solar flare has forced the commercial spaceflight company Orbital Sciences to postpone the planned launch of a private cargo mission to the International Space Station today. Read the full story here: A massive solar...

Liftoff of Space Shuttle Endeavour Billows of smoke and steam infused with the fiery light from space shuttle Endeavour's launch on the STS-127 mission fill NASA Kennedy Space Center's Launch Pad 39A. Endeavour lifted off on the mission's sixth launch attempt, on July 15, 2009 at 6:03 p.m. EDT. NASA and White House officials have announced plans to keep the International Space Station running through at least 2024 — a four-year life extension for the largest spacecraft ever built. The...

Nellim, Finland- The Aurora Bubble WASHINGTON – Northerners thawing out from a bitter freeze may get rewarded with shimmering northern lights the next couple days. Federal space weather forecaster Joe Kunches said the sun shot out a strong solar flare late Tuesday, which should arrive at Earth early Thursday. It should shake up Earth's magnetic field and expand the Aurora Borealis south, possibly as far south as Colorado and central Illinois. He said best viewing would probably be Thursday evening,...

In this Tuesday, Jan. 7, 2014 image made available by NASA, a giant cloud of solar particles, a coronal mass ejection, explodes off the sun, lower right, captured by the European Space Agency and NASA's Solar and Heliospheric Observatory. (AP Photo/ESA, NASA - SOHO) CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- A privately launched supply ship rocketed toward the International Space Station on Thursday following a series of delays ranging from the cold to the sun. Orbital Sciences Corp. launched its unmanned Antares...

The hand might look like an X-ray from the doctor's office, but it is actually a cloud of material ejected from a star that exploded. (NASA/JPL-Caltech/McGill) Religion and astronomy may not overlap often, but a new NASA X-ray image captures a celestial object that resembles the "Hand of God." The cosmicwas produced when a star exploded and ejected an enormous cloud of material, which NASA's Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array, or NuSTAR, glimpsed in high-energy X-rays, shown in blue in the...

Liftoff of Space Shuttle Endeavour Billows of smoke and steam infused with the fiery light from space shuttle Endeavour's launch on the STS-127 mission fill NASA Kennedy Space Center's Launch Pad 39A. Endeavour lifted off on the mission's sixth launch attempt, on July 15, 2009 at 6:03 p.m. EDT. CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- The six space station astronauts finally got their Christmas presents Sunday with the arrival of a privately launched supply ship that took an extra month to soar....

NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity captured an image of the mysterious space rock. (NASA Image) NASA's Mars Opportunity Rover was supposed to be hibernating for the winter, but a strange object that caught scientists' eyes couldn't be ignored. An image posted to Opportunity's website on the Martian surface. It from the scientists studying the object, according to an RT.com report. (MORE: ) A News.com.au article said space fans have speculated about the origins of the rock, saying it could be...

A European probe awoke from a deep sleep Monday to gear up for an unprecedented comet rendezvous and landing this year that will cap a 10-year voyage across the solar system. After two and a half years in hibernation, the European Space Agency's emerged from its slumber while cruising nearly 418 million miles from the sun. The wakeup call, which was due to begin at 5 a.m. EST, took hours as Rosetta switched on heaters to warm itself after its...

NASA astronaut Don Pettit captured stunning star trails using a long-exposure technique while on the International Space Station in 2012. (NASA/Don Pettit) NASA's newest communications satellite blasted into space Thursday night, beefing up the network that links ground controllers to the International Space Station and Earth-orbiting research observatories. The 3.8-ton at 9:33 p.m. EST from Florida's Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, its Atlas 5 rocket lighting up the night sky with bright-orange flame as it climbed toward space. TDRS-L is...