The loss of Space Shuttle Challenger on January 28, 1986 was one of the most significant "where were you" moments in recent history. Like many schoolchildren across the country, maybe you were watching Teacher in Space Christa McAullife. Or like millions of others, perhaps you learned of the accident shortly afterward and tuned in to watch the endless replays of the horrific fireball in the clear blue Florida sky. The Space Shuttle Challenger crew Back row left to right: Ellison...

NASA's crucial Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) satellite successfully launched Saturday morning from Vandenburg Air Force Base, California. A United Launch Alliance Delta II rocket took off from the Air Force base, carrying the satellite into space. Thesatellite will orbit Earth on a three-year mission, gathering information and monitoring water and energy fluxes, NASA says. Its purpose is to take a closer look at Earth's soil moisture and freeze/thaw state, measuring and mapping information. (MORE: Senate Approves Keystone XL Pipeline...

“Think of it as kind of a super Saturn.” That’s how University of Rochester astronomer Eric Mamajek described the ring system of exoplanet J1407b, which a recent analysis revealed is 200 times larger than that of the ringed planet in our solar system. When Mamajek and colleagues discovered J1407b and its rings in 2012, the first such finding beyond the Milky Way, they didn’t yet know the extent of what they had found. “It took us a year even to...

An artist depiction of DSCOVR, a new space weather satellite from NASA, NOAA, the Air Force and being launched by SpaceX, at its observation point (also known as L1) 1 million miles from Earth. (NOAA) NASA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the Air Force were prompted to delay the launch of the space weather satellite called the on until Monday, Feb. 9 at 6:07 p.m. per NOAA's satellites Twitter. DSCOVR, as it’s referred, should reach its observing point...

In its 25 years of service, NASA's Hubble Telescope has never ceased to amaze. Recently the telescope witnessed a phenomenon that only happens twice every decade. (PHOTOS:) Weather.com's Matt Sampson has more on what Hubble saw on Jupiter. MORE ON WEATHER.COM: Hubble's 100 Best Photos April 24 marks the 25th anniversary of the Hubble Telescope. To celebrate, NASA and the European Space Agency, which jointly run the telecope, released this image of the star cluster Westerlund 2. (NASA/ESA/Hubble Heritage Team/A....

You won't be able to see this again until 2032. Late last month, NASA's Hubble Space Telescope captured a rare image of Jupiter with a few special guests: three of the gaseous planet's largest moons. In the picture, Europe, Callisto and Io can be seen orbiting Jupiter and casting circular shadows on the planet's surface. (MORE:) CNN reports that this and won't repeat for nearly two decades. Here's the footage in motion: Not pictured above are the 59 other moons...

Solarium concept art. (NASA) NASA is unveiling a new exhibit aimed at bringing viewers up close and personal with the sun. Wednesday afternoon, at the Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, and later open the exhibit to the public. Conceptual art of the exhibit. (NASA/SDO/Duberstein/Wiessinger) The installation, will feature floor-to-ceiling projections of massive-scale imagery from NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO). These videos, edited to produce a hypnotic effect, will be paired with music created at Stanford University. (MORE: )...

Active Region 1302 (September 2011) Each of the dark cores in this image is larger than Earth and the entire active region stretches more than 100,000 km from end to end. (NASA/SDO/HMI) Without the Sun there would not be life on Earth. However, the Sun occasionally acts up in the form of solar storms; the dangerous effects of which can sometimes be felt here. The subject of space weather deals with the impacts of these solar storms on Earth and,...

An image taken by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has people talking, and it's not entirely because of the phenomenon pictured. This image of the galaxy cluster SDSS J1038+4849 appears to show the cluster "smiling." The two orange eyes are made up of very bright galaxies, and the smile lines are arcs caused by , according to NASA. The event occurs when the gravitational pull between the two clusters is so strong that it , according to CNN. The object...

Each winter, a peculiar ring-shaped frozen body of water stands out vividly from space in the Quebec Province of Canada. Red circle shows the location of the Manicouagan Crater in Quebec. Though it's easy to see in the warmer months as well, the satellite image animation above shows that the ring is much more visible in winter due to the ice on the surface of the lake. Known as the Manicouagan Crater, it's estimated to be 214 million years old....

The Black Moon will drift in the sky on Feb. 18, 2015, and it is safe to say it will be an entity of its own. February's new moon is, as it is both a black and a supermoon, says EarthSky.org. The lunar body qualifies as a "supermoon" since it is new and will be on it's closest approachto Earth during orbit. To be considered a Black Moon, a , according to UniverseToday.com. February's lunar event meets the most difficult...

SpaceX finally got the weather conditions it was looking for, paving the way to a successful launch of a deep-space observatory from Cape Canaveral, Florida, just after 6 p.m. ET Wednesday. But the mission didn’t totally go the way NASA and SpaceX had originally hoped. High waves and rough seas canceled the radical rocket-landing test. Waves reaching three stories high crashed over the landing-zone platform floating 370 miles off the Florida coast. Making matters worse, one of four engines needed...