A strange crater on Ceres seems to be warning spacecraft not to land on the dwarf planet's battered surface. The rim of Ceres' Haulani Crater is composed of relatively straight lines, making the 21-mile-wide (34 kilometers) feature look oddly like a stop sign, as several dazzling new photos captured by NASA's Dawn probe show. "The crater's polygonal nature (meaning it resembles a shape made of straight lines) is noteworthy because most craters seen on other planetary bodies, including Earth, are...

Artist's illustration of a free-floating world called WISEA J114724.10−204021.3, thought to be an exceptionally low-mass "brown dwarf," which is a star that lacked enough mass to burn nuclear fuel and glow like a star. (NASA/JPL-Caltech) Not all planets are lucky enough to have neighboring planets, or even a sun. Astronomers know these "lonely" free-floating planets exist in droves in our universe, but no one knows exactly how they formed or where they came from. But astronomers have now identified a...

The next full moon, known as the Pink Moon, is coming up this week — just days after the Internet ran wild with an entirely different, and completely fake, lunar event. Earlier this week, bloggers and social media users spread the hoax that on Wednesday,the moon would appear green. This rumor was debunked by scientists at NASA and Space.com, but not before the originator received thousands of shares for the false post. Stargazers are still due for a treat this...

The Hubble Space Telescope has sent back photos of a star inflating a giant bubble. ...

Info from space probe shows freezing polar regions on Venus ...

In this Nov. 4, 2014, file photo, visitors to the 16th China International Industry Fair (CIIF) in Shanghai, China, look at a prototype of what a Chinese Mars rover would look like. (Chinatopix Via AP) China is moving forward on a planned mission to land a rover on Mars by 2020, according to the chief administrator of the country's space program. The Mars voyage will attempt to mimic the successfulViking 1 mission four decades ago that allowed NASA to land...

Suitsat-1, known informally as Mr. Smith, is released from the ISS back in February 2006. (NASA) One of the most bizarre satellites to orbit the Earth made for an eerie sight as Suitsat-1, a lifeless space suit equipped with batteries and a transmitter, hurtled, aimlessly, around our blue marble. Suitsat-1 was an empty shell that was released into space during an ISS spacewalk conducted by commander Bill McArthur and flight engineer Valery Tokarev back in 2006. NASA TV’s live video...

Our solar system can add another moon to its roster. On the frozen fringes, in the Kuiper Belt, a tiny moon orbits the dwarf planet known as Makemake. On Tuesday, scientists announced the discovery by some members of the team that spotted Pluto's smaller moons years ago: the Hubble Space Telescope has detected a tiny, dark moon circling the dwarf planet. Makemake itself is just 870 miles wide. Its moon — dubbed MK2 — is a mere 100 miles across...

A Danish astronaut spotted the elusive blue jets in the sky above Costa Rica and caught them on camera for the first time. ...

In honor of Earth Day, the U.S. Geological Survey recently released its fourth installment of its Earth As Art exhibit, which compiles stunning satellite images that showcase the earth as a masterpiece. “Landsat satellites see the Earth as no human can,” the USGS writes on its website. “Not only do they acquire images from the vantage point of space, but their sensors record infrared as well as visible wavelengths of light. The resulting images often reveal ‘hidden’ details of the...

People out and about in southern California on Tuesday evening were surprised to see a green orb streaking through the night sky. While the otherworldly glow might have led some to question the existence of aliens and their possible arrival, stargazers at the local observatory soon put those worries to rest. There were dozens of reports of sightings on the American Meteorology Society's website that day, with most saying they spotted a blue or green fireball in the sky. "First...

The next stop for SpaceX: the Red Planet. Founder and CEO Elon Musk announced Wednesday via Twitter that he intends to send a Dragon capsule to land on Mars as early as 2018. If successful, it would be a big first step toward his ultimate goal of colonizing the planet. Musk also said the capsule will be called the Red Dragon, a nod to the planet's red surface. The first test flight will be unmanned; Musk also said he wouldn't...