This image of Saturn and its rings was taken by NASA's Cassini spacecraft. (NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute) At a Glance A new study has found that Saturn's rings likely formed during a period of heavy bombardment some four billion years ago.The rings may be composed of fragments of thousands of dwarf planets, which invaded the solar system from its outer edges. Humans have been mesmerized by Saturn's iconic rings for centuries, but astronomers have long studied how they formed without a...

The LES1 satellite that was once lost has come back to life. ...

At a Glance LES1 never reached its intended orbit due to a launch failure.It remains a mystery why the satellite resumed sending signals after 46 years. An American satellite left for dead as space junk almost 50 years ago has come alive again, transmitting signals back to earth. According to NASA, — LES1 through LES9 — designed and built by Lincoln Laboratory between 1965 and 1976. The purpose of the unmanned space crafts was to test techniques for military satellite...

Astronomers say they’ve never seen anything like it, a supermassive black hole, naked and alone and hurtling through the universe at 2,000 miles per second. ...

A NASA satellite that’s orbiting Mars has sent back pictures of the site where a European spacecraft crashed on the Red Planet. ...

At a Glance The "Beaver" supermoon will be the largest in almost 70 years.The moon won't come this close to Earth again until 2034. Sky gazers are about to be treated to a celestial event that hasn't been observed in almost 70 years and won't come again for many years to come. The "record-breaking" supermoon slated for Nov. 14, known as the Beaver Moon or Frost Moon, will be exceptionally large and bring with it higher than normal tides. and...

At a Glance Images from NASA show the crash site of the European Space Agency's Schiaparelli lander on Mars.The images cover three locations where parts of the lander made it to the ground. New images from NASA show the crash site of the European Space Agency’s Schiaparelli lander on Mars, providing the first color view of the scene since the craft’s collision with the Red Planet on Oct. 19. In the photos, the area where the lander module struck the...

What sounds like the plot of a sci-fi thriller became a reality last year after a solar flare left a crack in the Earth’s magnetic field, our protective barrier. According to the study published about the event, that appear to have weakened our planet’s magnetic shield. , according to the American Physical Society. The particles slammed the Earth’s magnetosphere and, during the storm, knocked out radio signals in North and South America. ScienceAlert describes the event as . Observational data...

At a Glance Scientists spotted a "naked" supermassive black hole streaking away from a galaxy. They say they've never seen anything like it. Seeing somebody naked and running through your neighborhood at top speed would no doubt catch your attention. Same thing with black holes and astronomers. According to a release from the National Radio Astronomy Observatory, astronomers spotted the supermassive black hole, dubbed B3 1715+425 alongside remnants of . "We were looking for orbiting pairs of supermassive black holes,...

Meteorologist Danielle Banks explains how a gas cloud named Smith's Cloud is expected to hit the Milky Way in 30 million years. Good news is it won't be harmful to us. ...

Dwarf planet Pluto has always been a bit of an oddball in the solar system, but a recent discovery shows that the celestial body has been giving off some strange signals. According to the October study published on the findings, during a July 2015 flyby with a New Horizons spacecraft. NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory, which was aimed at Pluto and its moons, detected low-energy emissions coming off of it. “We’ve just detected, for the first time, X-rays coming from an...

At a Glance SpaceX said a September rocket explosion was the result of liquid oxygen cooling to a level that caused it to freeze and explode.The company said it is moving forward with plans for rocket launches as soon as mid-December. After weeks of investigating what caused a SpaceX rocket to explode on the launch pad, the company's CEO said he believes the issue has been located. Elon Musk said it was a problem with the supercooled liquid oxygen ,...