After years spent orbiting Mercury collecting data, NASA's Messenger spacecraft will crash into the planet's surface later this month. No need to worry, though, it's all part of the plan. In a statement, NASA says the spacecraft, which was launched in 2004, will April 30. (MORE: ) At more than 8,000 miles per hour, Messenger will strike Mercury's surface, but scientists won't be able to view the event because it will land on the side of the planet facing away...

You've seen thunderstorms before, but have you ever seen one like this? Filmed from the International Space Station in 2012, this video offers a whole new perspective on the common thunderstorm. The time lapse imagery was compiled from 49 separate photos taken with the European Space Agency's night pod camera. Astronauts were over 250 miles away when they captured the storm. MORE FROM WEATHER.COM:Incredible Light Trails from Space NASA astronaut Don Pettit captured stunning star trails using a long-exposure technique...

Look up. The Lyrid meteor shower is happening above you right now. This annual night light show is expected to peak just before midnight on Wednesday night, Apr. 22, and into the early morning hours of Thursday, Apr. 23. “The Lyrids themselves are caused by comet Thatcher, which in recorded history was seen around 1861,” Mitzi Adams, an astrophysicist with NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center, told weather.com. “But the comet has a 415-year cycle orbit. We won’t see it again...

For a quarter century, the has been unlocking celestial mysteries by letting us see space up close. The scope has made more than 1 million observations, answering questions about more than 38,000 objects in space. In October 2014, for example, the Earth-orbiting scope spotted a galaxy 13 billion light-years away — the yet. It’s helped us hone in on the age of the universe (13 to 14 billion years old) and discover dark energy, what NASA describes as “a mysterious...

The Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite prior to deployment from the orbiter Discovery, STS-48. (NASA) Originally published September 23, 2011 There has been a lot of hype about the Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite (UARS) that will be re-entering Earth's atmosphere, with pieces of the satellite expected to crash land anywhere from South America to Canada. Many are worried whether or not they will be safe outside, or if a giant chunk of space metal will fall from the sky and do...

It was a scene straight out of Gravity or Interstellar, but luckily nobody was on board to witness the thrill ride. Russia's Progress 59 (M-27M), an unmanned cargo ship, launched from Kazakhstan on Tuesday and was bound to resupply the International Space Station (ISS) when it spun out of control hundreds of miles above Earth. Progress 59 spirals out of control -- Earth is visible in the background. (NASA Youtube) The Guardian reports that the Russian space agency Roscosmos lost...

Artist rendering of Messenger above Mercury. (NASA) NASA confirmed Thursday afternoon that its , creating a new crater on the planet. “Going out with a bang as it impacts the surface of Mercury, we are celebrating Messenger as more than a successful mission,” John Grunsfeld, associate administrator for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate said. “The Messenger mission will continue to provide scientists with a bonanza of new results as we begin the next phase of this mission — analyzing the exciting...

Space shuttle Endeavour and its six-member STS-134 crew head toward Earth orbit and rendezvous with the International Space Station in May 2011. Originally published June 30, 2011 Next time you’re in a car driving down the highway, put your hand out the window. Feel that? That’s dynamic pressure. When you’re driving at highway speed, the air rushing past puts about 10 pounds per square foot of pressure on your hand. As you’ve probably noticed, the faster you’re moving, the more...

Astronomers recently announced they've discovered two more exoplanets orbiting a star 54 light-years away, confirming the belief that rocky planets orbit stars relatively close to Earth. These two exoplanets were found orbiting the star HD 7924 , according to a paper released by the scientists who announced the discovery. They had previously discovered another exoplanet orbiting HD 7924, and all of the three planets complete a full orbit in 24.5 days or fewer, the paper added. This is an artist's...

Over a week after launching and ultimately failing to dock with the International Space Station (ISS), unmanned Russian spacecraft Progress 59 reentered Earth's atmosphere and burned up over the Pacific Ocean. Roscosmos, the Russian Federal Space Agency,. On April 28, Roscosmos launched Progress 59 from Kazakhstan on a mission to resupply the ISS, but the cargo ship failed to dock with the station and went into an uncontrolled spin. (MORE: ) For Roscosmos, that means losing nearly $51 million and...

Wednesday marks the 50th anniversary of the , when astronaut Ed White became the “first American to step outside his spacecraft and let go, effectively setting himself adrift in the zero gravity of space,” NASA writes. He floated around the Gemini spacecraft for 23 minutes. Since then, our intimate knowledge of the vastness of space has expanded exponentially. NASA has engineered more than 250 spacewalks, and earlier in 2014, the agency sent a man to spend a full year on...

Kevin Eichelberger was in the middle of a Bahamas getaway with friends when they found something that immediately made the trip worthwhile. "It was about 100 to 200 yards out," he told weather.com. "We saw it from the steps of our beach house." What they found last Friday were pieces of the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket wreckage, which had washed up on the shores of Elbow Cay weeks after the ship's booster crash-landed in mid-April. The metal chunk was covered...

A new fleet of NASA satellites launching next year aim to help scientists predict hurricane intensities. The Cyclone Global Navigation Satellite System (CYGNSS) is a that will measure ocean surface winds after it launches in October 2016, according to NASA. Eight satellites will deploy from the main CYGNSS module above Earth. (University of Michigan ) With that data, NASA scientists can better understand air to sea interactions that occur in the eyes of storms. (MORE: ) When it comes to...