This composite image shows a view from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope (left) and from the NACO system on ESO’s Very Large Telescope (right) of the gas and dust around the young star HD 100546. Image released Feb 28, 2013. (ESO/NASA/ESA/Ardila et al. ) Astronomers have captured what may be the first-ever direct photograph of an alien planet in the process of forming around a nearby star. (MORE: Massive Black Hole Surprises Scientists) The picture, which captured a giant alien...

This March 2 photo shows Pan-STARRS as seen from Queenstown, New Zealand. (AP Photo/spaceweather.com, Minoru Yoneto) A newly-discovered comet whizzed by earth in its closest approach ever - and you still have a chance to get a good view of it. Comet Pan-STARRS, named for the telescope used to spot it in 2011, passed within 100 million miles of earth Tuesday. By the weekend it will make its closest approach to the sun. Your best chance to see Pan-STARRS will...

Two giant swaths of radiation, known as the Van Allen Belts, surrounding Earth were discovered in 1958. In 2012, observations from the Van Allen Probes showed that a third belt can sometimes appear. The radiation is shown here in yellow, with green representing the spaces between the belts. (NASA/Van Allen Probes/Goddard Space Flight Center) A pair of NASA probes has discovered a previously unknown ring of radiation blanketing the Earth, upending a long-standing scientific theory about how charged particles coalesce...