An artist’s concept of an Earth-like planet orbiting an evolved star that has formed a "planetary nebula." Earlier in its life, this planet may have been like one of the eight newly discovered worlds orbiting in the habitable zones of their stars. (David A. Aguilar/CfA) The hunt for more just hit pay dirt. Astronomers have discovered eight more planets in the “Goldilocks” zone of their stars, meaning they orbit close enough that their surfaces could hold water and they get...

SpaceX successfully launched its Falcon 9 rocket early Saturday morning in Cape Canaveral, Florida, but failed to complete the experimental portion of its mission. As NBC News reports, , which was successful. SpaceX and founder Elon Musk had planned to make space travel history by maneuvering the first stage of the rocket to land on a platform 200 miles off the Florida coast. In that regard, SpaceX was unsuccessful: By landing the first stage of the rocket, SpaceX would...

Take a good look, because we’ll never see this space rock again in our lifetime. Asteroid 2004 BL86 is set to make its closest approach to Earth on Monday, Jan. 26, from our planet, according to NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. That’s more than three times the distance between Earth and the moon, so there is no threat to all us little Earthlings. NASA also said the asteroid is about a third of a mile large, based on brightness estimates. A...

International Space Station’s Canadarm2 is used to help astronaut Steve Robinson during the mission’s third session of extravehicular activity on Aug. 3, 2005. (NASA) All that kept Ed White from drifting off into space was a 25-foot cord, wrapped in gold tape. The astronaut and Air Force Lieutenant Colonel, pilot for NASA’s Gemini IV mission, made history on June 3, 1965, when he conducted the first Extravehicular Activity or EVA by an American. Clad in a spacesuit and carrying a...

SpaceX released new footage of Saturday’s Falcon 9 rocket failed landing, which ended in a fiery explosion that rocked the Atlantic Ocean. The rocket launched Saturday, Jan. 10, and delivered over 5,000 pounds of cargo to the ISS. After it completed this stage of its mission, the rocket was supposed to land on a platform sitting atop an “” 200 miles off the Florida coast, NBC reported. The attempted landing was unsuccessful. Going into the flight, SpaceX acknowledged in a...

It's Earth, but not as we know it.This stunning footage was shot by European Space Agency astronaut Alexander Gerst while on board the International Space Station. The six-minute film is a compilation of 12,500 photographs taken at regular intervals during Gerst's five-month stint in orbit as a flight engineer. Gerst fitted cameras to the craft during his mission. (MORE: ) Gerst's photos included views of the Milky Way, the auroras, lightning and cities at night. We think they're out of...

If you're the type of person that worries about objects shooting through space, this video will make you uncomfortable. Since Dec. 2013, NASA's NEOWISE (Near-Earth Object Wide-field Survey Explorer) survey has been . Over a year later, NASA compiled that data to create the video above, which shows hundreds of dots swirling around our solar system. In the video, , and comets are yellow squares and asteroids are green dots. (MORE: ) NASA first launched NEOWISE in 2009, but the...

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....