NASA scientists are puzzled by a new image taken by its Dawn spacecraft that captured . The images of Ceres, located between Mars and Jupiter, show what appear to be tiny bright areas in a circular depression. NASA scientists speculate that the spots, captured Feb. 19 from a distance of nearly 29,000 miles, are some kind of volcanic origin, but they aren't sure. (MORE: ) "The brightest spot continues to be too small to resolve with our camera, but despite...

Members of the "Star Trek" cast are pictured in September 1976 in front of NASA's first shuttle orbiter, "Enterprise," named after the U.S.S. Enterprise from the long-running show. (NASA/Twitter) By now, you’ve likely heard about the passing of actor Leonard Nimoy, 83, best known for his role as Spock, the Vulcan with a heart, in the cult TV series "Star Trek." Chances are you first read word of his death on Facebook or Twitter, as tributes trended, including #RIPLeonardNimoy, #livelongandprosper...

In a brilliant cosmic display, a thin waxing crescent moon, Venus and Mars aligned for the first time in seven years on Feb. 20, 2015. The spectacle is known as ""— two celestial bodies in our solar system align, enabling observers to see them in the same line of sight, says EarthSky.org. Mars was the quieter of the three components, only appearing as a dull disk, Astronomy.com reported. at 88 percent illumination, which Astronomy.com says was a little more than...

Bad weather postponed a NASA rocket launch early last week, but after a few days the rocket successfully launched and proved to be worth the wait. The research rocket was launched from a U.S. Army installation in New Mexico, but residents in Arizona reported the real treat: a bright pink cloud was visible for 20 minutes as sunlight hit the vapor released from the rocket, Cammy Montoya, a spokeswoman for White Sands Missile Range, told the Associated Press. The cloud...

NASA's Dawn spacecraft made history Friday, March 6, 2015 after it began to orbit the dwarf planet Ceres. Dawn's achievement is significant as it has become the with a dwarf planet, Space.com reports. Dawn was PST, NASA revealed. The spacecraft achieved the feat around 38,000 miles out. (MORE: ) Ceres was first discovered over 200 years ago in 1801, Space.com says, and has gone through several changes in the astronomy books. The celestial body was first perceived as a planet...

When you first see the new renderings, you’ll assume you’re looking at an ancient version of Earth. But these new images actually depict what Mars could have looked like about 4.3 billion years ago. The animations are a product of , who aimed to find how much water a primitive version of the Red Planet could have held. According to the study,s published in on March 5, Mars could have held as much water as Earth’s Arctic Ocean. “Our study...

It’s a little like that Facebook dress controversy that wouldn’t go away, but on a much more significant level. New photos from NASA’s Curiosity rover are posing a new question: What color is Mars -- really? You probably know it as the Red Planet. But the new pictures also show it’s a little blue — or is it a little grey? As Anaridis Rodriguez of explains in the , the planet’s true color depends on the eye of the camera....

The NASA Scientific Visualization Studio has released a brilliant animation that reveals its fleet of Earth observing satellites currently orbiting the planet. Nearly , including members of the A-Train satellite constellation and the International Space Station, can be observed running along their orbital paths. The latest addition to the list is the , which launched in January from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California. (MORE: ) NASA's satellites create an image of Earth's daily operations by measuring a variety of components...

Sizzling new video shows the sun’s most powerful eruption of the year so far — and it was aimed directly at Earth. Image shows the bright flash on the left side of the sun, March 11, 2015. (NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory) NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory, which constantly monitors the sun, captured video and images of the. In the video you can see the bright burst of radiation unleashed from the sun. (MORE: ) The flare originated from the region of...

3, 2, 1, FIRE! NASA scientists made history on March 11 when they successfully fired up the world's largest solid rocket booster in Promontory, Utah. The Space Launch System 5-segment solid rocket booster illuminated the early morning sky with an ethereal orange blaze, the motor's roar breaking through the silence. NASA to bring the twin side-mounted boosters for the space launch system to life, Space.com reported. After the booster was ignited at 11:30 a.m. EST, it ran for two minutes.The...

In this handout, the Soyuz TMA-14M spacecraft is seen as it lands with Expedition 42 commander Barry Wilmore of NASA, Alexander Samokutyaev of the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos) and Elena Serova of Roscosmos on March 12, 2015, near the town of Zhezkazgan, Kazakhstan. (Bill Ingalls/NASA) After 167 days — almost half a year — three astronauts have . The view on the way down for NASA’s Barry Wilmore and Alexander Samokutyaev and Elena Serova of the Russian Federal Space...

Four identical spacecraft launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida, on Thursday as part of a billion-dollar NASA project to study the relationship between the magnetic fields of Earth and the sun. The launch of the unmanned Atlas rocket occurred late Thursday night, as scheduled. Less than two hours after the launch, the four observatories that make up NASA's Magnetospheric Multiscale Mission were flying free. "Just picture-perfect," launch manager Omar Baez said early Friday. "Everybody's cheering. ... Can't ask for any more."...