Early Wednesday morning, the Northern Lights treated millions of Americans to a show in the northern United States. The light show was caused by what NOAA's Space Weather Prediction Center (SWPC) called a "," Slate reported. It shot particles toward the Earth that were caught in the magnetic field, illuminating the skies in a brilliant display. (PHOTOS: ) The auroras glowed in green, purple and white, and were seen as far south as North Carolina, according to local reports and...

The Kepler satellite observes exoplanets by measuring the light curve of a star. When a planet moves in front of the star, brightness dips slightly. If this little dip occurs regularly, there may be a planet orbiting the star, obscuring its light. (ESO) Life on Earth exists becuase of . Without that star and the energy it gives off, we’d be what NASA once described as a “lifeless ball of ice-coated rock.” Luckily, we are far enough from it, and...

Friday, March 20 brings with it a celestial showcase, a trio of events that includes a new moon, at 5:36 a.m., a total solar eclipse, at 5:46 a.m. and the vernal equinox, at 6:45 p.m., all Eastern time. Let’s tackle these one at a time, with the rarest of the three first. Total Solar EclipseIf you happen to be on the Faroe Islands or the Svalbard Archipelago (Norwegian islands in the Atlantic Ocean), there’s a decent shot the total solar...

As the new moon passed in front of the sun in the early morning hours of March 20, a solar eclipse could be seen across Europe. Only two places, Denmark’s Faroe Islands and the Svalbard Archipelago in the Arctic, held the promise of the total eclipse — which lasted less than three minutes — but clouds and not-so-great weather hampered the view in at least one of these locales. “There was in the Faroe Islands,” The Guardian reported. “An estimated...

On March 18, 1965, Soviet cosmonaut Alexei Leonov left his spaceship Voshkhod 2 for 20 minutes to become the first man ever to walk in space, according to NASA. With this spacewalk, the Soviets pulled ahead of the U.S. in the space race. It was a historic first, but it was also a near disaster. The secrecy of the Soviet space program required that very few people know about the plan for Leonov’s journey from the spacecraft. His family wasn’t...

NASA's Curiosity rover made an interesting discovery when it detected traces of nitrogen on the red planet's surface on Tuesday. The detection was made using the Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) instrument suite on the rover, NASA revealed in a press release. The in the form of nitric oxide and deemed 'biologically useful'. SAM heated various samples taken from the planet's surface, which likely , according to the BBC. (MORE: ) Nitrogen is key to the structure of life forms...

A conceptual image of an astronaut, anchored to a foot restraint, preparing to investigate the asteroid boulder. (NASA) It’s called the or ARM, and it’s an apropos name for the NASA project aimed at reaching into space, snatching a boulder from the surface of an asteroid and moving it into an orbit safe for humans to study. On Wednesday, March 25, the agency announced more details of this , which is “all in support of advancing the nation’s journey to...

At 3:42 p.m. on Friday, March 27, 2015, NASA astronaut Scott Kelly embarked on a journey no NASA astronaut has ever before undertaken. Along with Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko, Kelly headed to the International Space Station to start a — the longest continuous amount of time any American has ever spent in space.Gennady Padalka, also of the Russian Federal Space Agency, launched with Kelly and Kornienko, but will not stay aboard the ISS for a full year. The two travelers...

No doubt you've witnessed thunderstorms here on Earth: the flash of lightning, the rumble of thunder, the dark skies that birth heavy rain and gusty winds. (MORE: ) But have you ever seen thunderstorms...in space? While satellites in space have given researchers a first-hand look at "the other side of the storm" for a few decades, the ocial media has allowed astronauts to give an out-of-this-world view of nature's electric show. snapped a video of this cluster of thunderstorms developing...

An artist concept of the test vehicle for NASA's Low-Density Supersonic Decelerator, designed to test landing technologies for future Mars missions. On March 31, 2015, NASA tested the machine's balance. (NASA/JPL-Caltech) Early this summer, reports of flying saucers may spike — and observers wouldn’t necessarily be wrong. That’s when NASA plans to fly its Low-Density Supersonic Decelerator (LDSD), which looks eerily like a UFO, over the Pacific Ocean outside of Kauai, Hawaii. Yesterday, March 31, the agency spun all 15...

Blink and you might have missed it. According to NASA, astarted at 6:16 a.m. EDT on Saturday and lasted only five minutes, making it the shortest eclipse in the 21st century. The eclipse was visible in places around the world, including western North America, eastern Asia, the Pacific, Australia and New Zealand. Full lunar eclipses are often called "blood moons," because of the red tint they adopt as sunsets and sunrises seen from the Earth reflect onto the surface of...

Eleven Hyundai drivers helped 13-year-old Stephanie send a message to her dad, an astronaut orbiting Earth in the International Space Station. A fleet of cars etched Stephanie's etched Stephanie's message into the desert floor. (Hyundai) In an , , who says she misses her father, and worked with her to etch "Steph Loves You" into Nevada's Delamar Dry Lake in tire tracks. Although Stephanie's father wasn't identified in the ad, ABC News says that astronaut Terry Virts, known for his...