All of the images in this gallery were released this week upon the groundbreaking of the Giant Magellan Telescope in the Chilean Andes. (GMT Organization) Scientists and supporters gathered Wednesday morning in Chile's Atacama Desert to celebrate the beginning of an important project in space exploration. The event marked the groundbreaking on the Giant Magellan Telescope, which will be located at the Las Campanas Obervatoryon a remote mountaintop in the Chilean Andes, according to a press release. When early operations...

An image from New Horizons’ Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) combined with color data from the Ralph instrument created this global view of Pluto. (NASA) Is Pluto’s signature heart-shaped surface feature partly the result of a meteoric impact? After the dazzled stargazers earlier this year with its high resolution photography of the remote dwarf planet, astronomers have been intrigued by its newly revealed “heart,” fondly referred to by Pluto-philes as the Tombaugh Regio.Paul Schenk, a planetary geologist at the Lunar...

New Horizons scientists made this false-color image of Pluto using a technique called principal component analysis to highlight the many subtle color differences between Pluto's distinct regions. The image data were collected by the spacecraft’s Ralph/MVIC color camera on July 14 at 11:11 AM UTC, from a range of 22,000 miles (35,000 kilometers). (Credits:NASA/JHUAPL/SwRI) Now that we’ve gotten to know Pluto better in recent history, we’re starting to see our distant friend in a new light, or color, if you...

The photo above show the Pleiades star cluster, also known as the "Seven Sisters." (Marco Lorenzi/NASA) Nicknamed the “Seven Sisters,” the Pleiades is a small, hazy cluster of stars that have the best visibility in the month of November. According to Smithsonian.com, the Pleiades cluster will before heading back towards the horizon. The cluster, which can be seen with both the unaided eye or an optical aid, is , according to EarthSky. During November nights, Pleiades shines from nightfall until...

This artist's illustration shows the planets forming around the star LkCa 15. (NASA/JPL-Caltech) A team of scientists has made space history: they're watching as several exoplanets are born. They've observed the birth of , the team said in its findings, which were recently published in the journal Nature. The new planets are some , according to Space.com. These observations could give scientists more insight , the Los Angeles Times said. "Such an understanding of the young planet population will shed...

The image above shows one of Saturn's moons, Titan, as winter sets in at its south pole. As its southern winter approaches, a cloud system called the south polar vortex (small, bright “button”) has been forming. (NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute) With the use of NASA’s Cassini spacecraft, scientists have detected a monstrous ice cloud in the low- to mid-stratosphere of one of Saturn’s moons, Titan. “When we looked at the infrared data, this ice cloud stood out like nothing we’ve ever...

November's annual meteor shower — the Leonids — often boast a spectacular showing. This year should be no different. The shower peaks between midnight and dawn on Nov. 18, Rhiannon Blaauw, a scientist with NASA's Meteoroid Environment Office, told weather.com in an email. But that's not your only chance to spot a meteor this month. “You can seeLeonidsanytime between now andNovember 30thby going outside during a clear dark night ... sometime between3 a.m.and dawn, letting your eyes adjust to the...

When Cincinnati resident Steve Hart looked back at footage from his recently installed surveillance camera, he spotted something he wished he'd seen in person. A large meteor flashed across the sky Thursday night, and residents from at least nine states, including Ohio, , Huffington Post reported. The fireball flashed across the sky at 10:47 p.m. EST, according to the footage. Steve Hart captured this image of the meteor on his security camera. (Screenshot via WCPO-TV video) As of Monday morning,...

Comet Catalina has finally arrived and has become even cooler. According to EarthSky, . Originally discovered by the Catalina Sky Survey on Oct. 23, 2013, (Catalina) was since it appeared inactive. Since then, it has become highly active, providing the opportunity for astronomers around the world to observe it. The image above shows the Catalina Comet on July 7, 2014. (NASA/JPL-Caltech) - a dust tail and a plasma tail of ionized gas. They point away from the sun and typically...

For more than 200 days, Scott Kelly has been documenting his life on the International Space Station and sharing some breathtaking images on his Twitter account. One of his most recent images has caused a buzz throughout the Internet, but not for the reason you would expect. (Scott Kelly/NASA) Many have shared the image across social media and speculated that an unexplained structure observed in the top right corner of the photo is actually some sort of alien spaceship. Kelly's...

"This moon is doomed." That's the message NASA , one of Mars' two small moons. The administration said Phobos has been developing long, shallow grooves on its surface that are a sign of wear and tear from its gravitational interaction with Mars. The grooves on Phobos could be created by tidal forces, new modeling data suggests. (NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona) “We think that Phobos has already started to fail, and the first sign of this failure is the production of these...

Glimpse of 'Bagnold Dunes' Edging Mount Sharp. (NASA / Mars Curiosity) NASA's Curiosity is going where no rover has ever gone before: Martian sand dunes. ABOVE: Curiosity's Mission in Photos Therover will be closing in on an area called the "Bagnold Dunes," which the Mars researchers affectionately named afterRalph Alger Bagnold, the father of dune exploration. The robotic vehicle is expected to arrive shortly after Thanksgiving, likely after the first week of December, according to scientists with knowledge of the...