SpaceX’s Falcon 9 launch, as seen through the window of a nearby airplane. (Reddit.com) SpaceX was finally able to get their Falcon 9 rocket launched Friday night, despite having to scrub the previous four attempts, and one lucky passenger on an airplane was able to snap a photo as the spacecraft sped away from the Earth’s surface. The picture captures the rocket launch, on which a 12,000-pound broadcast satellite was being brought into orbit, says Popular Science. The photographer, a...

An ultraviolet image of Mars' moon Phobos, taken by the Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution (MAVEN) orbiter from 186 miles away. (CU/LASP and NASA) In early December 2015, MAVEN was conveniently crossing the path of Phobos' orbit, making its observations that NASA scientists are analyzing today. (CU/LASP and NASA) Mars' largest and most mysterious moon, Phobos, isn't like our moon. It's lopsided, covered in grooves, and NASA scientists think it may be falling apart. But anew photo from the Mars...

A Bangladeshi man watches a partial solar eclipse in Dhaka, Bangladesh, Wednesday, March 9, 2016. Bangladeshi and Indian people in northeast and eastern coastal strip of the sub-continent viewed a partial solar eclipse as a total eclipse of the sun unfolded over Indonesia on Wednesday, briefly plunging cities into darkness and startling wildlife. (AP Photo/ A.M. Ahad) Sky gazers were enthralled on Wednesday as a total eclipse was visible to manyin Southeast Asia. Excited watchers cheered and others "knelt" in...

This colorful view of Mercury was produced by using images from the color base map imaging campaign during MESSENGER's primary mission. These colors are not what Mercury would look like to the human eye, but rather the colors enhance the chemical, mineralogical, and physical differences between the rocks that make up Mercury's surface. ( NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington) One of the universe’s oldest mysteries that continues to puzzle scientists is the dark appearance of the...

Astronomers are taking a closer look at what could be clouds Pluto's the low altitude haze layer. (NASA/JHUAPL/SwRI) When NASA's New Horizons spacecraft sent back the first high-definition images of Pluto, the world was captivated. After having some time to get a closer look, astronomers have uncovered newfeatures that add to the argument that Pluto should become a planet once again. Astronomer Will Grundy of the Lowell Observatory in Arizona took a closer look and found bright spots that appeared...

Rare sky phenomenon observed from the Rhigos Mountain. (Dark Sky Wales/Allan Trow/Andy Burns) A team of stargazers in the United Kingdom were stunned to spot a rareatmospheric optical phenomenon in the night sky known as light pillars. Bright orange streaks were briefly seen over theRhigos Mountain in Wales to the delight of constellation watchers out in the field. Veteran astronomerAllan Trow told weather.com that it was the first time his group had witnessed such a sight, which lit up in...

Scientists have discovered a new massive black hole, 21 billion times bigger than the Sun, in afaraway galaxy. Spotted by the Hubble Space Telescope, the huge black hole was essentially hiding in plain sight in the galaxy NGC 4889. With an event horizon 15 times larger than the diameter of Neptune's orbit, it's one of the biggest black holes ever found, according to Space.com. It also dwarfs a black hole in our own Milky Way galaxy, which measures 4 million...

A portrait of the Milky Way that shows hydrogen gas in the galaxy's intergalactic void. (Image via Plank Observatory) There are some things in our universe so large that our minds just can't fully grasp their size. One such discovery was just made. Known as the BOSS Great Wall, a team of scientists found a total of 830 galaxies that have been pulled into four superclusters by gravity, according to a study that will appearin the journal Astronomy and Astrophysics....

The former ninth planet and its moons continue to unveil their secrets to scientists. In the newest revelation, researchers have discovered that Pluto is a “real world” of its own. “These five detailed papers completely transform our view of Pluto - revealing the former ‘astronomer’s planet’ to be a real world with diverse and active geology, exotic surface chemistry, a complex atmosphere, puzzling interaction with the sun and intriguing system of small moons,” said NASA New Horizons principal investigator Alan...

A pair of comets are set to whiz by Earth this week, one of which will make the closest pass of any comet in 246 years. The first one, named 252P/LINEAR, passed our planet at a distance of 3.3 million miles Monday morning, according to Smithsonian. Astronomers have followed this comet for years, but they can't say the same about the other one, which will fly even closer to our planet on Tuesday. The comet P/2016 BA14 is expected to...

Two comets will zoom past our planet in the third closest flyby in recorded history. But if you want to witness it, be sure to grab your telescopes. ...

NASA's new gravity map gives us a unique perspective, inside the red planet. ...