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Perseid meteors streak across the sky over the city of Inegol in Turkey's Bursa Province in August 2015.

Science

This Year's Perseid Meteor Shower Is Going To Be Quite A Show — Here's How To Watch

5:32pm August 10, 2016

by Merrit Kennedy

Stargazers, get ready for something spectacular on Thursday. The annual Perseid meteor shower, already one of the most reliably impressive celestial events, promises to be especially good this year.

Image of Space Launch System Qualification Motor 2 test or, QM-2, with HiDyRS-X camera.

WATCH: A Space Rocket The Way You've Never Seen One Before

3:09pm August 08, 2016

by Eyder Peralta

A brand new camera is able to capture different exposures at the same time, so it is able to actually show the fiery plume, instead of just an overexposed jet of fire.

Members of the New Horizons team celebrated last year with a blown up image of the postage stamp when the probe made its closest approach to Pluto.

Spacefaring Stamp Sets World Record

7:59pm July 18, 2016

by Jason Slotkin

The "Pluto: Not Yet Explored" stamp has traveled farther than any other stamp, hitching a ride on the New Horizons space probe, which accomplished its closest flyby of the dwarf planet last summer.

The SpaceX Falcon 9 and Dragon spacecraft lift off on the CRS-9 mission to bring a new docking adapter and other cargo to the International Space Station.

SpaceX Rocket Sends A New Door To Space Station

12:55pm July 18, 2016

by Bill Chappell

A new standardized docking port is bound for the International Space Station, in a mission that caused a sonic boom over Central Florida early Monday morning.

Science

Juno Arrives To Check On Jupiter's Affairs

1:00pm July 15, 2016

by Shawn Fitzmaurice

Jupiter - the Roman God of the Sky and Thunder, King of the gods, and the name given to the largest planet in our solar system. It's a planet so large that, not including the sun, the rest of the solar system would fit inside with plenty of room to spare.

Jupiter's moons are named after the god's many lovers. According to mythology, when Jupiter thought his wife suspected him of cheating, he turned himself into a cloud to cover his affairs.

Now, NASA has sent the Juno Spacecraft, named after Jupiter's wife, to discover just what Jupiter has hidden beneath its clouds.

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Planetary scientists have many worlds they'd like to visit, including Saturn's moon Titan, which has lakes of liquid methane on its surface.

What Comes Next For NASA After Juno? Not Much

4:53pm July 05, 2016

by Nell Greenfieldboyce

Enjoy Juno's trip to Jupiter — after that we'll see a little gap in planetary science missions from the U.S. That's because a NASA budget crunch several years ago left fewer missions in the pipeline.

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When it named this mission, NASA acknowledged its difficulty. Juno was a Roman goddess, the agency notes, "who was Jupiter's wife, and who could also see through clouds."

By Jove: NASA Set To Put Juno Craft Into Jupiter's Orbit Monday Night

2:54pm July 04, 2016

by Bill Chappell

"It's getting very real," says a leader of the mission to put a spacecraft into orbit around the large planet whose radiation and dust particles pose dangerous challenges.

This illustration show's NASA's Juno mission approaching Jupiter. Juno used distant stars to chart its course across the void.

'Star Trackers' Help Juno Find Its Way

8:05am July 03, 2016

by Joe Palca

Space navigation is tricky. There's no up or down, no left or right, and no road signs. This device uses stars to help determine if a spacecraft is off course. It takes nifty pictures, too.

Buildings are seen shrouded in smog from the 102nd floor of Seoul's Lotte World Tower in December 2015.

Korea's Air Is Dirty, But It's Not All Close-Neighbor China's Fault

12:39pm June 03, 2016

by Elise Hu

South Korea likes to point the finger at China for its pollution woes, but that's not the whole story. New research is examining how much Korean smog is caused by neighbors and how much is home-grown.

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An artist's concept shows the Bigelow Expandable Activity Module, or BEAM, as it would look when fully installed and inflated on the International Space Station.

NASA's Attempt To Inflate Its Expandable Space Module Fizzles

12:03pm May 26, 2016

by Joe Palca

The module known as BEAM can be folded so it takes up less room in a cargo rocket, and then expanded once it reaches space. Or at least that's the hope.