Space

NASA says this "blue marble" image is the most detailed true-color image of the entire Earth to date.

Satellite Set To Stream Daily Images Of Earth From Space

2:24pm February 07, 2015

by Joe Palca

In 1998, Al Gore proposed using a satellite and the Internet to let us all see the awe-inspiring view of Earth that wows space travelers. That satellite may finally launch later this year.

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A visualization of the polarization of the Cosmic Microwave Background, or CMB, as detected by ESA's Planck satellite over the entire sky.

Science

First Stars Fired Up 140 Million Years Later Than Previously Thought

5:01pm February 05, 2015

by Scott Neuman

New data collected from the European Space Agency's Planck telescope shows that the first starlight in the universe occurred about 560 million years after the Big Bang.

Larkin Carey, an optical engineer with Ball Aerospace, examines two test mirror segments designed for the James Webb Space Telescope. The mirror for the scope is extremely powerful, but heavy and pricey.

Could Glitter Help Solve NASA's Giant Telescope Problem?

1:16am February 05, 2015

by Joe Palca

NASA's next big space telescope costs $8 billion and is very heavy. New York scientists think they may have found the makings of a cheaper, lighter answer for future space scopes — in a crafts store.

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Science

Scientists Bring The Sun Down To Earth To Learn How It Works

1:13am February 05, 2015

by Joe Palca

Using a giant pulsed powered machine in New Mexico, researchers have recreated the conditions inside the Sun, and their results help reconcile theoretical models with how the Sun behaves.

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Stars over the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Chile. Sheppard and Trujillo used the new Dark Energy Camera (DECam) on a telescope there to find the distant dwarf planet 2012 VP 113.

Science

Hunting For Big Planets Far Beyond Pluto May Soon Be Easier

11:39am February 04, 2015

by Nell Greenfieldboyce

Construction is starting in Chile on a new sort of telescope. One aim is to survey huge swaths of sky for faint signals of a "Planet X" that may be lurking on the farthest edges of our solar system.

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Genetically modified rice plants are shown in a lab in 2006. A new report from Pew Research shows a wide gap between perceptions of safety of GM foods between scientists and the general public.

Scientists, General Public Have Divergent Views On Science, Report Says

6:20pm January 29, 2015

by Scott Neuman

A Pew Research Center study shows that the two groups disagree most strongly on the safety of GM foods, the use of animals in research, climate change and human evolution.

A series of images show that asteroid 2004 BL86 has a small moon.

LOOK! The Asteroid That Flew Past Earth Tuesday Has Its Own Moon

3:33pm January 27, 2015

by Eyder Peralta

In celestial terms, asteroid 2004 BL86 buzzed the Earth, coming within 745,000 miles. Scientists were able to get a close look and capture some stunning imagery.

Science

Another Day, Another 'Close Call' Between Earth And An Asteroid

12:14pm January 27, 2015

A rare large asteroid zipped very close to Earth Monday morning. NPR's Robert Siegel talks to Paul Chodas, head of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory's Near-Earth Object program, about the "close call."

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Asteroid 2004 BL86 will be visible in parts of the sky tonight. Visibility is expected to peak around 9 p.m. ET, as shown in this NASA graphic.

An Asteroid Is Passing Very Close To Earth Today. Here's How To See It

5:46pm January 26, 2015

by Sam Sanders

At its closest point, asteroid 2004 BL86 came within about 750,000 miles from Earth — or almost three times farther away than the moon.

Close-ups of a curious surface texture on Comet 67P nicknamed "goosebumps," all of them at a scale of around 3 meters and spanning areas more than 100 meters.

Science

Goosebumps And Gas: New Data From Rosetta Probe Describes Comet

9:16pm January 22, 2015

by Bill Chappell

We're learning more about the comet that a European Space Agency paired up with its Rosetta probe last fall. For one thing, it has "goosebumps" on steep cliff faces. It's also highly porous.