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A closeup view of a micrometeorite extracted from limestone dating back 2.7 billion years ago from Western Australia.

New clues about Earth's ancient atmosphere

Meet the largest unnamed world

Lotion makes wrinkles vanish, scientists say

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Crazy-looking airplane is flying into history

NASA's Kepler discovers 1,284 planets

SOFIA/GREAT spectrum of oxygen [O I] superimposed on an image of Mars from the MAVEN mission. The amount of atomic oxygen computed from this SOFIA data is about half the amount expected.
Credits: SOFIA/GREAT spectrum: NASA/DLR/USRA/DSI/MPIfR/GREAT Consortium/ MPIfS/Rezac et al. 2015. Mars image: NASA/MAVEN (Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution Mission)

Atomic oxygen detected in Martian atmosphere

Lizards sleep, maybe dream, like we do

Valles Marineris, or Mariner Valley, cuts across Mars in this mosaic of 102 images taken by NASA's Viking 1 orbiter in 1980. The valley is over 1864 milles (3,000 km) long and about 5 miles (8 km) deep.

Eta Aquarids meteor shower peaks

Way Up There space series Where will we live? Space Hab Exteriors

Expandable habitats may take us to Mars

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Above the Earth and onward to Mars

Rare Hispaniolan solenodon.Undated Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust handout of a rare endangered mammal, the Hispaniolan solenodon, which has been caught in a live trap and filmed for possibly the first time, it was announced today. Issue date: Friday January 09, 2009. The strange looking shrew-like creature with a long snout has specialised teeth capable of delivering venom. Only two solenodon species exist today, one in Haiti and the Dominican Republic, and the other in Cuba. See PA story ANIMALS Rare. Photo credit should read: Gregory Guida/Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust/PA Wire URN:6726800 (Press Association via AP Images)

Venomous mammal survived asteroid

This artist's impression shows an imagined view from the surface one of the three planets orbiting an ultracool dwarf star just 40 light-years from Earth that were discovered using the TRAPPIST telescope at ESO's La Silla Observatory. These worlds have sizes and temperatures similar to those of Venus and Earth and are the best targets found so far for the search for life outside the Solar System. They are the first planets ever discovered around such a tiny and dim star. In this view one of the inner planets is seen in transit across the disc of its tiny and dim parent star.

Three potentially habitable planets discovered

A worker rides on his bicycle in the CERN's Large Hadron Collider (LHC) tunnel during maintenance works on July 19, 2013 in Meyrin, near Geneva. Tests at the world's biggest collider have provided the most exhaustive confirmation to date of the Standard Model, a four-decade-old conceptual framework for fundamental particles, CERN said. AFP PHOTO / FABRICE COFFRINI (Photo credit should read FABRICE COFFRINI/AFP/Getty Images)

Particle accelerator taken out by weasel

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New Horizons extended mission moves forward

This Hubble image reveals the first moon ever discovered around the dwarf planet Makemake. The tiny satellite, located just above Makemake in this image, is barely visible because it is almost lost in the glare of the very bright dwarf planet. Hubble's sharp-eyed WFC3 made the observation in April 2015. Credits: NASA, ESA, and A. Parker and M. Buie (SwRI)

Moon discovered around dwarf planet

Why did dinosaurs flee Europe?

NASA maps Zika's potential spread in U.S.

American and Brazilian researchers collected this sample of coral during the 2012 expedi

Massive reef discovered in the Amazon River

New images of bright craters on Ceres

A view of downtown Los Angeles is seen on a smoggy afternoon on 2 November 2006.

Cities with most air pollution revealed

This new image from the VLT Survey Telescope (VST) at ESO's Paranal Observatory in Chile captures a spectacular concentration of galaxies known as the Fornax Cluster, which can be found in the southern hemisphere constellation of Fornax (The Furnace). The cluster plays host to a menagerie of galaxies of all shapes and sizes, some of which are hiding secrets.

'Whale vomit' could fetch $70,000

Stephen Hawking: Use tiny space probes

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Inflatable 'bedroom' sent to ISS

The future of NASA's planet-hunting Kepler space observatory was in question Wednesday after a part that helps aim the spacecraft failed, the U.S. space agency said. Kepler is the first NASA mission capable of finding Earth-size planets in or near the habitable zone, which is the range of distance from a star where the surface temperature of an orbiting planet might be suitable for liquid water. Launched in 2009, Kepler has been detecting planets and planet candidates with a wide range of sizes and orbital distances to help scientists better understand our place in the galaxy.

NASA's Kepler spacecraft is in trouble

An asteroid is coming! But don't panic. NASA says Asteroid 2012 DA14 will make a record-close pass by Earth on February 15, but it won't hit us. Most asteroids are made of rocks, but some are metal. They orbit mostly between Jupiter and Mars in the main asteroid belt. Scientists estimate there are tens of thousands of asteroids and when they get close to our planet, they are called Near-Earth Objects (NEOs).

Space probe finds 72 new objects near Earth

This impact crater appears relatively recent as it has a sharp rim and well-preserved ejecta.

The steep inner slopes are carved by gullies and include possible recurring slope lineae on the equator-facing slopes. Fresh craters often have steep, active slopes, so we are monitoring this crater for changes over time.

The bedrock lithology is also diverse. The crater is a little more than 1-kilometer wide.

Note: When we say "fresh," we mean on a geological scale. The crater is quite old on a human scale.

The University of Arizona, Tucson, operates HiRISE, which was built by Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp., Boulder, Colorado. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Project and Mars Science Laboratory Project for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington.

NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. of Arizona

Did asteroids create conditions for life on Mars?

Kids hunt toy dog sent to space

UNSPECIFIED LOCATION - NOVEMBER 11: (FILE PHOTO) Space Shuttle Challenger crew members gather for an official portrait November 11, 1985 in an unspecified location. (Back, L-R) Mission Specialist Ellison S. Onizuka, Teacher-in-Space participant Sharon Christa McAuliffe, Payload Specialist Greg Jarvis and mission specialist Judy Resnick. (Front, L-R) Pilot Mike Smith, commander Dick Scobee and mission specialist Ron McNair. The Challenger and its seven member crew were lost seventy three seconds after launch when a booster rocket failed. (Photo by NASA/Getty Images)

The tragic triumph of the world's largest concert

Lasers could hide Earth from deadly aliens

Vikings site spotted from space?

Mystery object slams into Jupiter

An undated handout photo provided by NASA shows the Thwaites Glacier in the West Antarctic.

Ice melt could make seas rise by 6 feet

Cassini spacecraft moves in for a closer look at Saturn. Two pictures taken during the spacecraft's approach to the planet in May 2004 were combined to create this mosaic of Saturn, its rings and several of its icy moons. Cassini was 17.6 million miles (28.2 million kilometers) from Saturn when the images were taken.

Saturn's rings may be younger than dinosaurs

Shockwave of an exploding star detected

What caveman sex did for humans

Ian Bartoszek, Conservancy of Southwest Florida biologist and a team of researchers have been tracking Burmese pythons captured more than one ton of pythons over the last three months in Southwest Florida.

'Snitch' pythons lead scientists to more snakes

Nicholas George looks under a buckled highway just outside of Napa, California after earthquake struck the area in the early hours of Sunday August 24.

Overdue California quake may be more powerful

Dinosaur-killing asteroid: New clues

Massive volcanoes gave Mars a makeover

BAIKONUR, KAZAKHSTAN - MARCH 14: In this handout photo provided by the European Space Agency (ESA), the ExoMars 2016 lifts off on a Proton-M rocket at Baikonur cosmodrome on March 14, 2016 in Baikonur, Kazakhstan. The Proton rocket is carrying the ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO) and Schiaparelli descent and landing demonstrator module to Mars. One of the Scientific objectives of the collaborative project between the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Russian Federal Space Agency is to search for signs of past and present life on Mars. (Photo by Stephane Corvaja/ESA via Getty Images)

ExoMars mission aims to find life

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Milky Way map shows star-forming regions

Missed the total solar eclipse?

A view taken from the Moroccan capital Rabat on July 13, 2014 shows a full moon, with volcanic domes and impact craters. AFP PHOTO / FADEL SENNA (Photo credit should read FADEL SENNA/AFP/Getty Images)

NASA releases recordings from far side of the moon

Hills of water ice on Pluto ÔfloatÕ in a sea of frozen nitrogen and move over time like icebergs in EarthÕs Arctic OceanÑanother example of PlutoÕs fascinating geological activity.

Pluto has 'floating hills,' NASA says

Just before the 15th anniversary of continuous human presence on the International Space Station on Nov. 2, 2015, U.S. astronaut and commander of the current Expedition 45 crew, Scott Kelly, is breaking spaceflight records. On Friday, Oct. 16, Kelly begins his 383rd day living in space, surpassing U.S. astronaut Mike FinckeÕs record of 382 cumulative days. Kelly will break another record Oct. 29 on his 216th consecutive day in space, when he will surpass astronaut Michael Lopez-AlegriaÕs record for the single-longest spaceflight by an American. Lopez-Alegria spent 215 days in space as commander of the Expedition 14 crew in 2006.

In this July 12 photograph, Kelly is seen inside the Cupola, a special module which provides a 360-degree viewing of the Earth and the space station. On each additional day he spends in orbit as part of his one-year mission, Kelly will add to his record and to our understanding of the effects of long-duration spaceflight.

Kelly is scheduled to return to Earth on March 3, 2016, by which time he will have compiled 522 total days living in space during four missions.

Scott Kelly reunites with relatives after year in space

NASA releases incredible image of Saturn's moons

Astronaut John Young leaps from the surface of the moon as he salutes the U.S. flag.

American men who went to the moon

Scott Kelly: 'I feel like I've lived my whole life up here'

A meteor (L) from the Geminids meteor shower enters the Earth's atmosphere past the stars Castor and Pollux (two bright stars, R) on December 12, 2009 above Southold, New York. This meteor shower gets the name "Geminids" because it appears to radiate from the constellation Gemini. Geminids are pieces of debris from an asteroid called 3200 Phaethon. Earth runs into a stream of debris from the object every year in mid-December, causing the meteors. The peak of the shower is expected the night of December 13-14 at about 0500 GMT on December 14. AFP PHOTO/Stan Honda (Photo credit should read STAN HONDA/AFP/Getty Images)

NASA: Meteorite didn't kill man in India

Edgar Mitchell in his official Apollo 14 portrait.

Astronaut Edgar Mitchell dies at 85

This image made in infrared light shows water ice is abundant on Pluto's surface. The image was created using two scans of Pluto made by the New Horizons spacecraft on July 14, 2015, when the probe was about 67,000 miles (108,000 kilometers) above Pluto.

New clues about how Earth got its moon

Remembering the Challenger disaster

The Panoramic Survey Telescope & Rapid Response System (Pan-STARRS) 1 telescope on Maui's Mount Haleakala, Hawaii.

NASA Planetary Defense Office set up to save Earth

Scott Kelly: Earth 'looks very fragile'

Lonely planet is orbiting distant star

A photographer prepares to take pictures of the annual Perseid meteor shower in the village of Crissolo, near Cuneo, in the Monviso Alps region of northern Italy, on August 13, 2015. The Perseid meteor shower occurs every year when the Earth passes through the cloud of debris left by Comet Swift-Tuttle. AFP PHOTO / MARCO BERTORELLO (Photo credit should read MARCO BERTORELLO/AFP/Getty Images)

Rare alignment of planets in morning sky

Caltech researchers have found evidence of a giant planet tracing a bizarre, highly elongated orbit in the outer solar system. The object, which the researchers have nicknamed Planet Nine, has a mass about 10 times that of Earth and orbits about 20 times farther from the sun on average than does Neptune (which orbits the sun at an average distance of 2.8 billion miles). In fact, it would take this new planet between 10,000 and 20,000 years to make just one full orbit around the sun. - See more at: http://www.caltech.edu/news/caltech-researchers-find-evidence-real-ninth-planet-49523#sthash.JaLsCJd5.dpuf

Is there a big planet beyond Pluto?

The artist's concept depicts Kepler-186f, the first validated Earth-size planet to orbit a distant star in the habitable zone—a range of distance from a star where liquid water might pool on the planet's surface.

SpaceX rocket explodes after landing

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144-year-old Arctic shipwreck discovered

Workers assemble NASA's InSight lander at Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Denver.

NASA's next Mars mission suspended

Outside Dan Llewellyn's garage at the Deerlick Astronomy Village. The amateur astronomers prepare for a night of imaging the cosmos.

A village dedicated to stargazing

A simulation of Wolf 1061 -- an inactive red dwarf star, smaller and cooler than our sun.

'Super-Earth' found 14 light years away?

A full moon shines on Christmas in Ohrid, Macedonia. CNN iReporter Stojan Stojanovski photographed the silhouette of a marriage proposal in front of the moon on Friday.

First Christmas full moon in 40 years

The Mountainous Shoreline of Sputnik Planum: In this highest-resolution image from NASA's New Horizons spacecraft, great blocks of Pluto's water-ice crust appear jammed together in the informally named al-Idrisi mountains. "The mountains bordering Sputnik Planum are absolutely stunning at this resolution," said New Horizons science team member John Spencer of the Southwest Research Institute. "The new details revealed here, particularly the crumpled ridges in the rubbly material surrounding several of the mountains, reinforce our earlier impression that the mountains are huge ice blocks that have been jostled and tumbled and somehow transported to their present locations."

Best images yet of Pluto released

SUN VALLEY, ID - JULY 07: Elon Musk, CEO and CTO of SpaceX, CEO and product architect of Tesla Motors, and chairman of SolarCity, attends the Allen & Company Sun Valley Conference on July 7, 2015 in Sun Valley, Idaho. Many of the worlds wealthiest and most powerful business people from media, finance, and technology attend the annual week-long conference which is in its 33nd year. (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)

Orphaned planet and twin Earths revealed

In this digital illustration released on September 15, 2011 by NASA, the newly discovered gaseous planet Kepler-16b orbits its two stars.

NASA: Space anomaly probably not ET

Debris from a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket on a beach in Tresco in the Isles of Scilly in the UK.

Jeff Bezos beats Elon Musk to rocket landing

Tesla Motors and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk says he was inspired to look into Hyperloop after being disappointed with high-speed rail plans in California.

Musk to Bezos: Congrats, but ...

When the 'mourning moon' rises, let things go

Albert Einstein's special mark on the universe

This artist's conception made by Dana Berry of SkyWorks and provided by NASA on Nov. 6, 2015 shows GJ 1132b, foreground, a rocky planet similar to the Earth in size and mass, orbiting a red dwarf star. The planet is 39 light-years away - within the atmospheric study range of the Hubble Space Telescope. "If we find this pretty hot planet has managed to hang onto its atmosphere over the billions of years it's been around, that bodes well for the long-term goal of studying cooler planets that could have life," said Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Zachory Berta-Thompson. (Dana Berry/SkyWorks/NASA via AP)

2 new planetary discoveries announced

This artist's concept shows the MAVEN spacecraft with the planet Mars in the background.

Antarctica is gaining ice, NASA study says

Women and children enjoy the waterfront along the Persian Gulf across from new, budding financial district skyscrapers as a traditional Arab ship passes by on October 24, 2011 in Doha, Qatar.

It may become too hot for humans to live here

Comet Lovejoy was found on August 17, 2014 from Terry Lovejoy's home in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.

Anomaly gets extraterrestrial experts' attention

An artist's depiction of the turtle Arvinachelys goldeni as it would have appeared in life 76 milion years ago in southern Utah.

Winter outlook: Snow in Northeast; wet in California

NASA: There's liquid water on Mars

This artist's concept illustrates a supermassive black hole with millions to billions times the mass of our sun.

Thousands of Apollo photos released

Just 15 minutes after its closest approach to Pluto on July 14, 2015, NASA's New Horizons spacecraft looked back toward the sun and captured a near-sunset view of the rugged, icy mountains and flat ice plains extending to Pluto's horizon. The smooth expanse of the informally named Sputnik Planum (right) is flanked to the west (left) by rugged mountains up to 11,000 feet (3,500 meters) high, including the informally named Norgay Montes in the foreground and Hillary Montes on the skyline. The backlighting highlights more than a dozen layers of haze in Pluto's tenuous but distended atmosphere. The image was taken from a distance of 11,000 miles (18,000 kilometers) to Pluto; the scene is 230 miles (380 kilometers) across.

'The Martian's' biggest challenge

Pluto probe gets new assignment

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Cold Atlantic 'blob' puzzles scientists

Researchers at the University of Georgia's Regenerative Bioscience Center extracted skin cells from Clouded leopard "Moby." They believe the "frozen zoo" of stem cells they are creating will someday allow for easily breed and repopulate endangered species. Moby was euthanized in 2013 after suffering several months of age-related complications.

Rising seas may flood launch sites

Earth has 3 trillion trees, study finds

An artists illustration of a binary black hole found in the center of the nearest quasar to Earth, Markarian 231.

Black holes may not be all that black

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Hawaii's fight over a big telescope

The Iguana: When is a rock more than just a rock? When it's an iguana, of course.

Internet goes wacky over Mars photos

A sensor is placed onto the back of a drone bee. Data gathered by the Global Initiative for Honey bee Health (GIHH) will provide valuable information to scientists, beekeepers, primary producers, industry groups and governments to achieve impacts around improved biosecurity measures, crop pollination, bee health, food production and better strategies on sustainable farming practices, food security and impacts on ecosystems in general.

Is there life on Jupiter's moons?

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NASA: Sea levels may rise 3 feet

NASA's Curiosity Mars rover snapped this new selfie which is actually a series of selfies combined. The images show the spacecraft above the "Buckskin" rock target where it drilled and collected its seventh sample of the martian soil. Dozens of images taken by Curiosity's Mars Hand Lens Imager on August 5, were combined to create the photo.

NASA: No asteroid coming for us

Monsoon storm clouds over Phoenix, AZ on 7/16/2013 paved the way to a magnificent sunset, purple rain and cooler weather for the desert.

July was hottest month on record

Powerful El Niño forecast for 2015

UNITED STATES - JULY 2: In this handout provided by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) from the GOES-East satellite, Tropical Storm Arthur travels up the east coast of the United States in the Atlantic Ocean pictured at 19:45 UTC/GMT on July 2, 2014. According to reports, Arthur, now with maximum sustaned winds of 70 mph, has begun moving steadily northward is expected to strike the North Carolina Outer Banks over the Fourth of July holiday. Arthur is expected to become a hurricane by July 3. (Photo by

NOAA updates hurricane forecast

ESA: A short-lived outburst from Comet 67P/Churyumov--Gerasimenko was captured by Rosetta's OSIRIS narrow-angle camera on 29 July 2015.

Rosetta has its day in the sun

This nebula, or cloud of gas and dust, is called RCW 34 or Gum 19. The brightest areas you can see are where the gas is being heated by young stars. Eventually the gas burst outwards like champagne after a bottle is uncorked. Scientists call this champagne flow. This new image of the nebula was captured by the European Space Organization's Very Large Telescope in Chile. RCW 34 is in the constellation Vela in the southern sky. The name means "sails of a ship" in Latin.

Scientists: The Universe is dying

This is an artist's concept of how planet HD 219134b might look.

Here's your chance to name a planet

Soon Washington D.C. will be beneath us

This is an artist's idea of what rocky planet HD 219134b might look like orbiting its sun.

Rocky planet found just outside our solar system

"Outredgeous" red romaine lettuce is seen growing in the space station's Veggie plant growth system.

Space first -- astronauts eat 'home-grown' food

Mind-blowing new photos of Pluto

The full moon rises over Rio de Janeiro on August 31, 2012. According to NASA, this is the second time in August that a full moon is seen - the first was on August 1 to 2. This phenomenon, which is referred to as the 'blue moon', happens every two and a half years on average. AFP PHOTO/VANDERLEI ALMEIDA (Photo credit should read VANDERLEI ALMEIDA/AFP/Getty Images)

This really happens 'once in a blue moon'

Commander of the Soviet crew of Soyuz Alexey Leonov, left, and commander of the American crew of Apollo Thomas Stafford shake hands in space after the Apollo and Soyuz spacecrafts docked on July 17, 1975.

The handshake watched by 1 billion

The Russian Progress 60 cargo craft is seen approaching the International Space Station.

Supply ship docks at space station

Humans colonizing Mars would live in modules with meticulous life support systems

Study: Life support on Mars is doable

Among the fascinating features on dwarf planet Ceres is an intriguing pyramid-shaped mountain protruding from a relatively smooth area. Scientists estimate that this structure rises about 3 miles (5 kilometers) above the surface. NASA's Dawn spacecraft took this image from an altitude of 2,700 miles (4,400 kilometers).

Dwarf planet reveals mystery shape

Who knew critters were so smart?

World's largest telescope coming

$An undated photo provided by the Cleveland Museum of Natural History shows casts of fossil jaw fragments and teeth of "Australopithecus deyiremeda". The fossil find in Ethiopia adds another twig to the human evolutionary tree, giving further evidence that the well-known "Lucy" species had company, researchers say. In a paper released Wednesday, May 27, 2015, by the journal Nature, Yohannes Haile-Selassie of the Cleveland Museum of Natural History and colleagues announce the new find and assigned it to a species they dubbed, Australopithecus deyiremeda . In the Afar language the second name means "close relative," referring to its apparent relationship to later members of the evolutionary tree. (Laura Dempsey\Cleveland Museum of Natural History via AP)$

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A close encounter

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