Space

Black holes are created when a supernova explosion destroys a massive star. Scientists have discovered dozens of black holes, but all of them are already formed. So, when scientists recently saw different distorted remains of a supernova, they knew it something special.

What the scientists believe they observed was the infant phases of a black hole, or the youngest black hole ever recorded in the Milky Way galaxy.

Caught on film by NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory, the "remnant," or W49B, is seen as a vibrant swirl of blues, greens, yellows, and pinks. As seen from Earth, it … Read more

Chris Hadfield may well be the coolest astronaut in the galaxy.

He spends his time hosting Google+ Hangouts; giving tutorials on how to clip one's fingernails while on the International Space Station; tweeting with William Shatner; and playing space guitar. Space guitar is pretty much like regular guitar, except it happens in zero gravity while in orbit above the Earth on-board the ISS.

Hadfield has applied his space guitar skills to a recording session where he played and sang live along with the Barenaked Ladies and a choir. A large screen projected his part over video so everyone was on the same page during the session.… Read more

In a few days, sky watchers in Eastern Europe, Asia, and Australia will get a chance to see one big rock hurtling through the heavens. One very big rock. Compared with other asteroids traveling through space, this one may seem a relative pebble -- at half the size of a football field -- but for Earth, it will make for a relatively close call.

"This is a record-setting close approach," says Don Yeomans of NASA's Near Earth Object Program at JPL. "Since regular sky surveys began in the 1990s, we've never seen an object this big get so close to Earth." … Read more

Want to feel like you contributed to something important today? Take a moment to help rename two of Pluto's moons, which desperately need a little more pizzazz as they currently float around with the drab designations P4 and P5.

With assistance from the Hubble Space Telescope, astronomer Mark Showalter discovered P4 and P5 in 2011 and 2012, respectively. In conjunction with the SETI Institute, Showalter today opened a Web site that allows anyone to vote from 12 Greek and Roman mythology-inspired names for the roughly 20-mile diameter moons.… Read more

A United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket blasted off from California and safely boosted a new Earth-watching Landsat into a polar orbit today to kick off an $855 million mission. It's the latest chapter in a 40-year program to monitor the planet's resources, land use, and environmental changes.

The Landsat Data Continuity Mission, or LDCM, got underway at 10:02 a.m. PT when the Atlas 5's Russian-designed RD-180 first-stage engine thundered to life and throttled up to full power with a rush of brilliant exhaust.

The towering 192-foot-tall rocket, generating some 860,000 pounds of thrust, … Read more

Beloved astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson is no stranger to the world of comic book superheroes, having already found the location for Superman's home planet. He has now turned his keen scientific mind to the Marvel world and the issue of just how much Thor's mighty hammer weighs.

Thor's hammer Mjölnir is said to be made of neutron-star matter. Tyson did the calculations and determined the hammer must therefore weigh as much as 300 billion elephants. That's not a common form of weight measurement, so we have to do some further calculations to translate elephants into pounds.… Read more

NASA's Curiosity rover currently roaming the surface of Mars is developing a bit of a reputation for discovering groundbreaking false alarms.

There have been been unverified hints of organic matter; mysterious methane that turned out to be some stowaway molecules from Earth; and strange shiny objects of unknown origin.

Yet none of these have led us to the Martians' secret underground base. So it is with some hesitation that I present the above photo from Curiosity that seems to show an even larger and shinier chunk of something metallic. The image was taken by Curiosity's Mastcam late last … Read more

Astronauts in the International Space Station have already explained how to clip fingernails and play guitar while orbiting 240 miles above the Earth. But what about all those other questions people may have about life in space?

They can be answered in an upcoming Google+ Hangout with three of the astronauts aboard the ISS -- Kevin Ford, Tom Marshburn, and Chris Hadfield.

NASA announced today that it is hosting its first live Google+ Hangout from space. It's to happen from 11 a.m. to 12 p.m. EST on February 22. The space agency is accepting questions in advance … Read more

"Star Wars" fans don't like taking "no" for an answer. The White House may have denied a petition to build a Death Star, but that hasn't stopped Dark Side wannabes from taking matters into their own hands. There's now a Kickstarter project gathering funds to build an open-source Death Star.

The project has a modest initial goal of just $30 million. That will fund initial plans and the massive amount of chicken wire needed to protect the reactor exhaust ports. The first stretch goal is where things get more serious. If the project raises $850,000,000,000,000,000, then work will begin on the actual construction. OK, that's a mighty big "if," but a geek can dream, right?… Read more