There's something wrong with Kepler, the sun-orbiting spacecraft at the center of NASA's mission to identify Earth-like, habitable planets orbiting other stars. And if the space agency's engineers can't fix it, one of the coolest NASA missions, ever, could end before its time.
The House convened yet another hearing on Thursday, this time with some of the smartest space people in the country, to check in and see if they've found us a new planet to live on. And we're still a ways away from life on Earth 2, but the first thing the scientists need is a gigantic telescope.
Since being launched into space in March 2009, NASA's Kepler spacecraft has been searching the Milky Way for planets that might sustain liquid water. Witness its latest discovery.
Just over a week after astronomers boldly announced that they would discover an Earth twin elsewhere in the universe within the year, NASA's Kepler telescope spotted a pretty good candidate.
A new study published is giving astrophysicists a case of existential anxiety.
Discovered: Once Earth's ruined we should hightail it for the Tau Ceti system; how reindeers get red noses; one in two men will get cancer; what flying squirrels have in common with Top Gun.
After building us up and letting us down easy about that alleged discovery "for the history books" from Curiosity, NASA has announced the next best thing in space right now: we found water ice on Mercury. And a lot of it.
Discovered: Why a key dwarf planet has little atmosphere; roots of PTSD run deep; climate change could affect our past as well as our future; studying holes in old books reveals insect histories.
Discovered: Super-Earth exoplanet seems habitable; it's alive—this gelatinous lab-bred blob; rethinking the theory that genes cause disease; fairy-wrens identify themselves with code words.
A summary of the best reads found behind the paywall of The New York Times.
Astronomers are reeling over the discovery of an exoplanet orbiting Alpha Centauri B, a member of the closest star system to Earth.
Astronomers today have figured out that 55 Cancri e, a planet that's double Earth's size, is largely made of diamonds. Pretty awesome news for gem hunters, but first we need to figure out how to build a warp drive and survive 3,900 degrees Farenheit to get there.
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