This photo of a "blood moon" lunar eclipse was captured by Ron Delvaux in Arizona on April 15, 2014 and supplied by The Virtual Telescope Project. Credit: Ron Delvaux via The Virtual Telescope Project

Water and pollution After removing some effects generated by the local atmosphere, the researchers examined the spectrum of colors to see what molecules were visible. A few surprises popped up. For example, they didn't see as much water vapor in the signature as observers saw in a 2009 eclipse that encompassed much of the Northern Hemisphere. (That...

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How Viewing Earth as an Exoplanet Can Help Search for Alien Life

An extraterrestrial spacecraft lurking in a satellite's orbit near Earth would be able to see city lights and pollution in our atmosphere. But what if it searched for signs of life on Earth from afar? This question has great pertinence to those searching for other Earths outside of our solar system. NASA's Kepler space telescope is among a fleet of...

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Stunning Photo Captures 'Wild Duck' Star Cluster in Flight

A spectacular new photo shows a cluster of stars whose brightest objects form a triangle that has been likened to a flock of ducks in flight. The European Southern Observatory's La Silla Observatory in Chile captured the beautiful image of Messier 11, also known as NGC 6705 or the Wild Duck Cluster, revealing the blue stars of one of the most star-rich...

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Artist's concept showing DG CVn — a binary system consisting of two red dwarf stars — unleashing a series of powerful flares seen by NASA's Swift spacecraft on April 23, 2014.

For a few minutes, the superflare's X-ray brightness outshone both stars' total luminosity in all wavelengths, researchers said. The eruption's temperature reached 360 million degrees Fahrenheit (200 million degrees Celsius) — about 13 times hotter than the sun's core. But DG CVn wasn't done yet, firing off a number of other flares over the next...

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Powerful Megaflare from Small Star Stuns Scientists (Video, Image)

A series of megaflares unleashed earlier this year by a nearby red dwarf has astronomers rethinking just what these small, dim stars are capable of. On April 23, NASA's Swift satellite spotted the enormous star flare coming from DG Canum Venaticorum (DG CVn), a system of two red dwarfs located about 60 light-years from Earth. The eruption put to shame...

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NASA Recovery Information

Overview of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Recovery Act) The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Recovery Act) was signed into law by President Obama on February 17th, 2009. It is an unprecedented effort to jumpstart our economy, create or save millions of jobs, and put a down payment on addressing long-neglected challenges...

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Selection Will Return Launches to America

U.S. astronauts once again will travel to and from the International Space Station from the United States on American spacecraft under groundbreaking contracts NASA announced Tuesday. The agency unveiled its selection of Boeing and SpaceX to transport U.S. crews to and from the space station using their CST-100 and Crew Dragon spacecraft, respectively,...

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