Winners of the Royal Observatory Greenwich Astronomy Photographer of the Year competition

Each year, the Royal Observatory Greenwich‘s hosts its annual Astronomy Photographer of the Year competition. Now in its fourth year and growing, they received over 800 photo submission. Winners were announced on Sept. 19 in four main categories — Deep Space, Our Solar System, Earth and Space, and Young Astronomy Photographer of the Year —…

Most geeks have fantasized about living in a space colony. What would it be like? Would you grow bored? What would you eat, where would you sleep, what would living in such close quarters with fellow colonists be like? Even NASA has pondered space colonization and in fact, it’s likely their ultimate goal.

This past weekend, on route to Glenelg, the Curiosity Rover’s first target on Mars, Curiosity arrived at the “Jake Matijevic” rock where it stopped and probed the rock with its huge robotic arm to determine its chemical composition. Curiosity also blasted the specimen with its Alpha Particle X-Ray Spectrometer. Then Curiosity shot laser pulses at…

Moon rocks are rarely offered for sale. Sample moon rocks collected by NASA’s Apollo astronauts are considered National Treasures, property of the United States government, and would never be sold to the public. They have been however, given away. Here are funny stories about lost moon rocks and tips on how you can come into…

The Space Shuttle Endeavor passed over Southern California today, riding on the back of a Boeing 747 and flanked by a lone jet fighter, on route to its final destination – the California Science Center. This is the last flight for a space shuttle. Check the photo montage here.

Astronomers are changing their tune and now think extraterrestrial life may be able to survive on more planets than they originally thought. In fact, there may be seven times more life bearing planets than they originally estimate. Earth differs from most planets in that it orbits the Sun on a fairly circular orbit. Most other…

A thousand foot chunk of rock, named Apophis, is on schedule to buzz the Earth on April 13, 2029. For those superstitious types, that’s Friday the 13th. Apophis is expected to pass a mere 23,600 miles from Earth which is a “close call” by astronomical measurements.

It might not be accurately termed “a snowball’s chance in hell” but it comes close. NASA thinks it might be snowing on Mars, just not the sort of snow we’d expect. NASA has obtained evidence that it snows Dry Ice, the stuff we use to simulate fog in haunted houses. That’s pretty cool given that…

For those anxiously awaiting December 21, 2012, here’s a little thriller for you. In a few hours, an asteroid (named 2012 QG42) the size of three football fields will be making a close pass by Earth. We would have warned you earlier but, eh, the astronomy geeks just spotted it a few weeks ago.

NASA spacecraft have captured pictures of a huge filament of super-hot plasma being ejected from the Sun on August 31, 2012. The Sun is approaching a period of peak activity (in 2013) and coronal mass ejections (CME’s) such as this may become more common. NASA estimates the size of the eruption as 186,000 miles long…