Astronomers on the hunt for an intermediate-mass black hole at the heart of the globular cluster NGC 6397, found something they weren’t expecting: a concentration of smaller black holes lurking there instead of one massive black hole....

After traveling several billion miles toward the Sun, a wayward young comet-like object orbiting among the giant planets has found a temporary parking place along the way. The object has settled near a family of captured ancient...

Though our galaxy is an immense city of at least 200 billion stars, the details of how they formed remain largely cloaked in mystery. Scientists know that stars form from the collapse of huge hydrogen clouds that are squeezed under...

During the August 21, 2017 total solar eclipse, scientists will use the Earth Polychromatic Imaging Camera (EPIC) on the Deep Space Climate Observatory satellite (DSCOVR), along with measurements taken from within the moon's shadow on...

A brand new study indicates that where you live in a time zone can reduce how much you sleep, and have general negative impact on health. So, do we actually need time zones?

Dr. Angelos Vourlidas, the Project Scientist for STEREO's Sun Earth Connection Coronal and Heliospheric Investivation (SECCHI) instrument, explains how the STEREO satellites have been able to observe the true size, shape, and...

The universe would be a pretty boring place without stars. Without them, the universe would remain a diffuse plasma of mostly hydrogen and helium from the big bang. To better understand stellar evolution, a new Hubble initiative has been...

Halloween is scarier with Hubble! What looks like two glowing eyes and a crooked carved smile is a snapshot of the early stages of a collision between two galaxies. The entire view is nearly 109,000 light-years across, approximately the...

A team of scientists led by Laura Hayes –a solar physicist who splits her time between NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center and Trinity College in Dublin, Ireland – investigated a connection between solar flares and Earth's atmosphere....

On Monday, August 21, 2017, our nation will be treated to a total eclipse of the sun. The eclipse will be visible -- weather permitting -- across all of North America. The whole continent will experience a partial eclipse lasting two to...

While many in the U.S. experienced a total solar eclipse on Aug. 21, 2017, SDO's perspective, observing the Sun from Earth orbit, afforded it a view of a partial eclipse. This movie, created from images taken by NASA's Solar Dynamics...

Parker Solar Probe will swoop to within 4 million miles of the sun's surface, facing heat and radiation like no spacecraft before it. Launching in 2018, Parker Solar Probe will provide new data on solar activity and make critical...

The Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) has now captured nearly seven years worth of ultra-high resolution solar footage. This time lapse shows that full run from two of SDO's instruments. The large orange sun is visible light captured by...

A special type of aurora, draped east-west across the night sky like a glowing pearl necklace, is helping scientists better understand the science of auroras and their powerful drivers out in space. Known as auroral beads, these lights...

Our planet is nestled in the center of two doughnut-shaped regions of powerful, dynamic radiation: the Van Allen belts, where high-energy particles are trapped by Earth’s magnetic field. Depending on incoming radiation from the sun, they...

Before 1979, there were less than a dozen known sungrazing comets. As of December 2012, we know of 2,500. Why did this number increase? With solar observatories like SOHO, STEREO, and SDO, we have not only better means of viewing the...

Darker, cooler plasma slid and shifted back and forth above the Sun's surface seen here for 30 hours (Feb. 7-8, 2012) in extreme ultraviolet light. An active region rotating into view provides a bright backdrop to the gyrating streams of...

NASA scientists answer some common questions about the sun, space weather, and how they affect the Earth. This is a two-part series. Part Two addresses: 1. Do all flares and CMEs affect the Earth? 2. What happens when a flare or CME hits...

A countdown of the top 5 solar discoveries from the Sun-Earth Connection Education Forum. These include the discoveries of sunspots, the solar cycle, the heliosphere, aurora formation, and space weather. Number 3 in the Top 5 Solar...

A countdown of the top 5 solar discoveries from the Sun-Earth Connection Education Forum. These include the discoveries of sunspots, the solar cycle, the heliosphere, aurora formation, and space weather. Number 1 in the Top 5 Solar...

Should we be concerned about solar storms in 2012? Heliophysicist Alex Young from NASA Goddard Space Flight Center sorts out truth from fiction.

This visualization shows the position of the sun's magnetic fields from January 1997 to December 2013. The field lines swarm with activity: The magenta lines show where the sun's overall field is negative and the green lines show where...

With spring right around the corner it is the season for auroras. The beautiful and mysterious auroras are spectacular to watch, but they are actually a manifestation of violent space weather. This weather can create big problems here on...

Engineers from NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center talk about what it is like to build, assemble, integrate, and test a custom-made spacecraft like the soon to be launched Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO).