Earth & Space

The Earth's shadow cast against the Moon evokes the space shuttle Discovery's dwindling, penumbral career.

The Pioneer anomaly, a long-discussed discrepancy between the expected and actual speeds of the Pioneer spacecraft, has tantalized researchers with the possibility of an exotic new physics. A solution may be close at hand�and even if it supports the standard model, it's pretty amazing.

For the first time since 1638, a lunar eclipse coincides with the winter solstice. Add the Ursid meteor shower, and the tonight's sky offers a triple dose of wintry glamor.

Is it the surface of an asteroid? Alzheimer's-ravaged brain tissue riddled with amyloid plaques? An electron micrograph of Limburger cheese? Answer after the jump.

Cosmologists are finding circles in the sky�specifically, in the pattern of microwave background radiation, the echo of the Big Bang. Some think they're traces of a time before time; others argue that they're the "bruises" left by collisions with universes other than our own.

We know about Archaeopteryx lithographica thanks to an image-making process found in the Earth's crust.

The distance Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin traveled on the moon belies the immensity of their feat, as NPR correspondent Robert Krulwich discovered last week when blogging about scale in the news. In truth, the scale of their accomplishment is so off the charts, it can only fuel our fantasies�not to mention those of Michael Bay.

With the successful recovery of the SpaceX Dragon capsule, private space exploration takes a great leap forward. But it's also a reminder of the history of private business in manned spaceflight, both real and imagined.

With NASA's discovery of a new species of arsenic-tolerant bacteria appearing to dissolve in a highly-public storm of professional scrutiny, we're all enrolled a crash course in the rites and rituals of scientific practice.

A new effort of the citizen-science effort Zooniverse, the Milky Way Project brings elements of gaming and social media to astronomy.