Why in the world is the Vatican searching for extraterrestrial life? Does the Catholic hierarchy know something about alien life that the rest of us do not? Why is the largest religious organization on the planet spending so much time and energy looking for “brother extraterrestrial”? Earlier this month, the Vatican Observatory cosponsored a major conference on extraterrestrial life that brought... 

A new, Earth-like, inhabitable planet has been discovered outside our solar system by American astronomer Thomas Barclay. The planet is almost the same size as Earth – just one-tenth bigger – and is orbiting a Red Dwarf star. The planet orbits around an M1 Red Dwarf, or small and relatively cool, star, where liquid (including water) can exist. Such planets are in the “Goldilocks” zone, scientists... 

This series of Hubble Space Telescope images reveals the breakup of an asteroid over a period of several months starting in late 2013. The largest fragments are up to 180 meters (200 yards) in radius. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)’s Hubble Space Telescope has recorded the never-before-seen break-up of an asteroid into as many as 10 smaller pieces. Fragile comets, comprised... 

NASA’s latest test vehicle may not survive in its current form going forward, but its ability to hover like a helicopter and land on tough terrain could prove integral to future missions to Mars and other interplanetary locations. Dubbed “Morpheus,” the new rocket prototype was successfully tested last week at the Kennedy Space Center’s Shuttle Landing Facility in Florida. While vehicle’s... 

Artists impression of gas cloud G2 falling onto Sag A* As gas cloud G2 speeds towards Sagittarius A*, a supermassive black hole at our galaxy’s center, astronomers are getting ready to have some of their questions answered. At least the devouring, expected in March-April, promises to be a spectacular view. As Sagittarius A* is located almost 26,000 light years away from the Earth, the collision itself... 

A NASA spacecraft sees a volcanic explosion on Jupiter’s third-largest moon. Incredible footage of an eruption on Io, Jupiter’s third moon, considered the most volcanic place in the solar system, has been released by the US space agency. The video, taken by the New Horizons spacecraft, pictures a drama that unfolded more than 6.2 million km away from Earth back in 2007. NASA only made it public... 

The United States plans to send into orbit a pair of satellites to monitor spacecraft from other countries, as well as to track space debris, the head of Air Force Space Command said. The US Air Force lifted the veil of secrecy on its previously classified Geosynchronous Space Situational Awareness Program (GSSAP), which will operate in conjunction with ground-based radars and telescopes to observe... 

The nation that put the first man on the Moon is failing to make the grade today when it comes to basic knowledge of the solar system and other fundamental scientific insight. That’s according to a new survey which concludes that while most Americans have a world of information at their fingertips, and show tremendous enthusiasm for new technology, they also lack fundamental knowledge of basic science. Out... 

This image, released on Feb. 10, 2014, combines a photograph of seasonal dark flows on a Martian slope with a grid of colors based on data collected by a mineral-mapping spectrometer observing the same area. Scientists at the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) say new clues have emerged about the presence of flowing water on the surface of Mars. NASA’s spacecraft orbiting Mars... 

Star discovered to be the oldest ever found, by Dr. Stefan Keller with the SkyMapper telescope at the Siding Spring Observatory near Coonabarabran, New South Wales, Australia. Australian astronomers are positive they’ve discovered the most ancient star to date. Being practically three times older than our Sun, the old-timer star could serve as a prototype system to explore matter metamorphose in... 

First light: The young star cluster NGC1818 in the Large Magellanic Cloud, taken as part of calibration and testing before the science phase of the Gaia telescope mission begins. Europe’s billion-star surveyor Gaia is slowly being brought into focus as it begins its mission to create the most accurate map of the Milky Way begins. Launched in December, the satellite has now reached its destination... 

A new photo from the Mars Curiosity rover shows it on the edge of a sand dune and US engineers have decided to risk driving Curiosity over the dune so it can continue to an area of fresh bedrock known as KMS-9 to do some drilling. In order to get to the area engineers have called KMS-9, Curiosity will have to enter a small valley known as the Dingo Gap and navigate a one meter high sand dune. The... 

NASA’s Dawn spacecraft heads toward the dwarf planet Ceres as seen in this undated artist’s conception released January 22, 2014. The dwarf planet Ceres, which is the biggest object in the asteroid belt lying between Mars and Jupiter, is spewing water vapor into space from its ice-covered surface, scientists say. Researchers detected plumes of water vapor, which periodically gushes from... 

NASA’s Mars Curiosity rover shows geological members of the Yellowknife Bay formation on Mars The rock that suddenly appeared next to the NASA’s Opportunity rover in the beginning of January turns out to have an irregular chemical composition for Mars: it has too much sulfur, magnesium and manganese, scientists say. In particular, the rock has twice as much manganese as anything that previously... 

The artist’s concept depicts Kepler-62f, a super-Earth-size planet in the habitable zone of a star smaller and cooler than the sun, located about 1,200 light-years from Earth in the constellation Lyra. Life on Earth-like planets can exist at least ten times farther away from their stars than previously thought, scientists found, putting in question our whole perspective on habitable zone distances. A...