Earth | featured news

A space capsule has returned to Earth, ending the first commercially contracted re-supply mission to the International Space Station (ISS). The capsule was sent by the California-based company SpaceX, the first of 12 missions it will perform for US space agency Nasa... SpaceX says it is just a few years away from being able to provide an astronaut "taxi" service.

Polar bears first appeared 4-5 million years ago - but the animals have interbred with brown bears as Earth has warmed and cooled, say Penn State researchers.

A city-block size asteroid will fly by Earth this weekend, well beyond the orbit of the moon, and you can watch it zip safely by live in an online webcast.

A heavy-duty solar flare erupted on the surface of the sun midmorning Thursday, and it appeared from early data that a solar storm from the X-class eruption was headed toward Earth.

A Chinese space capsule with three astronauts aboard returned to Earth on Friday from a 13-day mission to an orbiting module that is a prototype for a future permanent station. The crew of the Shenzhou 9 parachuted to a landing on the grasslands of the country's sprawling Inner Mongolia region at about 10 a.m. (0200 GMT). China declared the mission to the Tiangong 1 module a major stride ahead for the country's ambitious space program.

As if global warming, terrorism and taxmageddon weren’t enough to worry about this summer, now the Earth’s rotation is slowing down. Fast.

A "supermoon" has graced the skies, appearing bigger and brighter than usual, as it comes closer to the Earth - bringing with it the chance of higher tides.

A massive European satellite the size of a school bus that has mysteriously stopped communicating with Earth has been spotted by another satellite in orbit.

An asteroid the size of a passenger jet will zoom close by Earth on Sunday  just in time for April Fools' Day, but it has no chance of hitting the Earth, NASA says.

Diving to the deepest part of the ocean, filmmaker James Cameron says the last frontier on Earth looks an awful lot like another planet: desolate and foreboding....