Astronomy, Moon | featured news

In a spectacle that might have beguiled poets, lovers and songwriters if only they had been around to see it, Earth once had two moons, astronomers now think. But the smaller one smashed into the other in what is being called the "big splat."...

Spurred by the $30 million Google Lunar X Prize, 29 teams have signed up for a competition to become the first private venture to land on the Moon.

Gerald Kulcinski has a big problem. The nuclear engineering professor at the University of Wisconsin needs a rare element to fuel his research into a fusion reactor. But the cost of the isotope -- helium-3 -- is rising faster than a rocket headed to space. A few years ago it was $1,000 a gram, this year it is $7,000 and next year, well, he assumes it will be tens of thousands of dollars.

This month's full moon will pass almost directly through the center of Earth's shadow on Wednesday in what will be an unusually long total eclipse of the moon, 100 minutes. The next total lunar eclipse of exceptional length will be July 27, 2018, and will last 106 minutes.

Scientists analyzing bits of hardened lava from long-ago lunar eruptions found about as much water as in similar magmas on Earth.

What better spot in Hollywood to view this moon than in one of the nearby hiking trails in Griffith Park? (A friend's patio terrace up in the hills will do nicely too. Invite yourself over and turn this moon watch into a party.)Many people exercise in the canyons during daylight hours, but at night the canyons turn into another place entirely. The access road to Griffith Park's Observatory stays open till 10 p.m., which allows easy parking and access to one of the many trails.

For a few hours on the night of Dec. 20 to Dec. 21, the attention of tens of millions of people will be drawn skyward.

Scientists said Tuesday they have found the best evidence yet of ice volcanoes on Saturn's giant moon Titan. Unlike volcanoes on Earth, such ...

A small asteroid passed within the moon's distance from the Earth on Wednesday morning, and another will do likewise later in the day, space watchers say.

The moon is shrinking ever so slightly, but there is no cause for alarm, according to a new study that has discovered a clutch of previously unseen faults on the lunar surface from photos taken by a NASA probe.