NASA has released spectacular footage of the “dark side” of the moon – fully illuminated – as the Earth’s natural satellite was moving across the sunlit side of our planet. The unique shots were captured by the Deep Space Climate Observatory. Taken by the Earth Polychromatic Imaging Camera (EPIC), the images show a unique view of our planet and the moon from one million miles away. The capture... 

Analysis of water residue in Martian ice caps indicates that the Red Planet was once, at least partly, blue. Billions of years ago, Mars had a body of water that held more water than Earth’s Arctic Ocean, according to a NASA study published Thursday. “Our study provides a solid estimate of how much water Mars once had, by determining how much later was lost to space,”said Geronimo Villanueva,... 

Titan, Saturn’s largest moon appears before the planet as it undergoes seasonal changes in this natural color view from NASA’s Cassini spacecraft in this handout released by NASA August 29, 2012. The US space agency has come up with a recipe that captures key flavors of Saturn’s moon Titan out of a need to understand a previously unidentified chemical composition hidden beyond its orange... 

Glowing a dark magenta, the newly discovered exoplanet GJ 504b weighs in with about four times Jupiter’s mass, making it the lowest-mass planet ever directly imaged around a star like the sun. Meet GJ 504b, a cute-looking Jupiter-sized planet, currently the lowest-mass celestial body outside of solar system, which astronomers managed to image directly. Glowing a dark magenta, the newly discovered... 

Two giant swaths of radiation, known as the Van Allen Belts, surrounding Earth were discovered in 1958. Scientists assumed that there were only two radiation rings around the Earth, but a recently-launched NASA probe has detected a new “temporary” belt. As radiation rings pose serious hazards, the finding have implications for future manned flights. The third belt of radioactive energy particles... 

Stuart Atkinson combines 55 photos taken with the rover’s MAHLI camera, which sits outstretched on the end of the arm of NASA’s Curiosity rover, October 31, 2012. NASA’s Curiosity rover has analyzed Martian soil for the first time and has found some organic chemicals essential to support life. On Monday, NASA announced the finding of the robot’s onboard chemical laboratory, which had sampled...