Mental Floss

SPACE

Every Inch of Ceres Is Now Mapped—and Yet Mysteries Remain

“This is a body different than any we’ve examined thus far.”

NASA/JPL-Caltech

5 Space Missions Under NASA Consideration

Here are five missions that NASA is presently evaluating. At least one of them will eventually visit other worlds.

iStock

4 Tricks to Help You Navigate Without Google Maps

No phone, no problem.

Pluto Has Tropics, and Other New Findings by Planetary Scientists

Yesterday at the 47th Lunar and Planetary Science conference in The Woodlands, Texas, members of the New Horizons team announced their latest findings about Pluto and its moons.

ESA–Stephane Corvaja

ExoMars Launched Today to Search for Signs of Life on the Red Planet

Its mission is to find "biosignatures," or scientific markers of life.

iStock

Why We Track Asteroids Like the One That Flew by This Week

TX68 appeared to have a four in 1 billion chance of hitting Earth. That may sound like a long shot, but the odds were four times higher than the threshold NASA has set for potentially hazardous objects.

chloe effron / istock

Why Some People Thought the World Might End on March 10, 1982

On March 10, 1982, a certain facet of people were bracing for a series of global disasters—earthquakes, tidal waves, and violent storms—that they believed would be caused by an alignment of all nine planets.

Andrew Pontzen and Fabio Governato via Wikimedia Commons // CC BY 2.0

Astronomers Discover a Galactic Wall That Stretches 1 Billion Light-Years

This could be the largest structure in the known universe

Getty Images

How Do Spacemen Walk on the Moon While Being Hit By Micrometeoroids?

NASA

Watch the Mind-Blowing Total Solar Eclipse Tonight, Live

Tune in online! The total solar eclipse will occur on March 8 from 8:38 to 8:42 p.m EST.

NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute

Look Up Tonight! Jupiter Is the Biggest and Brightest It Will Be All Year

With even a modest telescope, you might be able to make out Jupiter's bands of brown, tan, and white.

NASA/JHUAPL/SwRI

Pluto Might Have Clouds Hovering Above Its Surface

An email exchange by NASA scientists reveals that they think they've spotted "a discrete fuzzy cloud" in the dwarf planet's atmosphere.

iStock

10 Everyday Technologies We Owe to NASA

iStock

You Have a .08 Percent Chance of Joining NASA's Next Astronaut Class

NASA has received a record-breaking 18,300 candidate applications.

Watch a Live Webcast of SpaceX Launching Another Falcon 9 Rocket [Update: Forget It]

The live webcast begins really soon…and they're not expecting a successful landing.

NASA

Send Your Artwork to an Asteroid (With NASA's Help)

You may never be an astronaut, but with #WeTheExplorers you can become a part of the mission.

iStock

U.S. Navy Returns to Teaching Officers How to Navigate by the Stars

The Navy wants to reduce its dependence on GPS.

NASA // David C. Bowman

High Schoolers Compete to Have Their Food Served In Space

These dishes aren't your typical astronaut fare.

Jeremy Teaford, Vanderbilt University

Astronomers Discover an Eclipse That Lasts More Than 3 Years

When there's an eclipse, the newly discovered binary star system is shrouded in darkness for years.

NASA

On Its Anniversary, a Valentine For Voyager 1’s Pale Blue Dot

The image would never have happened if it weren't for Carl Sagan.

ESA/Herschel/PACS/L. Decin et al.

Look Up! The Valentine's Day Star Is High in the Sky Tonight

The red supergiant even "pulses" as its atmosphere expands and contracts.

Getty Images

10 Bright Facts About the Northern Lights

Seeing the astronomical phenomena known as the northern lights, a.k.a. aurora borealis, is a bucket-list item for many people.

Watch This Video of a Lightning Storm Shot from the ISS

Astronaut Tim Peake shares his breathtaking perspective.

SXS Collaboration, University of Chicago

Physicists Spot Einstein's Gravitational Waves for the First Time

After a decades-long search, scientists have managed to detect ethereal ripples in the very fabric of space.