Earth's orbit is an ellipse, not a perfect circle. Earth's distance from the Sun varies by about 3 million miles throughout the year. Earth's orbit's semimajor axis is approximately 93 million miles.

The winter solstice, occurring on December 20 at 10:03 A.M. EST, initiates astronomical winter in the Northern Hemisphere and summer in the Southern Hemisphere, corresponding to the Northern ...

NASA has released a 3D animation depicting the exterior of the upcoming Gateway space station, a lunar orbiting outpost designed to facilitate extended space missions. Scheduled for launch in 2025, ...

All Apollo lunar modules, except for Apollo 10's "Snoopy," either impacted the lunar surface or disintegrated in Earth's atmosphere. Apollo 10's lunar module, "Snoopy," was jettisoned and intended to ...

Bennu is a roughly 0.3-mile-wide (500 meters) asteroid that orbits in near-Earth space. Scientists suspect it’s a chunk of a larger asteroid that broke off due to a collision farther out. Telescope ...

On December 12, Uranus will be observable in western Taurus, situated 7 arcminutes due south of the 6th-magnitude star 14 Tauri, providing an identification aid. The Geminid meteor shower is forecast ...

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Mariner 1 and 2, twin spacecraft developed from the Ranger lunar probe and equipped with seven instruments, were designed for a joint mission to Venus; however, Mariner 1 failed minutes after its July ...

Comet 24P/Schaumasse is presented as an observable target, estimated at 12th magnitude, situated in the vicinity of Leo the Lion. Optimal viewing for Comet 24P/Schaumasse is specified for ...

The Hubble Space Telescope captured a sign of water vapor in the atmosphere of a distant exoplanet, according to an analysis of observations published last year in The Astrophysical Journal Letters.

On November 17, the Leonid meteor shower is forecast for the early morning, with its radiant in Leo rising to over 50° by 4 A.M. local time, offering observations of fast-moving, bright meteors with ...

Following its lunar mission, China's Chang'e 2 probe performed a flyby of asteroid 4179 Toutatis on December 13, 2012, after departing lunar orbit on June 9, 2011. During the 25-minute flyby, ...