|  Sun Unleashes Medium-Strength Solar Flare (Photo)  | The sun fired off a midlevel solar flare early this morning (Aug. 24) while a NASA satellite watched. The space agency's Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) captured an image of the flare, which erupted at 3:33 a.m. EDT (0733 GMT) this morning from an Earth-facing sunspot known as Active Region 2403. This morning's outburst registered as an M5.6, NASA scientists said.
| Read More » Farewell Dione: Cassini Snaps Last Close Photos of Saturn Moon  | The Cassini spacecraft recently got its last close views of Dione, a small icy moon orbiting Saturn, and the results are astounding. Images returned from the Aug. 17 flyby show a mottled surface of craters and ice. The closest approach brought the spacecraft to within 295 miles (474 kilometers) of the moon's surface.You can see more of Cassini's amazing Dione photos in our full gallery.
| Read More » '8 Days or Bust' +50: Gemini 5 Made History with 1st Crew Mission Patch  | Fifty years ago on Monday (Aug. 24), two NASA astronauts were more than one-third of the way through what was destined to be the world's longest space mission at the time. Gordon Cooper and Charles "Pete" Conrad, seated snugly in the U.S. space agency's third-manned Gemini capsule, had launched atop a Titan II rocket from Cape Canaveral on Aug. 21, 1965. Cooper, who two years earlier had flown on the longest of NASA's one-man Mercury missions, was now the first person to fly into orbit twice.
| Read More » Why Does Comet 67P Sing? Scientists Think They Know  | The sound waves picked up by Rosetta are moving through the comet's magnetic field. In space, no one can hear you scream — that's because on Earth, sound waves move through the air, and there is no atmosphere in space. In empty space, there is no atmosphere, so the sound waves don't have a material to travel through.
| Read More » Origins of 'Gospel of Jesus's Wife' Begin to Emerge  | The truth may be finally emerging about the "Gospel of Jesus's Wife," a highly controversial papyrus suggesting that some people, in ancient times, believed Jesus was married to Mary Magdalene. Debate about the credibility of the "gospel" began as soon as Harvard University professor Karen King reported her discovery of the papyrus in September 2012. Written in Coptic (an Egyptian language), the papyrus fragment contains a translated line that reads, "Jesus said to them, 'My wife …'" and also refers to a "Mary," possibly Mary Magdalene.
| Read More » High-Res NASA Video of Hurricane Katrina Could Improve Forecasting  | Ten years after the devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina, NASA has helped scientists better understand why the storm was so devastating, and how to save lives in the future. A new video, created by scientists at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, shows a high-resolution simulation of Hurricane Katrina as the storm moved across the Atlantic Ocean, then the Gulf of Mexico, and finally collided with the southern United States. You can see watch the hurricane video here, courtesy of NASA.
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