EARTH

A European spacecraft around Mars has sent its first livestream from the red planet to Earth to mark the 20th anniversary of its launch.

The year's first lunar eclipse is underway, and the best viewing is in Asia and Australia.

A new study suggests water on Mars may be more widespread and recent than previously thought.

Never mind the models forecasting an El Nino, pretty clearly those warm Pacific waters are in place and will only get warmer as we move through the summer.

An intense solar storm has the northern lights gracing the skies farther south than usual.

An old NASA satellite is expected to fall to Earth.

Somewhere in a remote stretch of forest near Maine’s border with Canada, rocks from space crashed to Earth and may be scattered across the ground — just waiting to be picked up.

More than half a century later, the Apollo 13 mission continues to fascinate audiences.

A Russian spacecraft has safely returned to Earth without a crew months after suffering a coolant leak in orbit.

The Webb Space Telescope has found no evidence of an atmosphere at one of the seven rocky, Earth-sized planets orbiting a nearby star.

There's a special chance this week to see five planets lined up in the night sky.

An asteroid big enough to wipe out a city will zip harmlessly between Earth and the moon's orbit this weekend.

Spring has sprung: Monday marks the first day of spring in the Northern Hemisphere.

The record-breaking heat Earth endured during the summer of 2022 will be repeated without a robust international effort to address climate change, scientists are warning.

A Japanese startup company is planning to launch a commercial space viewing balloon flight that it hopes will bring down to earth an otherwise astronomically expensive experience.

A new study using artificial intelligence finds that the world will likely warm a few more tenths of a degrees within the next 10 to 12 years and breach a key climate change threshold.

A comet is streaking back our way after 50,000 years.

An asteroid the size of a delivery truck will whip past Earth on Thursday night, one of the closest encounters ever recorded.

The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists says the world is closer to Armageddon than it has ever been.

The comet is the expected to make its closest pass of Earth sometime between Feb. 1 and 2, possibly even sooner sometime at the end of January.

Comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF) was discovered last March

After almost 40 years circling Earth, a NASA satellite has plunged harmlessly through the atmosphere.

A United Nations scientific report says Earth's protective ozone layer is slowly but noticeably healing.

We’re on to a new year and our January moon is full THIS Friday, and while you’ve heard of Supermoons this one is the opposite: a Micromoon. Supermoons are simply full moons that are closer to Earth in orbit (perigee) while Micromoons are farther away (apogee). While Supermoons are generally 226,000 miles away from Earth, Micromoons are 250,000 miles away--this month’s full moon is 252,600 miles out! Here is a fifteen second video from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory illustrating the two:

Depending on when you read this blog, it’s either still fall or newly winter, astronomically speaking! The solstice occurs at 3:47pm--just in time for our 4pm newscast!

A U.S.-French satellite that will map most of the world's water has rocketed into orbit.

NASA’s Orion capsule is back from the moon.

WATCH NASA’S LIVE COVERAGE OF ORION’S RETURN TO EARTH

First, let’s get this definition out there: “occultation” simply means “the act of blocking or concealing from view”. All of that sure sounds like a verb, but it’s a noun! And tonight, almost everywhere but HERE, the moon will pass between Earth and Mars, hiding Mars from view. The planet Mars literally goes behind the moon. What’s nice is that the moon is full tonight and the occultation occurs in the late evening (10pm to midnight), so lots of people will be able to see this happen. A big deal? Well, to some degree since lining up the Sun, the Earth, the full moon and Mars all at the same time only happens every couple of years.

NASA's Orion capsule is now circling the moon in an orbit stretching tens of thousands of miles.

A new Pew Research Center report explores how religion in the U.S. intersects with views on the environment and climate change.

A satellite intended to improve weather forecasting and an experimental inflatable heat shield to protect spacecraft entering atmospheres have been launched into space from California.

Our last blood moon until March 14, 2025.

This week's total lunar eclipse is the last one for three years.

The United Nations' weather agency says the state of Earth's climate is bad and getting worse faster than before, especially with sea level rise accelerating.

Astronomers have discovered the closest known black hole to Earth, just 1,600 light-years away.

Scientists use old fashioned detective work to figure out that humans are responsible for climate change.

Just how does climate change work.

The ozone hole over Antarctica got bigger this year, which is unusual.

NASA says a spacecraft that plowed into a small, harmless asteroid millions of miles away last month succeeded in shifting its orbit.

A NASA spacecraft has rammed an asteroid in an unprecedented test to see if a potentially menacing space rock could be knocked off course.

Australian iron ore miner Fortescue Metals Group has announced a $6.2 billion plan to eliminate fossil fuels and carbon emissions from its operations by the end of the decade.

The British environmental scientist whose influential Gaia theory sees the Earth as a living organism gravely imperiled by human activity has died on his 103rd birthday.

A Chinese cargo spacecraft that serviced the country's permanent orbiting space station has largely burned up on reentering the atmosphere.

One of The Chainsmokers’ latest hits is “High” and they’re hoping to live up to their lyrics.

If you watch KPRC 2, then you may have noticed lately that sometimes the high temperature for the day doesn’t actually occur until after 5 p.m. and, often, closer to 6 p.m. Despite the sun being highest in the sky around noon, the heat builds all day to its crescendo in the later afternoon. In turn, the earth cools all night so that our coolest temperatures are usually right at dawn (ask walkers and joggers). This daily lagging effect applies to our seasons, also. It’s called the seasonal lag effect.

Every day billions of people depend on wild flora and fauna to obtain food, medicine and energy.

NASA says contact has been restored with a spacecraft headed to the moon to test out a lopsided lunar orbit.

A satellite the size of a microwave oven successfully broke free from its orbit around Earth and is headed toward the moon.

NASA wants to experiment with a new orbit around the moon that it hopes to use in the coming years to once again land astronauts on the lunar surface.

MSNBC says that journalist Alex Wagner will take over Rachel Maddow's prime-time slot four nights a week, beginning in August.

Houston hit 100 degrees on Sunday for the first time since Aug. 29, 2020! It was definitely a hot spring day. You might read that and think… SPRING? But the answer is yes! Sunday was still considered spring.

A federal science agency says that levels of the main global warming gas have shot past a key milestone.

A broken comet may dazzle the Earth’s skies Monday night and early morning Tuesday, according to NASA’s forecast.

NASA will provide live coverage of the return and landing of the uncrewed flight test for Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner spacecraft on Wednesday.

But compared to recent times, exactly how much have activities such as recycling, dieting or using electric vehicles changed or evolved?

Late Sunday night, people had the opportunity to witness a total lunar eclipse. Eyes were focused on the sky to witness the rare event.

Would you want an outpost of “the most magical place on Earth” down the highway on 59? Fort Bend County Judge KP George says, “come on down!”

Happy Earth Day!

Earth -- isn’t it a great place to live?

This oil spill in Santa Monica was the worst in U.S. waters at the time.

Three Chinese astronauts have returned to Earth after six months aboard China’s newest space station in the longest crewed mission to date for its ambitious space program.

A U.S. astronaut has made it through nearly a year in space but faces what could be his trickiest assignment yet: riding a Russian capsule back to Earth.

Every four years, the world's greatest athletes across the winter sport disciplines gather at the Olympic Games to provide a spectacle of sport and sportsmanship. And every four years, we must revisit the lost Olympic art of ski ballet.

SpaceX is now expected to launch an Italian Earth-observation satellite no earlier than today (Jan. 30), two days later than planned due to bad weather, and you’ll be able to watch it live here when it lifts off.

The world's biggest and most powerful space telescope has reached its final destination 1 million miles away.

SpaceX is targeting Tuesday, January 18 for a Falcon 9 launch of 49 Starlink satellites to low Earth orbit from Launch Complex 39A (LC-39A) at Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The instantaneous launch window is at 7:04 p.m. EST

Asteroid 1994PC1 gets close enough that people with backyard telescopes can see it.

Look at it this way: a cold, cheesy pizza is still pizza! And a cold, breezy weekend is still the weekend, so there is that. Get ready for big changes starting tomorrow morning. Forecast below, but what’s causing the big change?

Scientists have concluded that a meteorite from Mars contains no evidence of ancient Martian life.

Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, has been named Time magazine’s “Person of the Year” for 2021.

NASA has launched a spacecraft on a mission to smash into an asteroid and test whether it would be possible to knock a speeding space rock off course if one were to threaten Earth.

I have to admit: I wish this one was real. The huge moon eclipsing the sun somewhere around the north pole went viral crazy last week looking something like you’d see in a Star Wars movie on another planet. The descriptor even read like a movie-trailer: Imagine that you are in a place between Russia and Canada in the Arctic during the day, where there is 24-hour daylight in the summertime. At a certain time, the Moon appears for 30 seconds just above the horizon - which explains it’s enormous size - and after it covers the Sun for about 5 seconds - it disappears again!
A completely fall-to-the-knees moment!

The moon enters the Earth's Shadow early Friday morning. Here is what you will see.

SpaceX launched 53 Starlink satellites into orbit from Florida on Saturday.

The longest partial lunar eclipse of the year is happening early Friday, and people in all 50 states will be able to view it.

World leaders have been trying to do something about climate change for 29 years but in that time Earth has gotten much hotter and more dangerous.

A Chinese researcher says moon rocks brought back to Earth by a robotic spacecraft last year have provided new insights into ancient lunar volcanic activity.

A Japanese court is hearing from five people who say they were promised “paradise on Earth” in North Korea but suffered instead and now want the country to compensate them.

The latest in a series of U.S. satellites that has recorded human and natural impacts on Earth’s surface for decades has been launched into orbit from California to ensure continued observations in the climate change era.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is a no-go for launching billionaires into space.

Tom Cruise is getting a sneak preview of what it's like to circle Earth in a SpaceX capsule.

A trio of Chinese astronauts have returned to Earth after a 90-day stay aboard their nation’s first space station in China’s longest mission yet.

Scientists say the Southern Hemisphere ozone hole is larger than usual and already surpasses the size of Antarctica.

The 10 nominees on the longlist for the National Book Award for young people's literature were announced Wednesday.

NASA's newest Mars rover may have successfully collected its first rock sample for return to Earth, after last month's attempt came up empty.

Japan’s space agency plans to bring soil samples back from the Mars region ahead of the U.S. and Chinese missions now operating on Mars.

U.S. weather officials say Earth in July was the hottest month ever recorded.

Scientists have fine-tuned the path of the asteroid Bennu and say the odds of it smacking into Earth are higher than previously thought but still quite low.

A U.N.-appointed panel of experts says that Earth is getting so hot that temperatures in about a decade will probably blow past the most ambitious threshold set in the Paris accord.

You may have heard about a strong Earthquake off Japan’s coast yesterday at 3:22pm CDT (5:22am Japan Time). Our KPRC 2 Anchors in Tokyo, Keith Garvin and Christine Noel, reported that the minor shaking lasted less than 30 seconds and felt a bit like standing on a rocking boat. ExactTrack radar detected the quake 130 miles from Tokyo as you can see in my cover graphic.

A geologist has discovered rocks in Canada that may contain sponge fossils dating back 890 million years — potentially making them the earliest fossil record of animal life on Earth.

Dinosaurs will walk the Earth once again. Well, sort of. On view Aug. 13 through Aug. 15, Jurassic Quest’s prehistoric spectacle will transform the NRG Center into an interactive experience.

Thrill-seeking billionaire Richard Branson has reached space aboard his own winged rocket ship, bringing astro-tourism a step closer to reality.

Jeff Bezos and Richard Branson's companies both will take tourists to the edge of space.

A new study is throwing cold water on the possibility of life in the clouds of Venus.

Republican Rep. John Curtis of Utah says that contrary to their image, Republicans care about climate change.

This week on Space Curious, a listener wanted to know, "How big is the solar system?"

Here are some pictures found around social interwebs and also that our viewers submitted via Click2Pins.