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To find north, find Polaris. Earth rotates on its axis, which points directly at Polaris. From Earth, Polaris is the...

Comets are like "dirty snowballs" that have orbited the Sun since our Solar System formed, billions of year...

A black hole is a collapsed star. When high-mass stars use up all their fuel, their cores collapse inward. The heavie...

The Orion constellation is known for having some of the brightest stars in the night sky. On a clear night, try to fi...

A galaxy is a giant, spinning object made of gas, dust, and stars held together by gravity. Galaxies come in differen...

On a clear night, Mike Shara sees more than just the beautiful twinkling of stars when he gazes at the sky.

As a kid growing up in New York City, Rebecca Oppenheimer always wanted to study stars and planets. She never dreamed...

How many constellations and planets can you find in the night sky? Record your sightings in a "stellar" journal.

Many people have seen the beautiful spiral triton trumpet shell. Unfortunately, most people can see these brown and w...

Most reflecting telescopes use glass mirrors to focus light from faraway objects, such as stars and galaxies. In a li...

Ninety-three million miles from Earth, a giant ball of hot gas brightens the sky. Nuclear reactions in the Sun's core...

About 1,000 years ago, a massive star exploded at the end of its life cycle. What remains is the Crab Nebula, a glowi...

It's easy to see how the starfish got its name -- with their pointed arms, these creatures look like stars fallen to...

A solar system is made up of a star and everything that travels around it. Solar means "of the sun.

To see what the Big Dipper would look like from outer space, build a mobile!

The Milky Way is the galaxy in which our Solar System lives. There are more than 200 billion stars in our spiral gala...

When we think of "space," we often think of "outer space" -- the vast, empty, dark space that sur...

This beautiful tortoise lives in the deserts of Madagascar, an island off the coast of Africa. This reptile gets its...

Find out what makes the Sun glow, and other amazing facts, in an up-close interview with the Sun.

Are we alone in the Universe? There are billions of stars in our galaxy, and 100 billion galaxies in our Universe.

Did you ever see a "shooting star"? What you really saw was a meteor burning up in the Earth's atmosphere.

Most mass in the universe is not normal matter we can see, like stars, planets, and puppies. In fact, 80% of the mass...

In college, Mordecai-Mark Mac Low decided to take science classes that looked like fun. So he chose astrophysics, whi...

Send a note to a friend with these astronomical letterheads.

Would you measure the distance between New York and New Delhi in inches? For the same reason, astronomers don't use m...

A bike, a tree, a cloud, an ocean -- any object you can name -- it's all made of matter. Even YOU are made of matter....

Einstein might never have become a worldwide celebrity had it not been for the English astrophysicist Arthur Eddington.

What would happen if you were to place a bowling ball on top of a nice fluffy pillow? The mass of the bowling ball wo...

Scientists believe that everything in the Universe began about 13 billion years ago in a giant explosion called the B...

The Sun is speckled with markings called sunspots that look darker than the rest of its surface.

Tour this spinning pinwheel in space that we call home.

Discover where starry-eyed Neil has followed his curiosity.

What was the universe like right after the Big Bang? To find out, you'd have to look back in time. That was the job o...

Since the 1920s, observations of distant galaxies reveal that our universe was expanding.

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How much do you really know about our place in space? Take this quiz to find out!

Mix up some Jell-O, and find out how space bends around anything with mass.

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All aboard! Hop on a submersible and explore an amazing diversity of life at the ocean floor.

Learn about the diagrams scientists use to organize all the groups of living things.

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A marine biologist answers kids' questions about how climate change affects life in the ocean.

As a kid, Neil Tyson first glimpsed the magic of the Universe in the Hayden Planetarium at the American Museum of Nat...

Galileo was a "jack of all trades." He was a musician, a philosopher, a physicist, and an astronomer. He is...

Explore this family tree of living things on Earth.

Asteroids are space rocks that have existed since the formation of the planets over 4.6 billion years ago. Scientists...

Thousands of traits make you who you are. Some traits, such as eye color, are determined mostly, or entirely, by gene...

Gregor Mendel not only ate his peas, he used them to figure out how genes are passed from generation to generation. I...

Pluto was discovered in 1930 and considered to be the ninth planet in our solar system.

There are many kinds of energy. But only one makes plants grow, drives the weather, and keeps our planet warm enough...

Mars is often called the "red planet." It's red because its surface is covered with rusted particles of iron.

Before telescopes were invented, people gazed at the night sky with amazement and dreamed of a closer look.

The leatherback is the world's largest turtle. Unlike the bony exterior of other sea turtles, the exterior of the lea...

Mass and weight may seem like the same thing, but in fact these two measurements are very different. Mass is the tota...

Craters are formed when objects from space crash onto a planet's surface. The impact blasts a hole or impression wher...

Meteorites and asteroids have bombarded the Moon for billions of years, leaving deep craters on its surface.

The whooping crane is known as the tallest bird in North America. This long legged creature has been struggling to su...

Not all spiders spin webs to catch their meals. When night falls in Australia, the white-tailed spider hunts its prey...

If you ever go to Mercury, bring your sunscreen because it is the planet closest to the Sun. You'll also need a pair...

Saturn is known for the beautiful rings that form a giant hula hoop around it. The rings are made of chunks of ice an...

To try to piece together how organisms are related, scientists use cladistics.

This large dark bird is unmistakable soaring in the air along the coast.

The snowy egret is a beautiful sight. An adult egret is distinguished by its dark slender beak, long black legs, and...

Most mammals that live on land use their legs to get around. But the white-handed gibbon relies mostly on its arms. U...

There are more than 250 kinds of vipers, a family of poisonous snakes. The largest of all is the gabon viper.

The Asian elephant is one of the largest land mammals in the world. Some people believe that elephants feel joy and s...

The king cobra is the largest venomous snake in the world. Whether slithering on land, climbing trees, or swimming, i...

Cassava is one tough plant because it can grow in poor and unfertile soil in most tropical environments. Cassava is a...

Dinoflagellates are tiny, one-celled organisms that live in oceans and freshwater ponds, rivers, and streams. Some di...

Giant puffballs aren't your typical mushrooms.

Most people know red and black spotted ladybird beetles as friendly insects that are fun to pick up and watch fly awa...

If you looked at the contents of a vacuum cleaner bag with a microscope, you'd probably find millions of tiny creatur...

You might think that all mosquitoes are alike, but did you know that there are actually about 2,500 different kinds?...

Although the rosy periwinkle stands only one foot tall, in the world of medicine it's a giant.

A rotting log is a mighty tasty meal -- if you're a termite. Termites not only eat wood, some kinds live in it, too....

Vietnam is a country of amazing biodiversity, including many rare and unusual species. One fascinating example is the...

For centuries, orange roughy went mostly unnoticed by humans. These fish thrived in the dark, the cold, and the inten...

Tipping the scales at more than 7 pounds, the Goliath is the largest frog in the world. Just two of these frogs weigh...

It only seems like the world's entire ant population attends your picnics.

Are these rare and colorful creatures flowering plants or animals?

With their white bellies and dark backs, dolphins can be found jumping above the water, swimming alongside fishing sh...

Ornithologists, or scientists who study birds, want to prevent the forests of the Pacific Northwest from being choppe...

The St. Vincent parrot makes its home on the tropical island of St. Vincent in the Caribbean. These parrots are cover...

The American crocodile has lived on Earth for millions of years, but today their numbers are rapidly declining becaus...

The Tibetan antelope, also known as "chiru," is one of the most beautiful mammals in the world.

The hellbender is one of the largest salamanders in North America.

The Komodo dragon lumbers through the forest on its thick, stocky legs. It sways its head back and forth, flicking it...

The mountain gorilla lives high up in the forests of east central Africa.

Have you ever seen pond scum -- that thick, smelly layer of slime floating on the surface of the water? That's probab...

Based on fossils of ancient dragonflies, we know these winged insects have been soaring around for at least 300 milli...

Think of giant kelp as the Godzilla of the seaweeds.

The Portuguese man-of-war is actually a floating colony of individuals called polyps that are all dependent on each o...

California condors are the largest birds in North America. Like all vultures, condors are carrion-eaters. This means...

The electric eel is long and narrow like an eel, but it is actually not an eel at all. In fact, electric eels are pro...

New Caledonia, a tiny island east of Australia, is the only place where an unusual bird called the kagu is found. Abo...

What do we have in common with sharks, bluebirds, lizards, and toads? We are all vertebrates, or animals with backbon...