Kids News

Planetary rings are a natural feature of the larger outer planets like Jupiter and Neptune, but none are as spectacular as Saturn's. However, in March and November 2025, these majestic rings will not be visible to observers on Earth. Fortunately, this rare event is only an optical illusion. It is caused by the orientation of Saturn's thin rings and the planet's tilt relative to Earth. The last time this occurred was in 2009....

On October 2, 2024, a few lucky skygazers witnessed the Sun transform into a stunning "ring of fire" in the sky. The annular solar eclipse's narrow path, which began in the Pacific Ocean and ended in the Atlantic Ocean, tracked far from land. As a result, it was visible only to about 175,000 people worldwide....

Get ready for a rare celestial event! This weekend, our planet will capture a temporary "mini-moon" in the form of a small asteroid called 2024 PT5. This tiny space rock will enter Earth's orbit on September 29, 2024. However, unlike our permanent Moon, which has been with us for billions of years, 2024 PT5 will only be around for eight weeks....

SpaceX is no stranger to making history. It was the first private spaceflight company to carry astronauts to the International Space Station and the first to develop a reusable rocket booster. On September 15, 2024, SpaceX reached a new milestone with the successful completion of Polaris Dawn, the first of three commercial space missions under the Polaris program. This five-day flight saw a crew of all civilian astronauts set several space altitude records and conduct a pioneering spacewalk....

On August 25, 2024, NASA officials announced that Boeing's Starliner spacecraft will return to Earth in early September without its crew members Butch Wilmore and Sunita Williams. NASA's decision is based on lingering concerns about the spacecraft's safety. Wilmore and Williams will remain at the International Space Station (ISS) until February 2025....

There are numerous meteor showers throughout the year. However, few are as popular, or as reliable, as the Perseids. The "shooting stars" have been zooming across the skies at a rate of about a dozen an hour since mid-July. But the best time to watch them will be from midnight to dawn on August 11, 12, and 13, 2024. That is when the number of meteors will increase sharply to between 50 and 100 an hour. Also, unlike previous years, this upcoming show will not be overshadowed by a bright Moon. This will make it easier to view even the dimmer meteors....

China's Chang'e 6 lunar probe made history on June 25, 2024, when it brought back soil samples from the Moon's far side. The feat marks the first return of materials from the unexplored lunar region....

NASA's X-59 aircraft, unveiled in January 2024, hopes to change the way we travel. The innovative plane is designed to fly at supersonic speeds without producing the characteristic sonic boom. The prototype is part of the US Space Agency's Quiet SuperSonic Technology (QueSST) mission....

A week after launching aboard a SpaceX rocket, the uncrewed Odysseus spacecraft gently landed near the Moon's south pole at 6:32 pm ET on February 22, 2024. The 14-foot-tall (4.3 meters) lander was developed and flown by Texas-based Intuitive Machines. It is the first privately-built spacecraft to make a moon landing. More significantly, Odysseus is the first American lander to successfully touch down on the lunar surface since Apollo 17 in December 1972....