This image made with the Hubble Space Telescope and released by NASA on Aug. 10, 2020, shows the star Alpha Orionis, or Betelgeuse, a red supergiant that is about 700 million light years from Earth. AP hide caption
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NASA astronaut Frank Rubio checks tomato plants growing inside the International Space Station for a space botany study. Koichi Wakata/Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency/NASA hide caption
Orion and stars rising over a forest captured on a mountain. Yuga Kurita/Getty Images hide caption
A star is born ... and then what? A journey through the life cycle of a star
Taylor Swift reacts during a game between the Los Angeles Chargers and Kansas City Chiefs at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City, Mo., on Oct. 22. Jamie Squire/Getty Images hide caption
English peas grow in simulated Martian dirt. Emmanuel Mendoza hide caption
Can we grow veggies on Mars? Fly larvae and synthetic soil may hold the answer
SpaceX's mega rocket Starship launches for a test flight from Starbase in Boca Chica, Texas, on Saturday. Eric Gay/AP hide caption
A 'successful failure': SpaceX's Starship achieves liftoff, loses contact mid-flight
Cutting a teaspoon of salt is comparable to taking blood pressure medication
An artistic depiction of the planet WASP-107b. Observations by the James Webb Space Telescope suggest this hot gas giant has clouds made of sand. Klaas Verpoest, Johan Van Looveren, Leen Decin hide caption
Clouds made of sand make for a strange kind of rain on this hot planet
Apollo 8 crew member Frank Borman speaks during a 2008 NASA TV program at the Newseum in Washington, DC. The former astronauts participated in a discussion on the 1968 lunar orbital mission and how the success of Apollo 8 contributed to the overall moon landing effort. Alex Wong/Getty Images hide caption
Apollo astronaut Frank Borman, who first orbited moon, dies at age 95
An aurora borealis, also known as the northern lights, is seen in the sky in the early morning hours of Monday, April 24, 2023, near Washtucna, Wash. Ted S. Warren/AP hide caption
A meteor from the Tau Herculids meteor shower passes over Valley of Fire State Park in Nevada on May 30, 2022. A meteor shower known for producing fireballs, the Southern Taurids, is expected to peak this week. Ethan Miller/Getty Images hide caption
Retired astronaut Ken Mattingly has died. He's pictured (center) with crewmates Jim Lovell (left) and Fred Haise (right) at a news conference about a mission he ended up missing, the ill-fated Apollo 13. Ed Kolenovsky/AP hide caption
Tourists visiting the Bears Ears region to view scenes like this are encouraged to respect the natural and cultural sites of the indigenous tribes in the region. Christopher M. Quirin/Christopher M. Quirin hide caption
Eclipses & Indigenous Traditions
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In the night sky of northern Lebanon, two meteors of the annual Orionid meteor shower streak as they cross through the Milky Way. IBRAHIM CHALHOUB/AFP via Getty Images hide caption
The Orionid meteor shower peaks this weekend. Enhance your view with these tips
Jonathan Quirarte, left, watched the eclipse with his girlfriend at Phil Hardberger Park in San Antonio. To protect his eyes, Quirarte wore a welder mask he purchased for a previous eclipse. Jia Chen/Texas Public Radio hide caption
Microbiologist Monsi Roman stands next to an ISS Life Support test module at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center. /Monsi Roman hide caption
The microbiologist studying the giant floating petri dish in space
Small rocks and dust from an asteroid, outside a round sample collection device in a NASA lab. Erika Blumenfeld & Joseph Aebersold/NASA hide caption
Take a peek at what NASA brought back from an asteroid
An artist's conception of the Psyche spacecraft approaching an asteroid that's largely composed of metal. NASA/JPL-Caltech hide caption
NASA Harvest analysis of unharvested crops (in purple), along the front line of the war in Ukraine. Daniel Wood/NPR hide caption
The bruising artillery battle in Ukraine has left a scar that is visible from space
A visualization of the accretion disk around a black hole. Jeremy Schnittman / NASA Goddard Space Flight Center hide caption
Black holes can teach us how to live our best lives
People watch a supermoon rise above Lisbon, Portugal, on Aug. 30. Armando Franca/AP hide caption
The sample return capsule from NASA's OSIRIS-REx mission touched down in the desert on September 24, 2023, at the Department of Defense's Utah Test and Training Range. The sample was collected from the asteroid Bennu in October 2020 by NASA's OSIRIS-REx spacecraft. NASA/Keegan Barber hide caption