Earth's orbit is an ellipse, not a perfect circle. Earth's distance from the Sun varies by about 3 million miles throughout the year. Earth's orbit's semimajor axis is approximately 93 million miles.

The winter solstice, occurring on December 20 at 10:03 A.M. EST, initiates astronomical winter in the Northern Hemisphere and summer in the Southern Hemisphere, corresponding to the Northern ...

NASA has released a 3D animation depicting the exterior of the upcoming Gateway space station, a lunar orbiting outpost designed to facilitate extended space missions. Scheduled for launch in 2025, ...

All Apollo lunar modules, except for Apollo 10's "Snoopy," either impacted the lunar surface or disintegrated in Earth's atmosphere. Apollo 10's lunar module, "Snoopy," was jettisoned and intended to ...

Bennu is a roughly 0.3-mile-wide (500 meters) asteroid that orbits in near-Earth space. Scientists suspect it’s a chunk of a larger asteroid that broke off due to a collision farther out. Telescope ...

Asteroid 2019 LF6, a newly discovered Atira asteroid, has an orbit entirely contained within Earth's orbit, a characteristic of this rare class of near-Earth objects. The discovery of 2019 LF6 is ...

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During its initial molten phase, the Moon experienced tidal bulges on its near and far sides due to Earth's immense gravitational pull. The Moon's rotation initially carried these gravitationally ...

When it comes to appearances, the universe is a tricky place. Visible light occupies merely a sliver of the electromagnetic (EM) spectrum. To study the cosmos in its entirety, scientists must peer ...

Black holes are regions of spacetime with gravity so strong that nothing escapes. Black holes grow by consuming nearby matter, slowing their eventual evaporation. Hawking radiation causes black holes ...

‘Oumuamua, the first interstellar object detected within our solar system, exhibited unusual characteristics including an extreme shape and non-gravitational acceleration, prompting diverse hypotheses ...

Stonehenge has always been shrouded in mystery. The ancient monument and burial site in southern England has been around for more than 5,000 years — but its purpose isn’t completely clear. Researchers ...