Get the latest from the planet-hunting frontier. Find out what we are learning about our place in the cosmos from the search for earth-like planets.

This journey started tens of thousands of years ago, when humans began to fan out across the planet, following unknown pathways, crossing unmeasured distances. We traced coastlines, and sailed uncertain seas. We crossed ocean straits drained by an ice age.

Into every corner of Earth we ventured, looking for places to put down our roots, to raise our families, or just to see what was there. Today, it’s the final frontier that fires our imaginations. With so many stars in our galaxy, we make a simple extrapolation, that the cosmos must be filled with worlds like ours, with life, even intelligent life.

For four years, the historic planet hunting mission, Kepler, starred at a group of 150,000 stars located in a region extending three thousand light years away from earth.

The data collected by this spacecraft has brought a turning point in the long search for other planets like earth. Is ours one of countless life-bearing worlds strewn about the galaxy; or is it a rare garden of eden in a barren universe?

Join the scientists who manage Curiosity’s journey to Mt. Sharp in reveling in its ongoing discoveries. Find out what the rover is looking for, how it’s navigating the rocky terrain, and what ultimately the journey means to its human patrons. It’s one of the most sophisticated, and inspiring, missions ever undertaken to another planet. Video from NASA/JPL.

Astronomers using the Hubble Space Telescope have captured infrared-light images of a churning region of star birth 6,400 light-years away. New from Hubblecast.

The collection of images reveals a shadowy, dense knot of gas and dust sharply contrasted against a backdrop of brilliant glowing gas in the Monkey Head Nebula (also known as NGC 2174).

The image demonstrates Hubble’s powerful infrared vision and offers a tantalizing hint of what scientists can expect from the upcoming James Webb Space Telescope. Observations of NGC 2174 were taken in February, 2014.

Massive newborn stars near the center of the nebula (and toward the right in this image) are blasting away at dust within the nebula. The ultraviolet light emitted by these bright stars helps shape the dust into giant pillars.

This carving action occurs because the nebula is mostly composed of hydrogen gas, which becomes ionized by the ultraviolet radiation. As the dust particles are warmed by the ultraviolet light of the stars, they heat up and begin to glow at infrared wavelengths.

Our latest episode of Cosmic Journeys, coming soon. This video asks: what are the conditions that can turn an average tropical storm into a destructive monster? While scientists work to identify the diagnostics of super hurricanes and typhoons, they face an escalating conflict between man and nature. More and more of the world’s people are living in proximity to the sea, making them vulnerable to ocean storms. At the same time, the oceans are getting warmer and sea levels are rising, potentially raising the destructive potential of powerful hurricanes and typhoons.

Coming soon… this 30-minute episode of Cosmic Journeys is an updated and expanded version of the old episode. Is Earth one of countless life-bearing worlds strewn about the galaxy? Or is it a rare garden of eden in a barren universe?

News from NASA on the upcoming Mars mission, MAVEN. While Mars Rover Curiosity is studying the Red Planet from the ground, the Maven satellite will give us important data taken from the upper atmosphere. Was Mars ever full of water, and as lush as the forests of Earth? By studying various atomic and molecular processes, Maven will help to decipher the mysterious history of Mars.

Striking new observations from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope of a spiral galaxy moving through the heart of a galaxy cluster named Abell 3627. Hot x-ray winds from this cluster are violently ripping the spiral’s entrails out into space, like a stiff headwind, leaving bright blue streaks. From Hubblecast.

Two teams of astronomers probe the galactic center for proof that a supermassive black holes lies within it. Is this monster of the milky way biding its time till its next outburst, or has it gone dormant?

The abundance of water on Earth has shaped nearly every aspect of our lives, even if we are not directly aware of it. Using data sets from a variety of sources, including NOAA and NASA, water is shown to be the primary driver of Earth’s dynamic systems. It is the source of all life on the planet, which is astounding, considering just how rare and precious Earth’s fresh water resources are.

Dive into Titan’s thick atmosphere and find out what a strange place it is, adapted from NASA’s Scientific Visualization Studio. With its clouds, rain cycle, and giant lakes, Saturn’s large moon Titan is a surprisingly Earthlike place. But unlike on Earth, Titan’s surface is far too cold for liquid water – instead, Titan’s clouds, rain, and lakes consist of liquid hydrocarbons like methane and ethane (which exist as gases here on Earth). When these hydrocarbons evaporate and encounter ultraviolet radiation in Titan’s upper atmosphere, some of the molecules are broken apart and reassembled into longer hydrocarbons like ethylene and propane.

NASA’s Voyager 1 spacecraft first revealed the presence of several species of atmospheric hydrocarbons when it flew by Titan in 1980, but one molecule was curiously missing – propylene, the main ingredient in plastic number 5. Now, thanks to NASA’s Cassini spacecraft, scientists have detected propylene on Titan for the first time, solving a long-standing mystery about the solar system’s most Earthlike moon.