outer space

(Newser) - A Dutch schoolteacher earned her moment in the sun by discovering a cosmic ball of gas some have labeled a space “ghost,” NPR reports. Hanny van Arkel, 25, was working as a volunteer with a galaxy-classifying website when she came upon what “looked like a regular galaxy...

(Newser) - The neighborhood of the solar system beyond Neptune has a new resident—or rather, an old resident with a new name. The dwarf planet originally dubbed Easterbunny will now be known as Makemake (pronounced MAH-keh MAH-keh), reports USA Today.

(Newser) - Before scientists can put a man on Mars, they first need to figure out how to get a mission back to Earth, reports the Guardian. An international team is doing just that—developing an $8 billion mission to travel to Mars and return with rock samples and possibly microscopic life....