The exploration of space is not limited to the flights of astronauts aboard spacecraft and shuttles launched into space by rockets and boosters. That type of space exploration has a history that extends back only to the mid-twentieth century. At the...

Astronomers study the universe by measuring electromagnetic radiation—gamma rays, X rays, optical and infrared radiation, and radio waves—emitted by planets, stars, galaxies, and other distant objects. Because Earth's atmosphere is...

An observatory is a location used for observing terrestrial and/or celestial events. Astronomy, climatology/meteorology, geology, oceanography and volcanology are examples of disciplines for which observatories have been constructed. Historically,...

Pinson Mounds in west Tennessee and nearby Middle Woodland centers in north Mississippi have potential astronomical alignments. These alignments are discussed and used to support the idea that these large mound sites were corporate-ceremonial centers for people living in small, multi-household settlements, whose subsistence...

It's a party for the century. The U.S. Naval Observatory will officially ring in the new millennium with an open-house celebration capped off by dropping a replica of its historic "time ball" from the observatory's Main Building at the stroke of midnight on...

A $2 million grant from the National Science Foundation will allow the Big Island's W.M. Keck Observatory to take a closer look at the areas surrounding the black hole at the center of our galaxy.The three-year grant will be used to make improvements to the...

One-fifth of the city's sprawling Griffith Park was a fire-charred landscape Thursday, but its landmark observatory and zoo remained untouched, and officials hoped to have the still-burning wildfire fully contained by nightfall."The tide is turning in our favor," Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said late Wednesday as...