In 1909, Twain told his biographer, Albert Bigelow Paine, "I came in with Halley's Comet ... It is coming again ... and I expect to go out with it ... The Almighty has said, no doubt: 'Now here are these two unaccountable freaks; they came in together, they must go out together.'"
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Astronauts living onboard the International Space Station 250 miles above Earth experience life a bit differently. On the space station, the effects of microgravity mean astronauts are strapped in while they eat, exercise, and use the toilet. Living on the space station can affect height and aging.
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Deep space is immense, brimming with potential — and not unlike Henry Ford's Model T, you can get in any color, so long as that color is black.
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James Gunn, the writer and director of the first two movies in Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy series — and, if nothing goes horribly wrong again, the planned third entry — loves his Easter eggs.
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Thanks in large part to Brad Pitt, society bumped up their Latin vocabulary last year. Added to "et cetera" and "in vino veritas," everyone now knows "ad astra," the title of Pitt's movie about space travel, meaning "to the stars."
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Some people might tell you that once they hit Earth, meteorites go to live on a farm with other meteorites, where they can run through the fields together and chase rabbits. Some people would be wrong.
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Anything that happens in a bathroom on Earth is a little more problematic in space, but they've got that figured out, too. For instance, how many of us keep a scale in the bathroom?
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If worse comes to worst, if it all goes south, and you're waaaaay up there in space, what specifically goes down? What do you do with a dead body?
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The human body may be a wonderland, but it's also capable to do all sorts of things that will potentially cause trouble in the cold void of space. Take sneezing, for instance.
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There are many highly unlikely ways to die, and unless you count the increasingly convoluted Rube Goldberg deathtraps of the Final Destination franchise, a meteorite strike is doubtlessly at the top of the list.
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Barring any setbacks or other extenuating circumstances, on May 27, 2020, two astronauts will boldly go where others have gone before ... but they'll do it inside a Dragon, so that's new. Specifically, they'll do it in the SpaceX Crew Dragon Demo-2.
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The first crewed mission of SpaceX and NASA's collaborative efforts, the Demo-2, is scheduled to lift off on May 27th, 2020. Weather permitting.
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The fiery disintegration of Columbia ultimately led to the loss of lives and the retirement of NASA's shuttle fleet. But as it turns out, there's more to the story that makes it so much worse. As you'll find out, the worst part of the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster might not be what you think.
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Millions of Americans — including many schoolchildren — watched the Challenger explode on live TV. That's horrible enough, but as with many tragedies, there are further layers to the story, and the worst part of the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster may not be what you think.
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Here's the truth about Michelle Kunimoto, the University of British Columbia student who recently discovered 17 new planets with nothing but her wit, her will, and publicly available NASA internet archives.
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Astronomers have spotted a cosmic blast massive enough to make Jerry Bruckheimer blush. The explosion was so big, that researchers are saying it dwarfs every previously observed explosion in size and scale.
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In the last few decades we've gotten pretty good at tracking many of these potential doomsday rocks, but scientists remain at odds over what we could actually do to alter our fate if we discovered one on a collision course with Earth. Now we're working on a defense system.
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Our actual galaxy has "thousands" of alien stars, just hanging around like it isn't even a thing. The reason behind this is as fascinating as it is weird.
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Galactus is coming. Okay, not really. However, astronomers have been getting riled up about a series of crazy fast radio energy lights in the sky which they can't explain, and that's enough to get any sci-fi fan hopping up and down.
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There's a reason astronauts use space suits: Given half a chance, space will kill you stone dead. It's a freezing void that isn't prepared to lift a finger to support human life, and exposure to it is pretty much an instant death sentence. Just how long can a human survive in space?
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For all the comic book collectors and mint-condition militants, here's a story of hope. It is the story of a man holding on to a rock for years, hoping it would contain gold, only to learn it was a priceless meteorite.
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Scientists have just found a mineral in a meteorite never before seen in nature, according to CNN. Here's the story of a little mineral called Edscottite.
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One day while you're ordering your latte while swiping left on Tinder hopefuls, you'll feel the earth tremble beneath your feet as a massive asteroid collides with our planet. Now, NASA and the European Space Agency have teamed up to practice smashing these potential planet-wrecking asteroids.
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Good news for fans of all-consuming nothingness today as scientists at the Chinese Academy of Scientists have discovered a black hole so massive that, in the grand scheme of things, it's technically right behind you.
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What would happen if you got lost in space -- the infinite abyss of total unknown, devoid of the very resources human beings require to survive? There would be no galactic K-Mart managers to save you, and most likely your soul would be headed for the clearance rack.
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You don't really consider it when you're a kid, but all those astronauts you looked up to were depositing paychecks every month. In addition to acclaim, patriotism, and the chance to be an icon, they were at least partially in the space exploration game because it beats digging a ditch.
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When we heard there was a supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way galaxy we knew it meant bad news. We've seen the movies. But we have little to fear from the black hole and it's surprisingly quiet. Until now. Our galaxy's supermassive black hole might be up to something weird.
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