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Space Mystery: Did the Man Who Killed Pluto Act Too Hastily?

Michael E. Brown, a professor at the California Institute of Technology, killed Pluto. But now there are questions about the murder plot. After Brown's study of a celestial body named Eris, he declared in 2005 that it was larger (or at least "more massive") than Pluto, then the ninth planet in the solar system. About a...

Scientists Exhume Remains to Learn if Astronomer Was Murdered

PRAGUE (Nov. 15) - Astronomer Tycho Brahe uncovered some of the mysteries of the universe in the 16th century - and now modern-day scientists are delving into the mystery of his sudden death. On Monday, an international team of scientists opened his tomb in the Church of Our Lady Before Tyn near Prague's Old Town Square,...

Doubt Raised Over Discovery of New 'Habitable' Planet

(Oct. 13) -- Astronomers grabbed headlines last month when they announced they had discovered an Earth-like planet that could theoretically support alien life, but now at least one scientist is questioning the finding. "We cannot confirm the presence of the announced planet Gliese 581g," Francesco Pepe of the Geneva...

Pope's Astronomer Would Baptize ET

(Sept. 24) – If extraterrestrials exist, then they may have souls, and if they'd like to be baptized, a Vatican astronomer has offered to reach out and touch them. "I'd be delighted if we found life elsewhere and delighted if we found intelligent life elsewhere," Guy Consolmagno, a planetary scientist at the Vatican...

Jupiter Making Closest Approach to Earth in 47 Years

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (Sept. 19) - Better catch Jupiter this week in the night sky. It won't be that big or bright again until 2022. Jupiter will pass 368 million miles from Earth late Monday, its closest approach since 1963. You can see it low in the east around dusk. Around midnight, it will be directly overhead. That's...