What's the closest star to Earth? Answer: Proxima Centauri, one of three stars in the Alpha Centauri star system. Proxima Centauri is a small M-dwarf star, meaning it is red in colour, and has a relatively cool stellar temperature of about 3000 ° K. While small, weighing in at 12% the mass of the Sun, M-dwarf stars are the most common star type in the Universe. In 2016, an international group of researchers discovered a planet orbiting Proxima Centauri that is about 1.5x larger than Earth: the

The Cassini spacecraft has made some truly remarkable discoveries within the Saturnian system, where it has been orbiting for the last 13 years. One such discovery is of the walnut-shaped moons: Atlas, Daphnis, and Pan. These moons sport a prominent equatorial ridge pattern circumnavigating the moons (Saturn's moon Iapetus also as an equatorial feature, though not as prominent as these). The ridges are due to where the moons are located. They are all located in or very near to the ring system,

The Cassini spacecraft has only 11 more orbits left of the ringed planet Saturn before its destruction. On September 15th, 2017, Cassini will make a planned plunge into the clouds of Saturn, which will cause it to break up. The science is packed in for Cassini over these orbits: it will study the rings by imaging and sampling, create a more accurate gravitational map of Saturn, and measure the magnetic field of Saturn. Here take a look at the summary of science in the final phase of the Grand

In June 2017, the American south west experienced some of the hottest temperatures felt in a long time. It was hot enough to ground air planes, and even caused some deaths. NASA's Aqua satellite measured the temperature on the surface of the Earth during the heat wave, and here is some of the results.

Researchers from the Canadian Forest Service have created a time-series map of where and how forests have been disrupted between the years of 1985 and 2011. This is specifically tracking logging/harvesting and forest fires. A staggering 10 percent of our country's total forests saw some kind of damage over the almost 30 years. This type of research is helpful in tracking the Earth's carbon cycle, which is critical to understanding our changing climate.

Scientists have been closely following the growth of a large crack in the Larsen C ice shelf on the Antarctic Peninsula. From late 2016 until now, the crack has grown about 150 km long, accelerating in late June 2017. In these dark months, the most recent observations have been done by Thermal Infrared Sensor (TIRS) on Landsat 8 . If the crack reaches the coast, which is just about 13 km away, the ice will begin to calve and could be the largest iceberg ever recorded.

The Curiosity rover has been on Mars since 2012, and has contributed much to our understanding of the Martian environment in the past and present. In 2016, NASA performed a routine wheel examination to keep track of the wear and tear of the wheels. Cracks and holes are starting to appear in the gaps between the treads. After 5 years into this mission, it's not a surprise the wheels have started to wear, however, NASA wants to squeeze as much time out of them as possible. In March, they uploaded