Along with looking into the mystifying world of science, picking up a freeze-dried astronaut ice cream sandwich is one of our favorite parts of a visit to a space or science museum. Engineer Ben Krasnow also loved those strange pieces of sweets as a kid, so much that he naturally decided to re-create the food himself in his home workshop. Now Ben's methodology, as seen in the video below, is not Read more

Now that years have passed, and we can remove Pluto from our solar system's family of planets without argument, it's time to focus on the eight planetary masses orbiting the Sun. Impress your friends, pub trivia foes, and Neil deGrasse Tyson by learning these galactic facts on Earth's neighbors. Saturn's moon, Titan, has its own atmosphere, but you wouldn't want to live there, as it's poisonous Read more

While there are still months until the Mars Curiosity rover lands on the Red Planet, get your Martian fix with the free Mars Images app for iOS and Android devices. The app lets you browse the latest images from the Opportunity rover, on the planet since 2004. Take a cue from David Bowie and dream of life on Mars with daily refreshes on the rover's planetary explorations. Read more

Freeze-dried astronaut ice cream not cutting it anymore in your space-inspired diet? Trade the dehydrated treat for a chocolate translation of the solar system. This set of eight chocolate planets by Japanese chocolatier L'éclat ($50) throws our childhood lessons of sharing into jeopardy. The hand-painted planets come nestled in a beautifully galactic gift box, each with a different and rather Read more

If the new year's fireworks weren't enough for you this weekend, fear not — a big meteor shower, called the Quadrantids, will be producing up to 100 falling stars an hour tomorrow morning, essentially creating a natural fireworks show the entire country can see. The light show kicks off in the Northern hemisphere on Wednesday morning at 3 a.m. local time, with meteors coming from the North sky Read more

You can't have a holiday dinner lacking in beautiful tablescape, right? The reliably creative minds at Martha Stewart have a DIY ready for us NASA-obsessed folk, a cosmos table runner. Elegant enough for the holidays without forsaking personality, this craft is as easy as one, two, stencil. Click through to the full DIY directions to print the star stencils and the full directions on making Read more

Countless satellites hover over earth transmitting phone calls, powering GPS systems, and in the case of a new NASA satellite, measuring the planet's wide-ranging climate. The NPOESS Preparatory Project (NPP) satellite, which launched in Oct. 2011, is on a sun-synchronous orbit, meaning it passes over the equator at the same local ground time in every orbit. As NASA explains, "When NPP flies over Read more

Science enthusiasts' favorite astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson signed on this weekend to take part in an online Reddit AMA (Ask Me Anything) chat, which allowed Reddit users to submit questions on space, concepts of the universe, and life in general. One literary commenter asked Neil which books should be read by every person on the planet, to which the director of the Hayden Planetarium Read more

There may not have been any human exploration of Mars this year, but there certainly were plenty of galactic milestones in the last 12 months from NASA and international space programs. From the end of the space shuttle program that once had kids dreaming of becoming astronauts to the launch of a space robot to a possible planet twin, which of these 2011 headlines was your highlight of the year's Read more