Museum of Science and Industry

A group of astronomers have released a new estimate of the number of Earth-sized planets in the life-bearing "Goldilocks Zone" surrounding each of our galaxy’s red dwarf stars: tens of billions. That’s right, there could be more than enough Earth-like planets in the Milky Way for every single human alive today to have their own. The already enormous estimate would only increase in size if you...

Pop quiz! What body in the solar system has the most volcanic activity? If you said Planet Hollywood, you would be incorrect. But if you guessed Io, Jupiter's closest moon, you're a geophysical genius!

Over the last six years, the U.S. Geological Survey has studied the landscape of Io (pronounced EYE-oh) through satellite pictures and has now released the above...

Where will you be August 5, 2012? I don't know about you, but my eyes will most likely be glued to NASA TV. That's the date that NASA's most recent Mars rover, aptly named Curiosity, will enter the Martian atmosphere.

The rover first has to travel 352 million miles to get to Mars. That's a piece of cake compared...

Back in 2010 I came across a really neat visualization tool designed to demonstrate scale in our universe. After being reminded about it by WIRED, I searched for it again and stumbled across an updated 2012 version created by Cary and Michael Huang. I thought I would share this tool with all of you to either just explore or for use as an educational tool.

My...

Over the next few weeks, if you go outside in Chicago shortly after sunset, it will be possible to see three (and maybe four) planets up in the night sky. Even with our city's light pollution, Venus and Jupiter should be visible on the eastern horizon between approximately 6 and 10 p.m. Venus is closer to the...