Stephanie Pappas

Encryption isn't the reason we're missing alien signals, as Edward Snowden has suggested. Scientists searching for alien life are looking for other hallmarks of communication.

A new NASA image hints at the complex factors that encourage giant plankton blooms in the North Atlantic.

A new NASA image, captured by MODIS on the Aqua satellite, reveals clouds cover two-thirds of Earth, with some zones supporting more clouds than others on the planet.

Hurricane Amanda (now downgraded to a tropical storm) is seen at is strongest in the Eastern Pacific. The storm is the first of the Eastern Pacific 2014 hurricane season, which began on May 15.

NASA's Earth Day Global Selfie is a mosaic view of the planet made up of more than 30,000 photos uploaded on social media. The mosaic shows the Earth as it looked on April 22, 2014.

A new study finds in an increase in lightning strikes after large solar winds. The findings suggest that particles from the sun may interact with the atmosphere to make lightning more likely.

Five volcanoes on the Kamchatka Peninsula are seen erupting from space on one satellite pass by Landsat 8.

A fire ravaging the scenic city of Valparaiso, Chile, is visible from satellite on April 13, 2014. So far, 15 people have died in the fire, and thousands of homes have been destroyed.

Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 has been missing for more than a week, and new satellite evidence suggests that it flew far off course for many hours after cutting off communication with the ground.

A private collection held a long-lost rock that turned out to be a meteorite that fell over the Netherlands in 1873. The meteorite is of a particularly rare, primitive type.

But it may brighten up your night sky views.

Physicists have a new place to zero in the search for dark matter.

Despite dangers, plenty of people want to fly by Mars.

Physicists remain uncertain whether the Higgs boson they've discovered behaves as expected.

Gone are the days of dreaming of little green men on the Red Planet.

Failures in the past have done nothing to tamp down future doomsday predictions.

Here's what's known about Russia's Friday morning meteor explosion.

Near-Earth objects are hard to see well until they get close.

2012's ozone hole was the smallest in a decade.

Space rock approaching Earth has historical precedent.