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Scholastic News Online Scholastic News Online is a free resource with breaking news and highlights from the print magazine. Available for grades 1-6, Scholastic News magazine brings high-interest current events and nonfiction to millions of classrooms each week. Additionally, our subscribers have FREE access to Scholastic News Interactive, an exclusive online learning tool featuring digital editions, videos, interactive features, differentiated articles, and much more. |




News From Outer Space
Earthlings have been exploring the cosmos for centuries, and for the past 50 years have been using rockets and satellites to learn more about our planet, solar system, galaxy, and universe.
Even though we've been looking at the stars and since the days of Galileo, some of the most exciting discoveries have come recently. Improvements in technology have allowed us to discover that Pluto is no longer a planet, that it's possible to set up a base on the Moon, and that there's a chance we could some day go to Mars.
This News from Outer Space collection follows the exciting developments happening in the world of space exploration, from the dwarf planets populating our solar system to improvements being made to the International Space Station.
Articles

by Tyrus Cukavac
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NASA's shuttle Discovery docked for the final time in outer space at the International Space Station, or ISS. Discovery has flown 143 million miles and completed 39 missions. This will be Discovery's final mission.

by Zach Jones
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On February 14, the sun shot out the biggest solar flare in years. The flare was so big that it disrupted radio signals in China and allowed the aurora borealis to be seen dancing in the sky as far south as Washington State.

by Zach Jones
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Dextre is one of the latest astronauts to land on the International Space Station, or ISS. He's also 12 feet tall. Dextre is a robot, and he is one of several new robotic astronauts being sent into outer space.

by Sara Goudarzi
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Astronomers have hit the planetary jackpot! NASA's Kepler space telescope has uncovered 1,235 potential planets. The discovery could triple the number of known planets. Fifty-four may even be habitable for human life.

by Laura Linn
Scholastic News Online | nullnull,null
For 20 years, the Hubble Space Telescope has given astronomers views of the universe they never dreamed possible. Hubble was one of the first and biggest telescopes of its kind.

by Larry Schwartz
Scholastic News Online | nullnull,null
Not every 10-year-old can tell their classmates they discovered a supernova. But Kathryn Aurora Gray can!

by Zach Jones
Scholastic News Online | nullnull,null
A class of seventh-graders in Cottonwood, California, has made headlines in the scientific world. These eagle-eyed Evergreen Middle School students, who were participating in a special NASA program, spotted an unusual hole on the surface of Mars.

by Robbin Friedman
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The X Prize Foundation awarded the Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander X Prize at a ceremony in Washington, D.C. Two teams of inventors won a total of $1.5 million for crafting and flying robotic machines that could land on the moon.

by Laura Linn
Scholastic News Online | nullnull,null
Scientists recently discovered a new ring around the planet Saturn. It is the largest known ring in our solar system.

by Dante A. Ciampaglia
Scholastic News Online | nullnull,null
On April 21, a team of Swiss and French researchers working at the European Southern Observatory in Chile reported they had discovered the smallest and most Earthlike planets ever seen beyond our solar system.

by Laura Leigh Davidson
Scholastic News Online | nullnull,null
With its extreme temperatures, the moon's environment is very hostile to plant or animal life as we know it. But one company announced recently that it might have found a way to grow plants on the moon.

by Laura Leigh Davidson
Scholastic News Online | nullnull,null
Space shuttle Discovery blasted off for the International Space Station (ISS) on Sunday evening. The mission was scheduled for February, but problems with the shuttle's hydrogen valves delayed the launch by a month.

by Dante A. Ciampaglia
Scholastic News Online | nullnull,null
On Friday, March 6, NASA launched a first-of-its-kind telescope called Kepler that will search for Earthlike planets in other parts of our galaxy, known as the Milky Way.

by Dante A. Ciampaglia
Scholastic News Online | nullnull,null
There are thousands of man-made satellites in Earth's orbit. Last week, 485 miles above Earth, two of those satellites collided.

by Karen Fanning
Scholastic News Online | nullnull,null
If a picture is worth a thousand words, scientists from NASA may have stumbled upon a best-selling novel. A photograph suggests that there may have been life on Mars after all.

by Suzanne Freeman
Scholastic News Online | nullnull,null
The space shuttle Endeavor is scheduled to take off from Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Friday. Its crew's mission is to expand the three-bedroom, one-bath International Space Station into bigger digs for a larger crew.

by Dante A. Ciampaglia
Scholastic News Online | nullnull,null
The Phoenix Mars Lander mission hopes to find ice and traces of ancient life on Mars. If it succeeds, it could be the most important NASA mission in decades.

by Laura Leigh Davidson
Scholastic News Online | nullnull,null
What happens when galaxies collide? Thanks to recent photos taken by the Hubble Space Telescope, we can see for ourselves.

by Laura Leigh Davidson
Scholastic News Online | nullnull,null
After a spectacular nighttime launch from Florida's Cape Canaveral, space shuttle Endeavour linked up with the International Space Station (ISS) late Wednesday. The crew will build a giant robot and construct a new module.

by Karen Fanning
Scholastic News Online | nullnull,null
50th anniversary of the successful space orbit of Russian satellite Sputnik.

by Genet Berhane
Scholastic News Online | nullnull,null
The space shuttle Endeavour included in its crew Barbara Morgan, an elementary school teacher who waited 22 years to see her dream of space exploration come true.

by Tiffany Chaparro
Scholastic News Online | nullnull,null
The U.S. space shuttle Atlantis successfully docked with the International Space Station (ISS) on Sunday. The shuttle is delivering new equipment to the ISS, including a new solar array, or set of solar panels.

by Jeffrey Rambo
Scholastic News Online | nullnull,null
On Monday, NASA announced big plans to the world. The space agency is planning to return people to the moon and not just for a quick visit. NASA wants to set up camp.

by Karen Fanning
Scholastic News Online | nullnull,null
The 2006 International Astronomical Union (IAU) announced new guidelines for planets this wee. According to these guidelines, Pluto is now a "dwarf planet," reducing the nine planets of the solar system to eight.