In 2006, NASA launched two satellites into solar orbit in opposite directions. On Sunday, they reached their final destinations, on opposite sides of the sun—giving us, for the first time in history, a picture of the entire sun.

Say what you will about the human race, this fan-made video for NASA reassuringly asks us to never stop dreaming. Prepare yourself for jaw-dropping landscape shots, the smooth narrative voice of Carl Sagan, and perhaps a tear or two.

NASA's released a series of amazing photos of the "dark side" of the moon—the most detailed ever—taken by the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter. The colors in the photo indicate elevation: Blue/green is lower; yellow/red is higher. [Pic via AP]

Voyager 1, the unmanned spacecraft launched in 1977 (complete with a phonograph record, in case it ran into aliens!), is some 10 billion miles away from earth—on the verge of leaving the solar system and entering interstellar space.

Remember last week's big NASA announcement about a new kind of life—one built out of arsenic rather than the usual phosphorous? Yeah, about that: According to a number of scientists, the study was "fatally flawed."

[An aurora borealis, as seen from the International Space Station. The wicker-looking thing floating in the middle is a solar array from the space station. Image via astronaut Douglas Wheelock/AP]

Science Guy! NASA machine! Heart drug! Rapid feedback! Skinny death! Meteor shower! And fake exercise myths from fake exercise scientists! It's your Wednesday Science Watch, where we watch science—pseudoscientifically!

This false-color satellite image of the Mount Merapi volcano in Indonesia was taken yesterday by the ASTER instrument on NASA's Terra satellite. The dark gray area is the volcano's pyroclastic flow. [Image via AP]

In honor of yet another space shuttle failure, here's what Neil Armstrong thought of his NASA gear.

The mysterious "missile launch" off the California coast yesterday illuminated our national death wish, as millions feared/hoped that a nuclear ICBM was about to rain hot death all over a deadly-boring Tuesday. But it was just an airplane.

Aspiring astronauts: run, don't walk, to sign up for NASA's vague new scheme to blast you off to Mars, never to return. Don't worry—they're doing it on the cheap!

[The Space Shuttle Discovery is rolled out to the launch pad in Cape Canaveral, Florida (Pic by Getty)]

Since June 2009, NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter has been circling the moon, compiling data for the first full topographic map of the moon's surface, suggesting that 3.9 billion years ago asteroids pounded the moon and Earth, likely evaporating water supplies.

NASA is building a new $180 million toy called the Solar Probe Plus that it hopes to crash into the Sun within the next eight years. It's equipped with a 3D camera and a solar wind particle detector. [Image: NASA]

Oyez! Oyez! Oyez! All persons having interest in Top Chef Season 7 D.C., are admonished to draw near and give their attention, for the season is now screening. God save the faltering and the kind.

Man, being trapped in a cramped mine is not the time to quit smoking or drinking. But NASA officials, who are advising the effort to rescue the 33 trapped Chilean miners, have denied their request for wine and cigarettes.

NASA is holding a contest to name the "wakeup songs" played during the last-ever Space Shuttle missions. You can submit an original composition, or pick from a list of songs. The problem: They all suck. The solution: These 10 tracks.

After three weeks of catastrophic floods in Pakistan, two million people are homeless and one-fifth of the country is underwater. These satellite photographs, taken a year apart, help show the extent of the disaster—click to see them full-size.

[The annual Perseid meteor shower peaked yesterday, and is seen here streaking across the skies over Japan. Image via NASA]

[The Hubble Space Telescope took a long exposure picture of an "island universe" some 320 million light- years away from Earth. The image was made over three years and required 28 hours of exposure time. Image via NASA]