It started as a visual gag involving the moon, a radio telescope and bit of Photoshop - but it turned into an internet hit.

Nasa's Mars-orbiting Maven spacecraft has discovered that the sun robbed the red planet of its once-thick atmosphere and water. On Friday, scientists reported that even today, the solar wind is stripping away about 100 grams of atmospheric gas every second. That's about a quarter-pound a second. Maven scientist Dave Brain told reporters he can't help but imagine hamburgers shooting out of the Martian atmosphere.NASA’s MAVEN spacecraft has observed this process in action – by measuring the speed and direction of ions escaping from Mars. This data visualization compares simulations of the solar wind and Mars atmospheric escape with new measurements taken by MAVEN. Source: NASA Goddard/Youtube

Nasa has released this stunning but incomplete image of Pluto's crescent, taken 15 minutes after the New Horizons spacecraft made its closest pass by Pluto in July this year.

Space activities will be on the agenda at a joint conference between New Zealand, the US, the UK, Canada and Australia being hosted in Wellington over the next two days.

Humans will be living and working on Mars in colonies independent of Earth by the 2030s, claims Nasa.

It turns out that Pluto might have more going for it than even the blue-sky thinking scientists of the New Horizons space mission might have figured.

Nasa has released images of real regions on Mars where new Hollywood film The Martian takes place.

Nasa has released more than 8,400 never-before-seen images of from their Project Apollo Archive.

For Nasa getting humans to Mars is an aspiration bordering on an obsession, but the bold talk glosses over technical and political realities.

Kiwi space company Rocket Lab may be flying spacecraft to the lunar surface as soon as 2017.

Kiwi on the shortlist for a one-way ticket to Mars pretty excited about NASA's water discovery.

Kiwi stargazers miss out on a lunar eclipse but as the moon skirts its closest to earth we can still see the "supermoon".

American astronaut Scott Kelly captured this breathtaking photo from the International Space Station.

Incredible photo of a plane flying over the Bahamas - taken from 400km above the Earth.

A supermoon lunar eclipse taking place this weekend will make the Chinese Moon Festival one of the most auspicious ever, an expert says.

A rare astrological event next week could herald the end of days, according to some Christian groups.

As miraculous stories go - this is one of the highest order. Literally.

Russian cosmonaut Gennady Padalka - who has spent more time in space than anyone else - has returned safely to Earth.

A new study out of the US has shown women who have just one drink a day are at a heightened risk of alcohol-related cancer.

NASA forced to deny claims sweeping the internet that an asteroid will strike Earth next month wreaking widespread devastation.

Nasa astronaut Scott Kelly shares this image of an aurora lighting up the Earth's horizon.

Even though it's difficult and can feel unnatural, we should try our best to understand causality as a chain.

Auckland-based Rocket Lab has released details of prices and the online booking system for carrying "nanosatellites" into space.

Kiwi firm Rocket Lab says a deal it has signed with Nasa will give it scope to launch in a wider variety of locations.

The death throes of this star have been captured in an image thanks to the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope.

See the stunning photo shot by Aucklander Amit Kamble which was named Nasa Astronomy Picture of the Day earlier this week.

Nasa has found a twin Earth orbiting a star like the sun in the Milky Way which scientists say "would feel a lot like home".

Astronomers have found a planet they say is "the closest twin to Earth" ever seen. Named Kepler-452b, it is the smallest planet discovered orbiting in the habitable zone of a star, and has been described as an "older, bigger cousin". What makes this planet remarkable is that it orbits its star at about the same distance that Earth orbits the sun. What's more, its home star looks to be similar to our sun. Source: NASA Ames Research Center/Youtube

Kepler 452b is so remarkable because it orbits its star at about the same distance that Earth orbits the sun.

Billionaire Yuri Milner is pledging $100m to find extraterrestrial life by scanning radio signals from star systems.