"No one dies tonight... so says the Phoenix!" And most definitely, Polaris (the North Star, not the Marvel character) isn't one to die off just yet. See, observations of Polaris over the last century have led scientists to believe that the star was about to switch itself off. Poof. Snap. Boom. Asplode. What have you. I'm not really certain what sound a star makes when it switches itself off (especially since sound doesn't travel well in a space vacuum), and I don't think we'll find out soon from Polaris. Despite the continuous drop in vibrations from the star's surface, it's managed to jump-start its way back to life! Now that's hot.

Lunar eclipses are a dime a dozen, but total solar eclipses - ah, that's a sight to see. There are only about seven of them in a decade, and only one will be visible, at any geographical location, once in 375 years. The next one will be on August 1. Quite momentous, considering that the Olympics will take place only days after that. Which parts of the globe will have a front seat view of the eclipse? Find out in the full article.

Deflecting a mass extinction-sized sized meteor may prove challenging enough for mankind, but the universe sometimes gets a fit and throws us a double whammy. Ever heard of a binary setup? That's when two asteroids fly in unison, orbiting each other, and such a system flew by not far away from us just recently. Details in the full article.

The fate of the world is in the stars. Literally. Scientists believe galactic motion of the Milky Way is the cause of the rise and fall of species in the Earth. Darwin needs to rework his theory. Details in the full article.

Now, personally, my knowledge of Japan looking for aliens is basically limited to that line of toys which eventually gave birth to Optimus Prime and the rest of his Transformers crew. All that might change though, if Japan's little project bears any fruit. Don't look now, but a team of astronomers in Japan are actually planning to scan around the cosmos for aliens. [cue "You Got the Touch" theme song]

Scientists have found five new super-Earths, the largest of them 30 times bigger than our own planet. They're too far for the human race to migrate to (hmm that makes us sound like one of those alien races that just moves out once they finished off a planet's resources huh) but they're still fascinating nonetheless. Read more about the super-Earths in the full article.

We usually name things after their defining characteristics, such as color. There are exceptions, though. One such exception may be the so-called black hole, which Stephen Hawking theorized as not really being black at all. In fact, professors Ulf Leonhardt and Dr Germain Rousseaux used water to test Hawking's theory. Find out the specifics in the full article after the jump.

Where were you last Tuesday, May 6, just after sunset? If you had swept your binoculars' view across the western horizon at the time, you may have noticed an interesting sight - a "meeting" of celestial bodies. That's right, the planet Mercury and our moon seemed pretty much intertwined. More about the phenomenon in the full article after the jump.

Sometimes, what you think is the darkest thing you've ever seen really isn't that dark at all. Case in point: the gegenschein. No, it's not something you say after someone sneezes, though it does have something to do with particles of dust.  Find out more about the gegenschein in the full article after the jump.

We've heard of vehicles and wills colliding, but there are other things way out there that come into contact with each other - galaxies, for instance. The phenomenon in NGC 3256 is one good example of that. If you want to see a photograph of it, turn to the full article after the jump.