NASA has released the first video observation of asteroid DA14's record-setting flyby of Earth. The 45-meter-wide space rock sped past last Friday, coming at one point within 17,200 miles of the planet's surface. That may seem like a wide berth (especially in light of the unanticipated arrival of the 17-meter-wide…

Last week, a meteor blew apart over Russia's Chelyabinsk region, generating a shockwave that injured hundreds and caused millions of dollars in damage. The disintegrating fireball strewed bits and pieces of itself over the country's Ural mountains, some of which researchers now claim to have recovered. But scientists…

The Smithsonian has put together a fascinating and almost unbelievable account of a Russian family of six who managed to avoid all human contact for four decades — a period of self-imposed exile that left them unaware of World War II and the Moon landings. Fleeing religious persecution during the 1930s, the family…

On the northern side of the Moskwa River, near the Kremlin, there stands the world's tallest Orthodox Christian Church, the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour. It looks centuries old, but it was just built in 2000. For the second time. Here's how it happened.

Peter Jackson's first installment of The Hobbit trilogy may have won the box office this weekend, but it better be careful - a 1985 Russian version of J.R.R. Tolkien's beloved novel has been found, and it's bewilderingly awesome (emphasis on the bewildering). Sure, this Russian version has some issues: Bilbo and…

We've been waiting for the animated remake of Kin-Dza-Dza since we first discovered this ultra-wacky 1986 Russian movie back in 2008. And now, it's finally here — and you can check out the first footage above, via Twitch Film.

Do not cross Aishat Maksudova. The Russian grandmother was tending to her livestock when a wolf attacked her village of Novo Biryuzyak, Dagestan. So she cooly axed it in the head.

Under the rule of Russian tsar and notorious beard-hater Peter the Great - which ran from 1682-1725 - men sporting facial hair were subjected to a beard tax that afforded them a token informing strangers that they were honest, tax-paying hairballs. As Erik Jensen explains in a 2003 article from the journal Tax Notes:

We previously saw Russian quadrotor hobbyist Native118's take on the DeLorean from Back to The Future: Part II. Now, check out his models of both the S.H.I.E.L.D. helicarrier from The Avengers and the Hunter-Killer Aerials from the Terminator films. The third clip — with the synthesizer score and smoke — hits me…

Space exploration requires technical expertise, careful planning, and test after test after test. But it can be hard to discount the role of luck in missions where so much can go wrong. In the US and Russian space programs, many rituals are attached to missions, perhaps to add a little good fortune to their science.