Space(Page 3)

The latest discoveries from space agencies and astronomers as they explore galaxies, black holes, exoplanets, and more. Also learn about night sky watching events right here on the home planet.

Latest in Space

Sierra Space Dream Chaser spaceplane landing on runway
Science

Curvy spaceplane is one step closer to its ISS rendezvous

By Andrew Paul

A long awaited astronomical event dubbed as the planet parade or planetary alignment. Four planets are visible to the naked eye in the evening sky. Saturn and Venus are moving along the solar system's disc, as seen from Sparta, North Carolina on January 25, 2025.
Science

February stargazing: ‘Planet parade’ continues and Venus shines

By Tom Hawking

Artist illustration of asteroid in space
Science

Agencies plan for near-Earth asteroid’s close encounter in 2032

By Andrew Paul

A top-down view of the OSIRIS-REx Touch-and-Go-Sample-Acquisition-Mechanism (TAGSAM) head with the lid removed, revealing the remainder of the asteroid sample inside. The picture was taken using manual high-resolution precision photography and a semi-automated focus stacking procedure. The result is an image that can be zoomed in on to show extreme detail of the sample. The remaining sample material includes dust and rocks up to about 0.4 inch in size.
Science

Scientists find traces of life’s building blocks in historic asteroid samples

By Tom Hawking

A Priority Mail stamp featuring spiral galaxy NGC 628 (left). A Priority Mail Express stamp of star cluster IC 348 (right). Both of these new stamps were issued on January 21 and designed by U.S. Postal Service art director Greg Breeding.
Science

Calling all philatelists: U.S. Postal Services issues two new JWST stamps

By Laura Baisas

NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory captured this image of a solar flare–as seen in the bright flash on the right side–on September 10, 2017. The image shows a combination of wavelengths of extreme ultraviolet light that highlights the extremely hot material in flares, which has then been colorized.
Science

Could the Carrington Event happen again?

By Laura Baisas

Mars rover prototype in simulated Martian environment with alloy wheels
Science

NASA teases bendable titanium wheels on future Mars rovers

By Andrew Paul

NASA astronaut working during spacewalk outside ISS
Science

Starliner astronaut conducts spacewalk while stuck aboard ISS

By Andrew Paul

Mercury's shadowy north pole revealed by M-CAM 1.
Science

Scientists explain why BepiColombo’s mission to Mercury is so tricky

By Briley Lewis

two photos: one of people standing in front of shuttle and one of the shuttle in an upright position
Science

How Star Trek fans changed the name of NASA’s first space shuttle

By Keith Wagstaff

Planet Mercury in the background with its grey, cratered, pockmarked surface. In the foreground are some spacecraft parts
Science

Mercury stuns in incredibly detailed new images

By Laura Baisas

Concept art of Artemis astronauts in lunar crater with lunar rover
Science

NASA is calibrating new clocks so people can live on the moon

By Andrew Paul

meteors fall in the night sky near a lighthouse
Science

January stargazing: Ring in 2025 with a meteor shower, ‘planet parade,’ and best chance to spot Mars

By Laura Baisas

planes and astronauts collage
Technology

5 aerospace breakthroughs of 2024

By Popular Science Team

SLIM landed upside down.
Science

10 chaotic space-related mishaps of 2024

By Tom Hawking

This photo taken on Oct. 11, 2024 shows the northern lights over Fujin City, northeast China's Heilongjiang Province. Northern lights were observed at different places across Heilongjiang.
Science

The 7 coolest space phenomena we saw from Earth in 2024

By Tom Hawking

a black and white photograph of NASA mission control. several men are sitting at various screens and work stations
Science

On Christmas Eve 1968, millions watched the Apollo 8 astronauts broadcast from space

By Laura Baisas

The first brown dwarfs outside the Milky Way.
Science

Swirling galaxy arms, a cosmic sombrero, and a dead supernova: Our favorite JWST images from 2024

By Tom Hawking

Scientists are studying squirrels and hibernation that could help humans get to deep space
Science

Hibernation scientists studying squirrels could get humans to deep space

By Lauren Leffer

a glacier hiker climbs in the foreground with a headlamp as a rainbow colored aurora dances above
Science

11 sensational images from the Northern Lights Photographer of the Year awards

By Popular Science Team

An artistic representation of an active centaur like Chiron. The different colors in the coma indicate varying compositions of gas, ice, and dust.
Science

An ‘oddball’ asteroid-comet hybrid dates back 4.6 billion years

By Laura Baisas

The first image depicts star cluster NGC 602 in vibrant and festive colors. The cluster includes a giant dust cloud ring, shown in greens, yellows, blues, and oranges. The green hues and feathery edges of the ring cloud create the appearance of a wreath made of evergreen boughs. Hints of red representing X-rays provide shading, highlighting layers within the wreath-like ring cloud. The image is aglow with specks and dots of colorful, festive light, in blues, golds, whites, oranges, and reds. These lights represent stars within the cluster. Some of the lights gleam with diffraction spikes, while others emit a warm, diffuse glow. Upon closer inspection, many of the glowing specks have spiraling arms, indicating that they are, in fact, distant galaxies.
Science

Happy holidays from space!

By Laura Baisas

The long finger sticking out of the Sun at the bottom left of this image is a coronal mass ejection. It was captured by NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory on August 31, 2012.
Science

Does the Sun make noise?

By Harriet Weber

an illustration of a black hole
Science

Enormous black hole napping after eating a ton of gas

By Laura Baisas

Martian landscape photo taken by Mars rover
Science

Researchers propose building homes on Mars with human blood

By Andrew Paul

ISS with lines pointing to docked Starliner spacecraft
Science

Photographer catches impressive glimpse of Starliner docked to ISS

By Andrew Paul

Two SpaceX Starship rockets at Starbase in Texas
Science

Elon Musk claims Starbase will become its own city

By Andrew Paul

a bird opens it mouth to eat a bug.
Environment

9 fascinating images from the Royal Society Publishing Photography Prize

By Popular Science Team

This image of NASA's Ingenuity Mars Helicopter was taken by the Mastcam-Z instrument of the Perseverance rover on June 15, 2021, the 114th Martian day, or sol, of the mission. The location, "Airfield D" (the fourth airfield), is just east of the "Séítah" geologic unit.
Science

NASA is finishing its first off-world accident report

By Andrew Paul

Anything with mass cannot reach lightspeed.
Science

What would happen to the human body moving at near lightspeed?

By Lauren Leffer

A composite image galaxy cluster collisions known as the Abell 2744 system, known as the Pandora's Cluster. In blue is a map showing the total mass concentration (mostly dark matter) based on data from the Hubble Space Telescope, the Very Large Telescope (VLT), and the Subaru telescope.
Science

‘Funny dark matter:’ Something is wrong about our theory of the expanding universe

By Tom Hawking

a variety of products on a banner reading 'best of what's new 2024'
Technology

The 50 greatest innovations of 2024

By Popular Science Team

drone flying for aerial night photography
Technology

Drones can avoid GPS jammers by navigating with the stars

By Andrew Paul

NASA South Pole Safety Challenge logo on lunar surface background
Science

NASA needs your help designing a gurney for the moon

By Andrew Paul

fireplace with rocket inside
Science

NASA’s rocket engine fireplace sets the holiday mood

By Popular Science Team

a constellation of seven stars grouped in a circle
Science

December’s skies illuminate with the Seven Sisters and Cold Moon

By Laura Baisas

An artificially colored view of Jupiter as seen in ultraviolet light. In addition to the Great Red Spot, which appears blue, another oval feature can be seen in the brown haze at Jupiter's south pole. The oval, an area of concentrated haze, is possibly the result of mixing generated by a vortex higher up in the planet's ionosphere. These dark UV ovals also appear periodically at the north pole, though less often.
Science

Great Red What? Check out Jupiter’s giant, magnetic tornado

By Laura Baisas

Image of aircraft wing over Greenland ice sheet with radar image of Camp Century underneath it
Technology

NASA radar picks up frozen, buried Cold War base Camp Century

By Andrew Paul

Concept art depicting Starship HLS on lunar surface with Earth in background
Science

New concept art shows how SpaceX’s Starship will transport Artemis III astronauts to the moon

By Andrew Paul

a black meteorite on display at a musuem
Science

4-billion-year-old mineral offers clues about Mars’ steaming hot past

By Laura Baisas

an astronaut on a spacewalk in a full spacesuit takes a selfie with earth in the background
Science

Six months in space is not that bad for your brain

By Laura Baisas

SpaceX Starship launching on fifth test flight
Science

The SpaceX Starship is so loud, it may kill birds

By Andrew Paul

Aurora MK-II rocket plane above Earth
Technology

Watch the first commercial supersonic test flight in over 20 years

By Andrew Paul

swirling blue and brown image on half moon and black background
Science

Jupiter stuns in new images

By Popular Science Team

Lafayette-Meteorite
Science

Meteorite found in a drawer in 1929 contains ancient evidence of liquid water on Mars

By Andrew Paul

The best star projectors
Gear

The best star projectors

By Brandon Russell

Gloved hand pointing to LignoSat wooden satellite prototype
Technology

World’s first wooden satellite shares material with samurai sword sheaths

By Andrew Paul

ISS's first crew poses during water survival training.
Science

November 2, 2000: The first residents move into the International Space Station

By Bill Gourgey

SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launching with ISS Crew-9
Science

NASA warns SpaceX over safety issues after astronaut hospitalization

By Andrew Paul

The uber-optimistic history and prolonged future of space tourism
Science

The uber-optimistic history and prolonged future of space tourism

By Bill Gourgey

Phobos passing across Sun as seen by Perseverance rover on Mars
Science

Googly-eyed potato eclipse filmed by NASA’s Perseverance rover

By Andrew Paul

A Leonids meteor streaks across the sky over Ankara, Turkey on November 17, 2020.
Science

November’s sky lights up with three meteor showers and the last supermoon of 2024

By Laura Baisas

The best travel telescopes on a plain white background.
Gear

The best travel telescopes

By Abby Ferguson

a man wearing a NASA hat aboard the International Space Station squirts ketchup into his mouth. the ketchup comes out in one long stream
Science

See (and never unsee) a NASA astronaut eating ketchup in space

By Laura Baisas

Neither candidate has talked much about space policy on the campaign trail, but both have records to consider.
Science

How Harris and Trump differ on space policy

By Thomas G. Roberts / The Conversation

a black hole with orange and blue light swirling around it. two other objects, a large orange circle and a smaller bright orange star orbit around it
Science

First ‘black hole triple’ may have formed in a surprisingly gentle way

By Laura Baisas

A technician inspects a prototype LISA telescope.
Science

NASA unveils model of LISA, a satellite array for studying ripples in space-time

By Andrew Paul

Still from Armageddon (1998).
Science

What Hollywood gets wrong—and surprisingly right—about saving the world from killer asteroids

By Robin Andrews

two rocks in foreground, milky way in background
Science

12 breathtaking images from the 2024 Astrophotography Prize Photographer of the Year awards

By Popular Science Team

The Winchcombe meteorite sits on display at the Natural History Museum on May 13, 2021 in London, England. The meteorite is a rare type, the first to fall in 30 years.
Science

When a meteor smashes into your driveway

By Robin Andrews

Axiom and Prada designed a custom white fabric that can protect astronauts from extreme heat and dangerous lunar dust.
Science

How Prada’s fancy Artemis III spacesuits work

By Mack DeGeurin

Sierra Space TCPS machine
Science

ISS astronauts to test trash compactor that’s basically WALL-E

By Andrew Paul

The surface of Europa – one of Jupiter’s moons – is a thick layer of solid ice.
Science

Europa Clipper is one of two missions on their way to see if Jupiter’s moons could support life

By Mike Sori / The Conversation

An iron meteorite from the core of a melted planetesimal (left) and a chondrite meteorite, derived from a ‘primitive’, unmelted planetesimal (right).
Science

Building blocks of life on Earth originate from a relatively small amount of source material

By Tom Hawking