Special Report

Life in the Cosmos

Exploring the mysteries of the universe

Chandra image of the Antenna Galaxy. X-ray: NASA/CXC/SAO/J.DePasquale; IR: NASA/JPL-Caltech; Optical: NASA/STScI

Life in the Cosmos

An infrared image of 47 Tucanae, a dense globular cluster of stars located roughly 16,000 light years from Earth. A new study has predicted that a black hole lies at its center.

How Astrophysicists Found a Black Hole Where No One Else Could

Astrolabes were astronomical calculating devices that did everything from tell the time to map the stars. This 16th century planispherical astrolabe stems from Morocco.

The Story of the Astrolabe, the Original Smartphone

CAMS results for November 28 to December 14 from 2010 to 2016. Each point is direction from which a meteor was measured to approach, with red showing faster meteors and blue slower ones.

Introducing the Global Effort to Map the Night Sky

Besides exceptional facial hair, what could these two gentlemen have in common?

The Hidden Connections Between Darwin and the Physicist Who Championed Entropy

The Search for Life

Europa’s icy surface hides an ocean of liquid water underneath, making it a prime target in the search for extraterrestrial life.

See the Messages NASA Will Send to Space on Its Upcoming Mission to Europa

An artist's rendition of the Europa Clipper mission, set to launch to Europa in October. The mission could provide new insights about the life-supporting potential of the moon, which hosts a massive saltwater ocean beneath its icy surface.

Jupiter's Moon Europa May Have Less Oxygen Than Previously Thought

Data from the retired Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA), a joint venture between NASA and the German Space Agency, led scientists to their discovery.

Scientists Detect Water on the Surface of Asteroids for the First Time Ever

Catherine Duncan

Saturn's moon Mimas has a giant impact crater, named Hershel, that stretches across a third of its surface and makes it resemble the "Death Star" from Star Wars.

An Icy Moon of Saturn May Be Hiding a Vast Ocean Under Its Crust, Surprising Astronomers

Catherine Duncan

Saturn's moon Enceladus, represented in a composite of several images taken by NASA's Voyager 2 probe

Life-Sparking Gas Strengthens Evidence That Enceladus, a Moon of Saturn, Could Be Habitable

Past, Present, Future

Astrolabes were astronomical calculating devices that did everything from tell the time to map the stars. This 16th century planispherical astrolabe stems from Morocco.

The Story of the Astrolabe, the Original Smartphone

Besides exceptional facial hair, what could these two gentlemen have in common?

The Hidden Connections Between Darwin and the Physicist Who Championed Entropy

Matthew R. Francis

An illustration shows the record-breaking supernova ASASSN-15lh as it would appear from an exoplanet about 10,000 light-years away.

Astronomers Have Found the Brightest Supernova Yet

Watch the Universe Evolve Over 13 Billion Years

The Andromeda Galaxy

What Does the Future of the Universe Hold?

Lawrence Krauss

How We Explore

People in New Delhi celebrate India's successful landing of a spacecraft near the moon's south pole on Wednesday.

India Lands a Spacecraft Near the Moon's South Pole, a First in Lunar Exploration

The James Webb Space Telescope's first Deep Field image

NASA Releases First Breathtaking Images Taken by James Webb Space Telescope

By Brian Handwerk

CAMS results for November 28 to December 14 from 2010 to 2016. Each point is direction from which a meteor was measured to approach, with red showing faster meteors and blue slower ones.

Introducing the Global Effort to Map the Night Sky

Sedeer el-Showk

Telescope array

The Hunt for High-Energy Photons Takes Place From a Mountaintop in Mexico

Adam Mann

Astrophysicist Kip Thorne dared to dream of a machine to find gravitational waves.

The Detection of Gravitational Waves Was a Scientific Breakthrough, but What’s Next?

Galaxies, Quasars, Clusters

A slice of the largest 3D map of the universe ever made, depicting 600,000 galaxies across the cosmos—less than 0.1 percent of the map's total. Earth is at the tip in the lower center, and the most distant galaxies represented are 11 billion light-years away.

Dark Energy Could Be Evolving Over Time, Raising Questions About the Nature of the Cosmos

The new image of the Milky Way's black hole, seen in polarized light. It shows the organized magnetic fields that surround the black hole itself, from which no light can escape.

Astronomers Capture Dazzling New Image of the Black Hole at the Milky Way's Center

The Whirlpool Galaxy (also known as M51), located 31 million light-years from Earth, is a particularly radiant object seen during the Messier marathon. This image was captured by the Hubble Space Telescope—skywatchers looking through a backyard telescope or binoculars would see the galaxy in far less detail.

What It Takes to Complete the Ultimate Skywatching Endurance Challenge

Carlyn Kranking

Understanding the Cosmos

A picture taken by the Hubble Space Telescope that contains GN-z11, the galaxy with the newly discovered black hole at its center. When GN-z11 was first imaged, it was the farthest galaxy ever seen in the universe.

Astronomers Discover the Oldest Known Black Hole, Breaking a Record Set Last Year

An infrared image of 47 Tucanae, a dense globular cluster of stars located roughly 16,000 light years from Earth. A new study has predicted that a black hole lies at its center.

How Astrophysicists Found a Black Hole Where No One Else Could

LIGO's founding fathers, from left: Rainer Weiss, Kip Thorne and Barry Barish. Not pictured: Ronald Drever

Meet the Team of Scientists Who Discovered Gravitational Waves

Jennie Rothenberg Gritz