Outer Space

Comet "Snowstorm" Swirling in This Stunning GIF Is a Tricky Illusion

“Things are not quite as they seem," explains astronomer Mark McCaughrean

Gaia's all-sky view of our Milky Way Galaxy and neighboring galaxies, based on measurements of nearly 1.7 billion stars.

New Star Map Could Change Everything We Know About the Milky Way

The map includes 1.7 billion stars and is already revealing new details about star evolution and the formation of our galaxy

Five Things to Know About NASA's New Planet-Hunting Satellite

TESS will scan the skies in search of the next crop of exoplanets

Artist's concept of a near-Earth object.

An Unexpected Asteroid Buzzed by Earth Last Sunday

The space rock is one of the largest ever to come in such close proximity to our planet

A piece of the Almahata Sitta in Sudan

Diamonds Trapped in Strange Meteorite Came From Solar System's Earliest Planets

Impurities in the diamonds could only have formed within a planet the size of Mercury or Mars

How to Catch a Glimpse of This Weekend's Lyrid Meteor Shower

Conditions are expected to be favorable, and experts say the shower might produce as many as 18 meteors every hour

Four of the seven newly named Mercury's faculae lie in the Caloris basin, shown here.

Sci-Fi and Snakes Rule in New Official Names for Features on Pluto's Largest Moon and Mercury

Stanley Kubrick and Octavia Butler are among the figures honored

These Rare NASA Photos Were Saved From the Trash

The 1,500 press images up for sale cover the agency's manned missions from 1961 to 1972

NASA Sends Human Sperm to the International Space Station

Astronauts will study how microgravity affects the motility of the little swimmers

Icarus, the most distant star ever detected

Meet Icarus, The Most Distant Star Yet Detected

The blue supergiant lies 9 billion light-years away

An artist's illustration of the Tiangong-1 space lab in orbit.

China's Tiangong-1 Finally Crashes Back to Earth

Most of the craft likely burned up as it re-entered the Earth’s atmosphere

Diffuse galaxy NGC1052-DF2

Scientists Thought All Galaxies Had Dark Matter, but They Just Found One Without It

The find defies the assumption that the mysterious matter is necessary for galaxy formation

Marvin, a trailblazer in more ways than one, surveys the Antarctic terrain on her meteorite-hunting expedition of 1978-79.

The Rockstar Geologist Who Mapped the Minerals of the Cosmos

A professor told Ursula Marvin she should learn to cook. Instead she chased down meteorites in Antarctica

This past fall, astronauts harvested Mizuna mustard, Waldmann's green lettuce and Outredgeous red romaine lettuce from the Veggie plant growth chamber on the International Space Station.

If Humans Want To Colonize Other Planets, We Need To Perfect Space Cuisine

At this year's Future Con, researchers will describe a future of food in space that is anything but bland

One of the clean rooms at the Johnson Space Center has been found to be contaminated with fungi.

NASA Clean Room Storing Meteorite Samples Is Contaminated With Fungi

Contamination of the not-so-clean room could meddle with results

This self-portrait of Curiosity shows the vehicle at a drilled sample site called "Okoruso," on the "Naukluft Plateau" of lower Mount Sharp. It combines multiple images taken with the Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) on May 11, 2016, during the 1,338th Martian day.

Looking Back at Curiosity’s 2,000 Martian Days on the Red Planet

The rover has taken incredible images and made wild discoveries since landing in 2012

70,000 Years Ago, a Passing Star Shook Up Our Solar System

The red dwarf likely came within one light-year of the sun, altering the course of some asteroids and comets

NASA’s Psyche mission to a distant metal asteroid that pass near Mars will carry a revolutionary Deep Space Optical Communications (DSOC) package. This artist’s concept shows Psyche spacecraft with a five-panel array.

NASA Plans to Send High-Definition Video of Mars to Earth With Lasers

In 2022, NASA will launch the Psyche mission, carrying sophisticated communication technology

How It All Began: A Colleague Reflects On the Remarkable Life of Stephen Hawking

The physicist probed the mysteries of black holes, expanded our understanding of the universe and captured the world's imagination, says Martin Rees

An artist's illustration of the Tiangong-1 space lab in orbit.

Five Things to Know About China's Falling Space Station

For one, it's exceedingly unlikely to cause you harm

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