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Outer Space

Artist's impression of gas flow in a protoplanetary disk.

New Research

To Find Baby Planets, Researchers Chase Waterfalls of Gas

Analysis of data from the ALMA telescope shows gas flows from the surface to middle of protoplanetary discs as new planets form

NASA astronauts Christina Koch (left) and Jessica Meir (right).

Watch the First All-Female Spacewalk

Astronauts Christina Koch and Jessica Meir will exit the International Space Station to replace a power controller that failed last weekend

Illustration of a hot Jupiter planet in the Messier 67 star cluster. Hot Jupiters are so named because of their close proximity — usually just a few million miles — to their star, which drives up temperatures and can puff out the planets.

What Astronomers Can Learn From Hot Jupiters, the Scorching Giant Planets of the Galaxy

Many of the planets that are roughly the size of Jupiter orbit right next to their stars, burning at thousands of degrees

Cool Finds

Researchers Discovered 20 Tiny New Moons Circling Saturn

The ringed planet now takes Jupiter’s title for the planet with the most moons

Scientists at the University of Central Florida have modeled a path toward self-sufficiency for one million settlers of Mars over the course of 100 Earth years.

What Will Humans Eat on Mars?

Planetary scientist Kevin Cannon talks about the logistics of feeding a population of one million on the Red Planet

Cool Finds

Recently Discovered Neutron Star Is Almost Too Massive to Exist

The star J0740+6620 is 2.14 times the mass of our sun but just 12 miles in diameter, approaching the density of a black hole

The Redemption of Vanity, a work of art by MIT artist in residence Diemut Strebe in conjunction with with Brian L. Wardle, MIT professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics, along with Luiz Acauan and Estelle Cohen.

There’s a New Blackest Black in Town

Artist Diemut Strebe covered a $2 million diamond with a substance that absorbs 99.995 percent of any incoming light

Based on the speed and trajectory of a newly detected object, astronomers believe it came to our solar system from beyond. This illustration shows the first known interstellar object to fly though our solar system, 'Oumuamua.

Astronomers Spot a Comet That Likely Came From a Different Solar System

After ‘Oumuamua, the newly detected rock is just the second known object to visit from interstellar space

The Harvest moon is the full moon each year that falls closest to the autumnal equinox.

A Rare Harvest ‘Micromoon’ Will Light Up the Sky on Friday the 13th

The United States hasn’t experienced a nation-wide full moon on this superstitious date since 2000

NASA astronaut Serena Auñón-Chancellor mixes cement samples for the MICS mission aboard the International Space Station.

New Research

Why Astronauts Are Mixing Cement Aboard the International Space Station

Experiments show that cement will set in space, but moon colonists may have to tweak the mixture to make it work in low gravity

An artist's illustration of the planet K2-18b and another planet, K2-18c, that orbits closer to the parent star. Both planets orbit a red dwarf about 110 light-years from Earth in the constellation Leo.

Water Vapor Detected in the Atmosphere of an Exoplanet in the Habitable Zone

The planet K2-18b, about 110 light-years away, could have swirling clouds and falling rains of liquid water droplets

The moon lander Vikram in the foreground and the orbiter Chandrayaan- in the background during preparation of the spacecraft for launch, June 10, 2019.

India Locates Lost Lunar Lander but Struggles to Reestablish Contact

The Vikram spacecraft went offline minutes before it was scheduled to touch down near the south pole of the moon

Trending Today

Astronomers Name Five of Jupiter’s New Moons

A contest earlier this year helped determine the names of the new moons—all named after lovers or offspring of the god Jupiter, aka Zeus

A natural color view of Titan and Saturn taken by NASA's Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on May 6, 2012, at a distance of approximately 483,000 miles (778,000 kilometers) from Titan.

Dragonfly Spacecraft to Scour the Sands of Titan for the Chemistry of Life

The NASA rotorcraft, resembling a large quadcopter drone, will fly through the orange clouds of the ocean moon in the outer solar system

Astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley assigned to first SpaceX crewed launch test out their new space suits.

Future of Space Exploration

Astronauts Test Out Their Sleek New SpaceX Flight Suits

The SpaceX designed pressure suits are more form fitting and maneuverable than the Space Shuttle’s orange suits

Trending Today

A Crashed Spacecraft Might Have Put Earth’s Most Indestructible Organisms on the Moon

The microscopic tardigrades were part of a lunar library sent aboard the Beresheet lander that crashed last April

New Research

New 3-D Map Shows Milky Way’s Big Twist

By mapping the distance of Cepheid stars, researchers reveal that our galaxy is warped

An artist's depiction of Earth during the Archean Eon, from 4 to 2.5 billion years ago, when life consisted of only single-celled microbes with no nucleus (prokaryotes). How these primitive organisms first formed from chemical reactions remains one of the greatest mysteries of science.

Future of Space Exploration

Searching for the Key to Life’s Beginnings

From exoplanets to chemical reactions, scientists inch closer to solving the great mystery of how life forms from inanimate matter

Csilla Ari D’Agostino sits in front of the Aquarius habitat and uses a waterproof iPad for cognitive tests as part of her research on NEEMO 23.

Future of Space Exploration

NASA Scientists and Astronauts Practice for Space Missions on the Seafloor

A female-led crew trained for nine days in an undersea laboratory in the Atlantic to get a sense of what it’s like to live and work in microgravity

An artist's visualization of the star S0-2 as it passes by the supermassive black hole at the galactic center. As the star gets closer to the supermassive black hole, it experiences a gravitational redshift that is predicted by Einstein's general relativity. By observing this redshift, we can test Einstein's theory of gravity.

Future of Space Exploration

A Star Orbiting in the Extreme Gravity of a Black Hole Validates General Relativity

The star S0-2 gets so close to the supermassive black hole at the center of the galaxy that it can be used to test our fundamental understanding of gravity

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