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Outer Space

Andromeda

New Research

The Andromeda Galaxy Ate The Milky Way’s Lost Sibling

New simulations show Andromeda absorbed the large galaxy M32p about 2 billion years ago

Total lunar eclipse photographed near Calgary, Alberta, Canada, in 2007.

The Century’s Longest Lunar Eclipse Will Shroud the Moon This Week

Including phases where the moon is partially masked, the event will last nearly four hours total

Cool Finds

Jupiter Officially Has 12 New Moons

The new satellites are mostly tiny and include one oddball that is on a collision course with some of the 78 other moons orbiting the planet

New Research

Scientists Explain The Thrill of Detecting a Neutrino From a Far-Off Galaxy

For the first time, the IceCube observatory has triumphantly tracked a neutrino back to a massive blazar

Marc Fries examines a magnetic board looking for iron particles recovered from the sea floor.

Trending Today

A Research Ship Is Hunting Meteorite Fragments Off the Coast of Washington

The research ship E/V Nautilus is combing through samples and sediment hoping to recover the first space rock from the ocean floor

New Research

Our Galaxy Is Really Greasy and Smells Like Moth Balls

A new study estimates that a quarter to half the carbon in interstellar space is in the form of greasy aliphatic carbon

Do Marine Mammals Yawn and More Questions From Our Readers

You asked, we answered

A 2018 colorized image of Jupiter's south pole created by citizen scientist Gabriel Fiset, using data from NASA's Juno spacecraft.

How Jupiter May Have Gifted Early Earth With Water

A new model of the solar system suggest we have gas giants to thank for our watery world

These two views from NASA’s Curiosity rover, acquired specifically to measure the amount of dust inside Gale Crater, show that dust has increased over three days from a major Martian dust storm. The images were taken by the rover’s Mastcam.

Massive, ‘Unprecedented’ Dust Storm Puts Mars Rover at Risk

Engineers have not received any transmissions from the Opportunity rover since Sunday

Say hello to SMAP

This NASA Satellite Can Map the Planet’s Soil Moisture Content In Just Three Days

The speedy collection of this data will help with crop management and flood prediction

An illustration of lightning on Jupiter's northern hemisphere, using an image from the JunoCam.

New Research

Jupiter’s Lightning Is More Earth-Like Than We Thought

Juno is providing scientists with new insights into the gas giant’s flashes of light

The imagined surface of Kepler-186f, an Earth-size planet orbiting a small red star.

NASA’s New Exoplanet Travel Bureau Lets You ‘Tour’ Far-Distant Planets In 360 Degrees

Eager space tourists can now visit sunny Kepler-186f, a moon of Kepler-16b or the Earth-like TRAPPIST-1e virtually

Illustration of Sedna, a minor planet with an unusual orbit.

New Research

Is the Mysterious Planet Nine Just a Swarm of Asteroids?

Researchers investigate alternative explanations for wacky orbits of objects in our solar system

Artist’s impression of satellites and debris in low-Earth orbit. Currently 70 percent of all cataloged objects are in low-Earth orbit, which extends to 2000 km above the Earth’s surface.

Greening the Future of Outer Space

A team of scientists and policy experts want to develop space sustainably for future generations

Pluto, and its largest moon Charon, as seen from the New Horizons spacecraft.

Is Pluto Actually a Mash-up of a Billion Comets?

Researchers speculate the beloved dwarf planet could actually be a giant comet

An illustration of GRACE-FO in orbit.

Meet NASA’s New Dynamic Duo: A Pair of Climate Change-Tracking Satellites

The pair will measure changes in Earth’s gravitational field to monitor melting glaciers, rising seas, droughts and more

The oxygen distribution from MACS1149-JD1 appears green in this ALMA image.

New Research

Astronomers Find Signature From the Universe’s Earliest Known Stars

The first lights may have winked to life just 250 million years after the Big Bang

Images of 2015 BZ509 captured by the Large Binocular Telescope Observatory.

New Research

Is This Backwards-Orbiting Asteroid an Interstellar Visitor?

The space rock could have been captured from another star system during the early days of our solar system

We’re All Made of Stardust. Here’s How

13.8 billion years ago, the universe began with a big bang and the atoms it created would find their way into everything

This test image from one of the four cameras on TESS captures a portion of the southern sky along the plane of our galaxy.

200,000 Stars Twinkle in First Test Image From NASA’s Planet-Hunting Satellite

Once its cameras are calibrated, TESS will capture 400 times as much sky as this test image

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