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Outer Space

Adorable Drone Helps Document Experiments on the International Space Station

Cute as a button, the Int-Ball is taking over astronauts’ photographic duties

This still from an animation created by NASA shows some of the mountains and craters observed by the New Horizons satellite.

Take a Trip Around Pluto and Charon With These New Animations

Two years after its fly-by, NASA releases maps and videos made with data from New Horizons

New Research

Astronomers Find the Smallest Star Yet

The faint orb is just a smidgen bigger than Saturn and around 2,000 to 3,000 times dimmer than our own sun

An artistic rendering of Juno approaching the Great Red Spot while orbiting Jupiter

Trending Today

Stunning Images Capture First Close-Up With Jupiter’s Great Red Spot

Take a peek at the solar system’s largest storm

On July 8, 1947, a headline in the local paper in Roswell, New Mexico ignited 70 years of "flying saucer" sightings.

In 1947, A High-Altitude Balloon Crash Landed in Roswell. The Aliens Never Left

Despite its persistence in popular culture, extraterrestrial life owes more to the imagination than reality

Trending Today

Geek Out to This Asteroid Day Livestream

For 24 hours a YouTube channel will host discussions on space rocks and their potential impacts on Earth

The cloud in the upper left hand part of the image are from a barium release—with the purple-red ionized cloud oriented along the Earth’s magnetic field lines. The blue and white trail in the lower portion of the image is from a tri-methyl-aluminum vapor trail that follows neutral wind.

Trending Today

NASA Launch Will Dot the Sky With Colorful Clouds

No, it’s not aliens or a massive conspiracy plot—just a space-age study of the atmosphere

Auroras on Uranus caused by changes in its magnetosphere

New Research

Magnetic Field Around Uranus Are a Chaotic Mess

Using data from the Voyager 2 mission, researchers have modeled Uranus’s off-kilter magnetosphere

Researchers now think that most stars—like this pair in the Perseus constellation—form in pairs.

New Research

Our Sun Probably Grew Up With a Sibling

But now its buddy is long gone

New Research

Kepler Finds 219 New Planets

NASA released the final catalog from its planet-hunting telescope, bringing its total up to 4,034 potential planets

Jerrie Cobb stands before a Project Mercury space capsule in heels and gloves. What you can't see: inside the capsule, a male mannequin lies in the place where an astronaut eventually would. The FLATs were never seriously considered for astronaut positions.

Meet the Rogue Women Astronauts of the 1960s Who Never Flew

But they passed the same tests the male astronauts did—and, yes, in high heels

"Steve" the aurora was discovered by amateur skywatchers, who are helping scientists learn more about this atmospheric phenomenon.

Will the Next Great Scientific Discovery Be Made by Amateurs?

There are more options than ever to get involved, and your input can help solve big problems in science

New Research

Jupiter Could Be the Solar System’s Oldest Resident

The early former may have set up just the right conditions for Earth to take shape

This flatworm fragment went to space and became a double-headed worm.

New Research

What Space-Faring Flatworms Can Teach Us About Human Health

Their experiment had some weird results—and could one day help humans thrive in microgravity and back here on Earth

An artist's impression of the Restore-L craft, a space-based refueling station that will give new life to old satellites.

NASA Is Sending a Robotic Fueling Station to Space

How do you save a billion-dollar satellite? Send another robot up there after it

A simulation of the large-scale structure of the universe

New Research

We May Live in a Massive Cosmic Void

If the universe were a block of Swiss cheese, the Milky Way would sit within one of the cheesy holes

The star KELT-9 and its hellish planet KELT-9b

New Research

Researchers Discover a Planet That’s As Hot As a Star

It’s daytime temperatures clock in at a scorching 7,800 degrees Fahrenheit

Artist’s conception of two merging black holes, spinning in a nonaligned fashion.

New Research

Scientists Hear Two Even More Ancient Black Holes Collide

At this point, detecting ripples in the fabric of space-time is practically commonplace

This brave little craft will face blinding temperatures near the sun.

Trending Today

NASA Hopes to “Touch the Sun” With a Newly Named Probe

The craft will travel within 4 million miles of the sun’s surface

Jupiter's South Pole is a cluster of dramatic storms.

New Research

New Views of Jupiter Offer Up Marvel and Mystery

From stunning polar images to weird aurorae, the gas giant is even weirder than we thought

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