Outer Space

Best Space Photos of the Week

See a Bubbly Nebula, an Artistic Earth and Other Spacey Treats

A celebratory star nest and a painterly view of home feature among our picks for this week’s best space pictures

May 29, 2015

These Instruments Will Help NASA Figure Out If Life Can Thrive on Europa

The space agency has announced the suite of experiments that will fly on a mission to the icy moon of Jupiter

May 26, 2015

Cool Finds

Found: A Galaxy That Shines With the Light of Over 300 Trillion Suns

A very hungry black hole at the center of WISE J224607.57-052635.0 emits an incredible amount of light

May 22, 2015

One Man’s Lifelong Pursuit of Pluto is About to Get Real

When the New Horizons spacecraft races by the quasi-planetary body, Alan Stern will have finally met his match

June 2015

Trending Today

A Mysterious Space Plane Will Launch This Week

Though much of the X-37B’s mission is top secret, details are emerging about experiments that will go into orbit with the unmanned craft

May 19, 2015

Best Space Photos of the Week

Dark Globs, a Salty Moon and More of This Week’s Stellar Wonders

Mysterious star clusters and Europa in a can feature in our picks for this week’s best space images

May 15, 2015

Made by College Seniors, These Seven Products Give Us a Glimpse Into the Future

Engineering students at universities across the country took these projects from sketch to reality in one year

May 15, 2015

Think Big

Rare Quartet of Quasars Found in the Early Universe

The quirky set of extremely bright black holes challenges theories for how the cosmos reached its current structure

May 14, 2015

Cool Finds

How Snow Keeps the World’s Most Powerful Space Telescope Squeaky Clean

CO2 snowflakes are being tested for use with Hubble’s successor

May 13, 2015

Best Space Photos of the Week

A Lopsided Supernova, Orbital Espresso and More Cosmic Wonders

An exploding star reveals its secrets and an astronaut takes a coffee break in this week’s best space pictures

May 8, 2015

Trending Today

Today The Messenger Spacecraft Will Crash Into Mercury

After years of exciting observations and stunning pictures of Mercury, the spacecraft has run out of fuel

April 30, 2015

Cool Finds

The Time a Space Observatory Was Mistaken for a Second Moon

For 13 hours, the space observatory Gaia was misidentified as a natural satellite orbiting Earth

April 29, 2015

To Get Rid of Space Junk, Shoot It Down With Lasers

Proposals to send debris-targeting craft into orbit are piling up, and one mission may soon start test firing from the space station

April 24, 2015

Trending Today

The Hubble Space Telescope Has Been In Space for 25 Years, Here’s What it Has Seen

The telescope has sent back some real beauties

April 24, 2015

Personal Writings of Arthur C. Clarke Reveal the Evolution of “2001: A Space Odyssey”

Works donated from the author’s archives in Sri Lanka include letters to Kubrick and an early draft of his most famous novel

May 2015

Extreme Makeover: ISS Edition

How to give the International Space Station a little bit more room

May 2015

Behind the Scenes of the Last Mission to Repair the Hubble Space Telescope

Photographer Michael Soluri shares an intimate look at the team that saved the iconic observatory

April 23, 2015

New Research

Scientists Want to Use Lasers to Shoot Down Space Junk

The idea sounds farfetched, but it may be better than previous solutions

April 20, 2015

Cool Finds

Dawn Spacecraft Sends First Color Images of Ceres

Red and blue tell the tale of a dwarf planet covered in rock and ice

April 20, 2015

Cool Finds

Meet the First Donut That Went to Space

A pair of Swedish brothers launched a tasty pastry into the stratosphere—and filmed the entire ride

April 17, 2015