Space

mars' surface with the left side of the image toned yellow and the right side blue

Astronomy

NASA shares colorful “postcard” of Mars’ surface

NASA has used photos taken by the Curiosity rover to create a gorgeous “postcard” of the Martian landscape.

Kristin Houser

a crowd of young people with their backs to the camera watching a rocket fly through the air in the distance

Aerospace

Students build reusable rocket, win $5,000 from NASA

The University of Alabama in Huntsville has won Student Launch 2023, NASA’s annual rocket-building competition.

Kristin Houser

an illustration of a capsule reentering Earth's atmosphere

Aerospace

SpaceX successfully launches world’s first “space factory”

SpaceX has successfully deployed a “space factory” developed by startup Varda Space Industries to manufacture drugs in microgravity.

Kristin Houser

Outer Space

Terraforming: why the Moon is a better target than Mars

While most of humanity's terraforming dreams have focused on Mars, a better candidate may be even closer: the Moon.

Ethan Siegel

Extraterrestrials

Undergrad develops AI to hunt for alien signals

An AI trained to hunt for technosignatures from intelligent alien life found 8 interesting signals on its first deployment.

Kristin Houser

Asteroids

NASA’s “Lucy” will take a 40,000-mile detour to visit this asteroid

NASA has added a tenth asteroid flyby to the record-breaking Lucy mission so that it can test a new asteroid-tracking system.

Kristin Houser

An image of the rubble pile asteroid Itokawa.

Asteroids

This near-Earth asteroid is 4.2 billion years old and nearly indestructible

By analyzing just three dust particles, researchers learned that the rubble pile asteroid Itokawa is 4.2 billion years old and hard to kill.

Kristin Houser

Astronomy

Rare Martian meteorite is full of complex carbon molecules

A 650-million-years-old meteorite found in Africa shows the rich and complex chemistry that once happened on Mars.

Sam Jarman

Astronomy

Jupiter’s hot “pizza moon” may contain life

Jupiter's moon Io is thought to be inhospitable, but new data suggests life could exist underground, perhaps in lava tubes.

Dirk Schulze-Makuch

Astronomy

NASA announces alien-hunting Habitable Worlds Observatory

NASA has announced that it is developing the Habitable Worlds Observatory, a new space telescope optimized to hunt for extraterrestrial life.

Kristin Houser

Astronomy

SpaceX puts Starlink promises to astronomers in writing

SpaceX has signed an agreement with the National Science Foundation detailing its plans to minimize Starlink’s impact on astronomy.

Kristin Houser

Physics

The case for dark matter has strengthened

Though it makes up about 26% of the Universe, we cannot see dark matter. But we know it's there because we can see its effects.

Don Lincoln

Aerospace

NASA and ESA are racing to bring GPS to the moon

Two upcoming space missions by NASA and ESA could help bring satellite navigation (satnav) to the moon and cislunar space.

Kristin Houser

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