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

Ring galaxies, the rarest in the Universe, finally explained

After decades of wondering how ring galaxies form, we've caught them in enough stages of evolution that we finally know where they come from.

Ethan Siegel

Asteroids

A far-out plan to build an asteroid city

University of Rochester researchers think they have a solution to creating an asteroid city: a giant bag.

B. David Zarley

Aerospace

China’s new space station is open for business

On Nov. 29, 2022, the Shenzhou 15 mission launched from China’s Gobi Desert carrying three taikonauts – the Chinese word for astronauts.

Scott Shackelford and Eytan Tepper

Aerospace

The 12 most exciting space missions of 2023

2023 will see the launch of new rockets, the return of OSIRIS-REx, and a mission to Jupiter that could help us find extraterrestrial life.

Kristin Houser

Outer Space

“Galactic archeology” makes spectacular find: the Milky Way is over 13 billion years old

Scientists have pushed the Milky Way's early history back more than 2 billion years: to less than 800 million years after the Big Bang.

Ethan Siegel

Physics

Will physics prevent SpinLaunch from succeeding?

SpinLaunch has a working prototype successfully launching objects at 1,000 miles-per-hour, but will the laws of physics stand in the way?

Ethan Siegel

Outer Space

Twin exoplanets may be the first known “water worlds”

Twin exoplanets 218 light years from Earth may be the first known examples of “water worlds.”

Kristin Houser

Astronomy

An Earth-sized planet found in the habitable zone of a nearby star

For a long time, only two habitable zone planets of any size were known to astronomers: Earth and Mars. But NASA's discovered another.

Ravi Kumar Kopparapu

Asteroids

World’s first asteroid-hunting spacecraft to launch in 2028

NASA has announced plans to launch the world’s first asteroid-hunting spacecraft — the $1.2 billion NEO Surveyor — in 2028.

Kristin Houser

Aerospace

SpaceX launches groundbreaking Japanese lunar lander

A lunar lander built by Japanese aerospace startup ispace is poised to be the first private spacecraft to soft land on the moon.

Kristin Houser

Sections

Video

Freethink

We focus on solutions: the smartest people, the biggest ideas, and the most ground breaking technology shaping our future.