Space.com: NASA, Space Exploration and Astronomy News

Tech

NASA's James Webb Space Telescope has successfully deployed its giant primary mirror in an important pre-launch test.

Watch NASA's James Webb Space Telescope unfold its golden mirror for the 1st time (video)

By Chelsea Gohd

NASA's James Webb Space Telescope has fully deployed its primary mirror for the first time, marking another milestone on its journey to space.

An artist's depiction of a solar particle storm flinging plasma off the sun.

For NASA's next sun mission, 6 tiny spacecraft will work as one massive telescope

By Meghan Bartels

Want to build the largest radio telescope to fly in space to date? Here's an easier technique: Design six tiny satellites to fly in formation and work together.

Spaceflight

An artist's depiction of work on the moon as part of the Artemis program.

NASA unveils plan for Artemis 'base camp' on the moon beyond 2024

By Meghan Bartels

NASA is forging ahead with its Artemis program to land humans on the moon by 2024, but the agency has also just offered its first plan for what a U.S. lunar presence may look like after that.

A Chinese Kuaizhou-1A rocket launches six satellites into orbit from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center just six hours after a different Kuaizhou-1A launched a separate mission.

Chinese rocket sells for $5.6 million in livestreamed auction: report

By Chelsea Gohd

An anonymous patron purchased a real-life rocket for $5.6 million during an online, livestreamed auction on April Fools Day.

Science & Astronomy

The crew of Expedition 62 to the International Space Station is pictured inside a SpaceX Dragon resupply craft, on March 9, 2020. They are wearing portable breathing gear while entering the spacecraft just in case there are any particles or irritants in the air that could have come loose while launching to space. (From top to bottom: NASA astronaut Andrew Morgan, Russian cosmonaut Oleg Skripochka and NASA astronaut Jessica Meir)

NASA asks its employees for new ideas to combat coronavirus

By Hanneke Weitering

NASA is calling on its workforce to come up with creative ways that the agency can help fight the coronavirus pandemic.

The HAWC gamma-ray observatory detects cosmic rays from its altitude of 13,500 feet in Mexico's Pico de Orizaba National Park. The Sierra Negra volcano looms large in the background.

Constant speed of light: Einstein's theory of special relativity survives a high-energy test

By Mike Wall

Albert Einstein's theory of special relativity has survived one of its stiffest tests yet.

Search For Life

NASA's Cassini spacecraft captured this view of Saturn's hazy moon Titan in January 2013, when it was about 895,000 miles (1.44 million kilometers) from the big moon.

Future space telescopes may probe Titan-like exoplanets

By Nola Taylor Redd

Planets like Saturn's moon Titan, one of the most potentially habitable places in the solar system, could reveal their secrets to future telescopes.

The upcoming National Academies of Sciences decadal survey will cover planetary science, astrobiology and planetary defense.

Planetary defense against asteroids joins NASA's menu for next decadal survey focus

By Meghan Bartels

Planetary scientists and astrobiologists are gearing up for a major survey process that will dictate NASA's priorities throughout the 2020s.

Artist's illustration of the three planets and two stars in the Kepler-47 system, which lies 3,340 light-years from Earth.

How common are Tatooine worlds?

By Paul Sutter

Double sunsets may be just as common in our galaxy as the solitary kind that we know on Earth, and this has big implications for our search for life outside the solar system.

Skywatching

Venus and the Pleiades star cluster, photographed on April 1, 2020, by the Virtual Telescope Project.

Look up! Venus and Pleiades star cluster are putting on a rare evening show

By Mike Wall

The coronavirus pandemic may have restricted our movements, but our eyes and minds can still roam the heavens. And there's a great reason to look up over the next few evenings.

Earth and the moon as seen by BepiColombo on March 5, 2020, as the mission began preparing for its flyby of Earth.

Europe's Mercury-bound BepiColombo will swing past Earth soon! Here's what you need to know.

By Meghan Bartels

A mission dubbed BepiColombo is bound for Mercury, but in order to reach its destination, it needs to take the scenic route, beginning with a flyby of Earth later this month.

Zodiacal light glows in the sky at ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) at Paranal Observatory in Chile. Image released Dec. 2, 2013.

Zodiacal light: How to spot the rare celestial glow in the night sky

By Joe Rao

How to see the rare zodiacal light, the faint ghostly glow that appears when sunlight reflects off interplanetary debris likely left over from the formation of our solar system.

Entertainment

An Earth-like world created by the Twitterbot. This planet is mainly covered with snow, with small pockets of ocean exposed.

You can build your own Earth 2.0 with the awesome website 'Earth-like'

By Nola Taylor Redd

You can now build your own "Earth-like" planet to see just how different it is from our own world.

A statue of warp drive inventor Zefram Cochrane in Star Trek Online. Players can join First Contact Day from April 2-23 2020!

'Star Trek Online' wants you to celebrate First Contact Day with the Borg in new update

By Elizabeth Howell

"Star Trek Online" wants you to help save Zefram Cochrane and First Contact Day in a special event from April 2 to April 23!

"Cosmos" host Neil deGrasse Tyson enters the Palace of Life, an imaginary place of ancient towers hidden by the mists of time and enshrouded in myth. Here, he moves into its largest, most ancient realm, to walk among the life at the bottom of the sea.

Cosmos: Possible Worlds' brings the search for E.T. down to Earth

By Melissa Silva

In "Cosmos: Possible Worlds," host Neil deGrasse Tyson explores themes of science as an instrument of hope and tenacity, and as a means by which the human race can realize its true potential.

Latest News