A cannonball that a Japanese spacecraft fired at an asteroid is shedding light on the most common type of asteroid in the solar system, a new study reports.

The rocky object that spawned the asteroid Ryugu may have been extraordinarily porous, a new study finds.

The moon and Earth may be more different than long thought, challenging existing models for how the moon formed, a new study finds.

A collision between a black hole and a neutron star would unleash huge amounts of energy, but it might not generate any detectable light, a surprising new study finds.

A giant white dwarf star may be the offspring of a collision between two other white dwarfs, a new study finds.

This big asteroid is seriously cratered.

The way the fabric of space and time swirls in a cosmic whirlpool around a dead star has confirmed yet another prediction from Einstein's theory of general relativity, a new study finds.

The outer layers of superdense stellar remnants known as white dwarfs may often possess the remains of giant planets, a new study suggests.

The explosion likely occurred within a dense shell of matter shed by a companion star.

Why is Mars dry? Water might escape the atmosphere more effectively than previously thought, potentially helping to explain how the Red Planet lost its vast oceans.

Spacecraft could fly to distant stars using sails with surfaces similar to those of CDs and DVDs to help them stay centered on laser beams, a new study finds.

Venus may still harbor active volcanoes, with eruptions taking place as recently as a few years ago, a new study finds.

Water appears both common and unexpectedly scarce in exoplanets — many distant worlds have it, but less of it than predicted, a new study finds.

The first image of a black hole, previously thought nigh impossible to capture, was named the top scientific breakthrough of 2019 by the journal Science.

For the first time, astronomers have gotten an up-close view of eruptions from an asteroid, shedding light on what might drive such explosions.

Gamma-ray bursts, the most powerful kinds of explosions known in the universe, can generate even more energetic light beams than astronomers previously realized, according to a set of new studies.

A giant planet wildly careening around a star may not prevent an Earth-size planet from staying in a stable orbit friendly to life as we know it, a new study finds.

"Star Wars' has had a history of using — and, many would say, misusing — the word "parsec."

For the first time, scientists have detected a newly born heavy element in space, forged in the aftermath of a collision between a pair of dead stars known as neutron stars.

Thousands of planets may form and orbit around the kind of supermassive black holes found in the cores of most, if not all, galaxies, a new study finds.

Giant alien worlds with searing, close orbits to their host stars can inflate like balloons. Now astronomers have discovered one so puffy that it is one of the least dense planets ever discovered.

By analyzing the disintegrated remains of distant worlds consumed by their stars, a new study found that at least some rocky exoplanets may have interiors similar to those of Earth and Mars.

New infrared cameras and gel-based thrusters just might help future satellites dodge space debris, a new study finds.