Latest articles by Keith Cooper
Jupiter's moons leave cold 'footprints' in the planet's auroras, James Webb Space Telescope finds
Never-before-seen temperature and ion density measurements reveal that the effect of Jupiter's moons on its aurora are more complicated than scientists thought.
NASA's asteroid-smashing DART spacecraft hit so hard, it changed its target space rocks' orbit around the sun
The mission without a doubt proves that we could deflect a hazardous asteroid away from Earth — so long as we discover it in the nick of time.
Where are all the aliens? Maybe space weather is scrambling their transmissions
We may be missing alien radio signals because they have become smeared beyond the narrowband detectors that SETI utilizes, a new study suggests.
Good news for the moon: Famous asteroid 2024 YR4 won't smash into it in 2032
The James Webb Space Telescope has revealed our lunar companion is safe for now from an asteroid impact.
Making hummus on the moon? Scientists just grew chickpeas in simulated lunar dirt
Tests involving growing chickpea plants in lunar regolith treated with vermicompost and fungi yielded harvestable crops — but are they edible?
'War of the Worlds' in reverse? Mars dirt could help fight off a microbial invasion from Earth
Tests conducted with tardigrades suggest that there is something in Martian dirt that dramatically reduces biological activity.
Lessons from 'The Martian': How astronaut poop could help us settle the Red Planet
By fertilizing inorganic regolith with organic human waste that has been processed through bioreactors, future astronauts living on Mars could be able to create their own organic soil.
Artemis 2 moon mission shouldn't launch until late 2026, new analysis of solar superflares suggests
A new method of predicting when a superflare will erupt from the sun suggests that we are in the middle of such a period now — and that could be bad news for the Artemis 2 astronauts.
James Webb Space Telescope performs brain surgery on mysterious 'Exposed Cranium Nebula'
The nebula is possibly being produced by a type of unstable star called a Wolf–Rayet star.
Starlight warped in the fabric of spacetime could help us find hidden black holes dancing together
Flashes of gravitationally lensed starlight could act as cosmic lighthouses revealing the presence of binary supermassive black holes in close orbit.
A risky maneuver could send a spacecraft to interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS. Here's the plan
If launched in 2035, a spacecraft performing such a maneuver could fly by 3I/ATLAS by 2085.
Did a titanic moon crash create Saturn's iconic rings?
A massive upheaval in the Saturnian system could have also led to the moon Hyperion.
Asteroid samples NASA brought to Earth suggest life's building blocks may be widespread in the universe
The discovery is just the latest to come from the asteroid sample, which dates back to the dawn of the solar system.
Did the Viking missions discover life on Mars 50 years ago? These scientists think so
The key to solving the mystery of the Viking results is the discovery of perchlorate on the Martian surface in 2008.
This supermassive black hole jet is more powerful than the Death Star's laser
It's nicknamed Jetty McJetface.
Could a toxic chemical in Mars dirt help us build a Red Planet base?
Perchlorate, a toxic substance found in Mars dirt, could help the bacterium Sporosarcina pasteurii strengthen bonds between particles of regolith.
Is Jupiter on a diet? New measurements say it's smaller than we thought
Jupiter may be a bit more petite than expected, and that could have a big impact on how scientists model the mysterious interior of the giant planet.
A 'cold Earth' exoplanet just 146 light-years away might be in its star's habitable zone — if it exists
The planet is one of the best worlds for follow-up studies to determine whether it could be habitable or not.
NASA's Juno spacecraft spots the largest volcanic eruption ever seen on Jupiter's moon Io
"What makes the event even more extraordinary is that it did not involve a single volcano, but multiple active sources."
Venus may get a huge meteor shower this July, thanks to a long-ago asteroid breakup
This coming July, Venus could plow through the dust generated by an asteroid breakup thousands of years ago, potentially sparking an impressive meteor shower.
Magnetic avalanches on the sun reveal the hidden engine powering solar flares
"This is one of the most exciting results from Solar Orbiter so far."
A colossal asteroid may have warped the moon from the inside out
The findings are a big clue as to why the far and near hemispheres of the moon look so different.
How to make a super-Earth: The universe's most common planets are whittled down by stellar radiation
The origin of super-Earths and sub-Neptunes has been revealed in a system of four young planets that are dramatically losing their thick atmospheres.
