Latest articles by Keith Cooper
Hubble Telescope celebrates 36th anniversary with gorgeous new image of famous Trifid Nebula
This latest image from Hubble forms just one of more than 1.7 million observations that the space telescope has made over the past 36 years since it launched on April 24, 1990.
Ancient volcanic ash seen blowing across Mars in new spacecraft images
New images from the Mars Express spacecraft show ancient volcanic ash spreading across the Red Planet.
Mysterious rings around Uranus point to hidden moons orbiting the ice giant
The two most puzzling rings around Uranus are gradually giving up their secrets, only to deepen the mystery of the Uranian system.
'Tall waves moving in slow motion': Here's how oily oceans on Saturn's giant moon Titan may behave
The size of waves on alien worlds will depend as much on the characteristics of the liquid as well as the gravity.
This giant telescope could discover habitable exoplanets and secrets of our universe — if it gets its funding
Things are gearing up in the development of the Giant Magellan Telescope in Chile, as its developers enter the final design phase before the project goes before Congress for funding.
This may be the daughter of one of our universe's 1st stars. Scientists call it an 'ancient immigrant'
The star is escaping the Large Magellanic Cloud for the Milky Way.
The moon's oldest and darkest craters could be hiding the most water ice. That's good news for future astronauts
New research shows that craters near the moon's south pole that have been in permanent shadow the longest are more likely to contain the most water ice.
All eyes on Orion’s heat shield: Artemis 2 astronauts will hit Earth's atmosphere at nearly 24,000 mph on April 10
Artemis 2's Orion capsule will hit Earth's atmosphere at nearly 24,000 mph on April 10. A heat shield and 11 parachutes will help it survive the fiery trip and splash down safely.
Artemis 2 moon astronauts will try to recreate Apollo 8's historic 'Earthrise' photo during April 6 flyby
Plans are in place for the crew of Artemis 2 to try to replicate one of the most famous images ever taken from space — Apollo 8's shot of Earth rising over the moon's horizon.
Interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS may be nearly 12 billion years old — so ancient its star system may no longer exist
Our solar system's famous "invader" might be as old as the Milky Way itself.
NASA is developing the '1st nuclear powered interplanetary spacecraft.' What about the Voyager probes?
What is nuclear electric propulsion and how is it different from radioisotope thermoelectric generators?
Hitting the brakes: Hubble Space Telescope watches doomed comet reverse its spin
The unprecedented observations of comet 41P/Tuttle–Giacobini–Kresák show its rotation slowing, reversing and then speeding up, and jet-like outbursts of gas might be providing the push.
Sun storms are powered by a magnetic engine 16 Earths deep, study finds
The powerful magnetic field belonging to the sun is generated far beneath the visible surface.
Astronomers keep finding new moons of Jupiter and Saturn
Astronomers have found four new moons orbiting Jupiter and 11 new moons around Saturn.
These cotton candy exoplanets hide behind a haze even the James Webb Space Telescope can't penetrate
These worlds are among the least dense ever found, and all attempts to probe their atmospheres have been blocked by a mysterious smog.
A state of matter last seen just after the Big Bang may exist inside neutron stars — and scientists think they can prove it
As binary neutron stars spiral around each other to merge, their gravitational tidal forces distort each other's shape and structure, potentially revealing clues as to what lies within them.
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.
