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The colliding Taffy galaxies look like a piece of candy or a cosmic butterfly.

Colliding Taffy Galaxies create a sweet 'cosmic butterfly' (video)

By Robert Lea published

A collision of two galaxies appears like a vast cosmic butterfly, or a giant piece of candy, to the eyes of one of the world's most powerful telescopes.

The moon phases of April 2023 and their dates.

What is the moon phase today? Lunar phases 2023

By Tariq Malik last updated

Reference See the phase of the moon tonight and the rest of the moon phases for 2023, and when you can see them.

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A new map of Mars created by the United Arab Emirates' Hope Mars mission.

UAE Mars orbiter creates stunning new map of the Red Planet

By Robert Lea published

A new map of Mars shows the Red Planet in stunning detail, revealing a wealth of fascinating geological features as seen from orbit.

An artist's concept of a feeding supermassive black hole with a jet streaming outward at nearly the speed of light.

Black hole jet changes direction as astronomers watch in cosmic first — and it's aimed right at us

By Sharmila Kuthunur published

Astronomers are redefining a galaxy whose black hole jet changed directions by 90 degrees.

This composite image shows the Saturn Lyman-alpha bulge, an emission from hydrogen which is a persistent and unexpected excess detected by three distinct NASA missions, namely Voyager 1, Cassini, and the Hubble Space Telescope between 1980 and 2017.

Surprise! Icy 'rain' from Saturn's rings is heating the gas giant's atmosphere

By Robert Lea published

Icy 'rain' from Saturn's rings is heating the gas giant's atmosphere, a phenomenon never seen in the solar system before, a new study suggests.

Scientists have found evidence of two ultradense neutron stars colliding billions of years ago.

Curious cosmic coincidence could help explain fast radio burst mystery

By Briley Lewis published

Two mysterious cosmic phenomena appeared in the same patch of sky nearly at once, and it may not be a coincidence.

lunar eclipses are made up of several stages here they are arranged in a question mark shape.

What are lunar eclipses and how do they occur?

By Daisy Dobrijevic last updated

Reference Lunar eclipses occur when Earth blocks the sun and casts a shadow over the surface of the moon. We explore the different types of lunar eclipses here.

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Rocket Lab teams have recovered the first state of the company's Electron rocket from the Pacific Ocean to refurbish it for another use.

Pictures from space! Our image of the day

By Space.com Staff published

Teams of the New Zealand-based company Rocket Lab successfully recovered the first stage of the Electron rocket after its splashdown in the Pacific Ocean.

about eight meteors streaking in the sky in an illustration, with purple tails

Artificial shooting star project gets 2nd life through crowdfunding

By Elizabeth Howell published

There's no firm release date for when ALE plans to generate its first artificial meteor shower, which it previously pledged to begin in 2023.

The illustration shows a pair of neutron stars orbiting each other very closely, sending gravitational waves pulsing along the skin of space-time.

What are gravitational waves?

By Robert Lea last updated

Reference Gravitational waves are tiny ripples in the fabric of time and space that are created by some of the universe's most powerful events such as colliding black holes.

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Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania

'Ant-Man' star Paul Rudd quizzes NASA expert on quantum science

By Robert Lea published

Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania star Paul Rudd can’t get enough of the quantum realm. Rudd took to YouTube to ask a NASA quantum physicist some big questions.

An artist's depiction of the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft collecting a sample from asteroid Bennu.

NASA prepping for September arrival of OSIRIS-REx asteroid sample

By Josh Dinner published

As OSIRIS-REx flies its return trajectory through space, teams on Earth are preparing for the sample's Sept. 24 landing in the Utah desert.

An X-flare seen flashing on the sun by NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory.

'Hole' in the sun and powerful X1.2 solar flare threaten space weather mayhem

By Tereza Pultarova published

A powerful solar flare knocked out radio communications on Earth last night in what space weather forecasters fear might be the beginning of a spell of rough space weather in the coming days.

an illustration of the surface of a yellowish, rocky alien planet

The deadly atmosphere on Venus could help us find habitable worlds. Here's how

By Laurence Tognetti published

Studying exoplanets similar to Venus could aid the search for habitable worlds by teaching us what not to look for in the universe.

An artist’s impression of a black hole, where the black hole’s intense gravitational field distorts the space around it.

The largest black hole ever discovered can fit 30 billion suns. We found it with gravity and bent light

By Tereza Pultarova published

Astronomers have just discovered what may be the largest black hole known to date.

A Hubble Space Telescope image of the Spiderweb Galaxy. Overlaid on it in blue is the location of the hot intra-cluster medium detected by ALMA.

Galaxy cluster spied forming in early universe (photos, video)

By Keith Cooper published

Hot gas has been detected in a young proto-galaxy cluster in the early universe for the first time, shedding more light on how cluster components come together.

an astronaut floats in space beside a superimposed graphic of a protein

Microgravity in space can alter human cells. We now know how

By Robert Lea published

Scientists have discovered how cells respond and adapt to exposure to microgravity, the near-weightless conditions experienced in space.

When Fermi and GRBAlpha detected the burst, the Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory was on the other side of the Earth and localized the burst an hour later thanks to its afterglow.

A tiny Eastern European cubesat measured a monster gamma-ray burst better than NASA. Here's how

By Tereza Pultarova published

The brightest gamma-ray burst ever seen blinded all of NASA's flagship gamma-ray missions last year. This tiny Eastern European cubesat, however, didn't get overwhelmed.

Artist's illustration of our solar system. It shows planets orbiting the sun and a large comet sweeping in from the top right corner.

Solar system planets, order and formation: A guide

By Daisy Dobrijevic last updated

Reference Explore the eight (or nine) planets of the solar system in order from nearest to the sun and discover the many wonders of our solar system along the way.

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a colorful galaxy-like object in deep space

Hubble telescope spies mysterious celestial object that defies classification

By Stefanie Waldek published

The Hubble Space Telescope has imaged celestial object Z-229-15, which is simultaneously classified as a Seyfert galaxy, an active galactic nucleus (AGN), and a quasar.