Trending

Science & Astronomy

Latest

Paleoanthropologist Donald Johanson saw the Lucy spacecraft, named for his discovery of a 3-million-year-old hominin, in July 2021, when the spacecraft was nearly complete.

Discoverer of Lucy asteroid mission's namesake fossil excited to watch Saturday launch

By Meghan Bartels

Decades ago, Donald Johanson found fossils of an early hominin that would rewrite scientists' understanding of our species. Now, he'll watch a spacecraft named for the discovery blast off Earth.

William Shatner was moved to tears by his flight to space.

Space Chat! William Shatner's emotional spaceflight, China's space station flight and incredible new science

By Chelsea Gohd

Today (Oct. 15), Space Chat will explore what's new in space, including William Shatner's emotional spaceflight, China's second ISS launch and some amazing new space science!

This rare lunar meteorite (which is not the meteorite that recently fell in British Columbia) is on display at the UCLA Meteorite Gallery. Only a small fraction of the meteorites that strike Earth each year are ever recovered.

Meteorite crash-lands in woman's bed in Canada

By Mindy Weisberger

A meteorite that landed in British Columbia crashed through a roof and narrowly missed hitting a woman who was asleep in her bed at the time.

Artist's impression of an exoplanet transiting a red dwarf star.

Hidden exoplanets may trigger auroras on distant stars

By Charles Q. Choi

Mysterious radio signals may blast out from auroras on distant stars triggered by hidden planets, a new study finds.

The first ever planet has been found orbiting a white dwarf star.

First discovery of planet orbiting dead star provides glimpse into our solar system's future

By Tereza Pultarova

The first-ever discovery of a planet orbiting a dead star suggests that some worlds in our solar system have a chance to survive the sun's violent demise some five billion years from now.

An artist's depiction of the Lucy spacecraft studying an asteroid.

NASA's Lucy asteroid mission will explore mysteries of the early solar system

By Meghan Bartels

Spacecraft have visited most pockets of the solar system by now, but a new region is about to come under the robotic inspection: the two clumps of asteroids that flank mighty Jupiter in its orbit.

Venus as seen by the Galileo spacecraft on Feb. 14, 1990. This image has been colorized with a blue hue to note cloud details.

Life on Venus may never have been possible

By Mike Wall

Venus may not be such a tantalizing target for alien hunters after all.

An electron microscope image of a micron-sized silicon carbide stardust grain extracted from the Murchinson meteorite.

Ancient meteorites preserve building blocks of early solar system

By Tereza Pultarova

Scientists have used a new method to analyse the composition of ancient grains in meteorites with unprecedented accuracy to shed light on their mysterious origin.

big bang, expansion of the universe.

What if the universe had no beginning?

By Paul Sutter

The scanning tunnelling image of the graphene sheet shows the honeycomb imprint of the 'electron ice' underneath it.

Scientists capture image of bizarre 'electron ice' for the first time

By Ben Turner

Wigner crystals have been theorized for more than 80 years, but this is the first time the elusive crystals have been captured in an image.

An aurora spotted from the International Space Station. An Oct. 11 geomagnetic solar storm created auroras that stretched as far south as New York.

Solar storm hits Earth, bringing northern lights to New York

By Chelsea Gohd

A solar storm hit Earth and brought with it a spectacular light show visible as far south as New York.

A cargo ship carrying NASA's James Webb Space Telescope arrived in French Guiana on Oct. 12, 2021, after a 16-day sea voyage. Webb is scheduled to launch from Europe's Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana, on Dec. 18.

NASA's James Webb Space Telescope arrives in French Guiana ahead of Dec. 18 launch

By Mike Wall

A cargo ship carrying the $10 billion James Webb Space Telescope arrived in French Guiana on Tuesday (Oct. 12), wrapping up a 16-day ocean voyage that covered 5,800 miles (9,300 kilometers).

This Sentinel-2 image of the La Palma volcanic eruption have been processed in true color, using the shortwave infrared channel to highlight the new flow of lava.

Satellites capture reinvigorated La Palma volcanic eruption

By Tereza Pultarova

Satellites have observed the intensifying eruption on the Spain-owned island of La Palma over the weekend as new streams of lava spilled out of the Cumbre Vieja volcano after its crater collapsed.

The CUAVA-1 satellite departs from the International Space Station.

Forecasting space weather is hard. A new Australian satellite may help make it easier

By Brett Carter, Iver Cairns

The new satellite is the first designed and built by the Australian Research Council Training Centre for Cubesats, UAVs, and their Applications (or CUAVA for short).

This drawing by Adam Paulsen shows his observation of the aurora from Godthaab, Greenland, on Nov. 15, 1882.

People have long claimed to hear the northern lights. Are the reports true?

By Fiona Amery

People have long claimed they can hear the northern lights, saying the sounds include eerie whizzing, crackling and buzzing. Is it just an auditory illusion?

NASA's Lucy spacecraft was encapsulated into its rocket fairing on Sept. 30, 2021, in preparation for launch.

NASA's asteroid spacecraft Lucy launches this week on ambitious 12-year mission

By Elizabeth Howell

NASA's next asteroid-bound mission to explore the earliest days of our solar system is nearly ready to launch.

The European Remote Sensing satellite (ERS-1) was put into orbit on 17 July 1991.

Nobel Prize for physics winner shaped ground-breaking Earth-observing mission

By Tereza Pultarova

This year's Nobel Prize in Physics laureate Klaus Hasselmann helped to shape a ground-breaking Earth-observation space mission that paved the way for the modern study of our planet's environment.

NASA has a new climate action plan to tackle climate change.

NASA is ready to take on the world with its new climate action plan

By Chelsea Gohd

NASA has big plans to fight against climate change and its devastating global impacts with a new climate action plan the agency released on Thursday (Oct. 7).

A new study shows how Pluto's atmosphere is disappearing.

Pluto's atmosphere is starting to disappear, scientists find

By Chelsea Gohd

Pluto's atmosphere is going through a strange transformation, scientists are finding.

A satellite image of the concentric cloud rings above La Palma created by its erupting volcano.

Striking bull's-eye-shaped clouds form above erupting La Palma volcano

By Harry Baker

Satellite images released by NASA's Earth Observatory show concentric rings of clouds forming above the erupting volcano on La Palma in the Canary Islands.