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The greenhouse effect and plate tectonics are essential for maintaining water on the Earth’s surface..

Why is the Earth blue?

By Guillaume Paris, Laurette Piani

The Earth has been blue for over 4 billion years because of the liquid water on its surface.

An animation shows Apophis' 2029 path compared to the swarm of satellites orbiting Earth.

Scientists prepare for their last good look at asteroid Apophis before 2029 flyby

By Meghan Bartels

On March 5, wave hello to the most infamous asteroid that won't slam into Earth in 2029. Scientists sure will.

NASA's Europa Clipper mission, which will study the Jupiter ocean moon Europa up close, is scheduled to launch in October 2024.

NASA's Europa Clipper probe will now launch on a private rocket in October 2024

By Mike Wall

NASA's upcoming mission to the Jupiter ocean moon Europa is out of rocket limbo, and it now has a launch window.

This wide-field view of the sky around the bright star system Alpha Centauri was created from photographic images forming part of the Digitized Sky Survey 2.

Potentially habitable exoplanet candidate spotted around Alpha Centauri A in Earth's backyard

By Mike Wall

The nearest solar system to our own may actually host two potentially life-supporting planets as a new candidate emerges around Alpha Centauri A, a new study reports.

Hope mission personnel celebrate the receipt of signal confirming the spacecraft arrived in orbit around Mars on Feb. 9, 2021.

Welcome to Mars! UAE's Hope probe enters orbit around Red Planet.

By Meghan Bartels

After a nail-biting 27 minutes, the United Arab Emirates' (UAE) first-ever interplanetary mission has successfully reached orbit around Mars.

SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk celebrates the successful launch of the SpaceX Crew Dragon Demo-2 mission at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, on May 30, 2020.

Elon Musk, X Prize unveil $100 million carbon-capture contest

By Mike Wall

Elon Musk is funding a new Carbon Removal X Prize to the tune of $100 million — the richest incentive prize in history.

In this illustration, NASA astronauts drill into the Mars’ subsurface. The agency is creating new maps that show where ice is most likely to be easily accessible to future astronauts.

This new map of ice on Mars could guide future astronauts

By Mike Wall

Large swaths of the Martian mid-latitudes show evidence of buried but accessible water ice, a new study reports.

Happy (Martian) new year! A new year on Mars began yesterday Feb. 7, 2021 and these images show the planet shifting over into the new year. The image on the left was taken Feb. 6 and the image on the right was taken Feb. 1, both captured by the Visual Monitoring Camera aboard the European Space Agency's Mars Express orbiting probe. Years on Mars last about 687 Earth days, as the planet takes almost twice as long to orbit the sun. This new Mars year is designated Mars Year 36.

A new year begins on Mars as three space probes close in on the Red Planet

By Chelsea Gohd

Yesterday (Feb. 7) marked the beginning of a new year on the Red Planet: Mars year 36.

Diagram showing our solar system (not to scale).

Solar system

By Space.com Staff

From planets and asteroids to the sun and comets, see the latest discoveries from across the solar system.

This image, taken from the International Space Station, shows Earth's glowing, colorful aurora alongside lights coming from the cities on our planet's surface down below. When electrically-charged particles from the sun interact with gases in Earth's ionosphere, they create visual displays called auroras.

What is the ionosphere? (And who is Steve?)

By Nicoletta Lanese

A concentration of plasma in the Earth's atmosphere, called the ionosphere, interacts with solar winds, ultraviolet radiation and radio waves.

Sarah Al Amiri, the chair of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) Space Agency.

Q&A: Why the UAE's Hope Mars mission's arrival is 'super exciting'

By Doris Elin Urrutia

On Feb. 9, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) Space Agency aims to successfully bring its first interplanetary mission into orbit around Mars.

Electrons and their antimatter counterparts, positrons, interact around a neutron star in this visualization. Why is there so much more matter than antimatter in the universe we can see?

Could there be a cluster of antimatter stars orbiting our galaxy?

By Paul Sutter

We don't know why the universe is dominated by matter over antimatter, but there could be entire stars, and maybe even galaxies, in the universe made of antimatter.

An abandoned boat sits in the water amid dead cypress trees in coastal waters and marsh August 26, 2019 in Venice, Louisiana, in a region already impacted by sea level rise.

Seas will likely rise even faster than worst-case scenarios predicted by climate models

By Rafi Letzter

Sea levels will probably rise faster than the most mainstream climate models predict, according to a new study.

A black hole sucks material from a nearby star.

A giant black hole suddenly went dark, and no one knows why

By Rafi Letzter

In 2018, one of the brightest X-ray lights in the sky went dark, and scientists still aren't sure why.

New radar image of the Apollo 15 landing site, located with respect to prominent lunar features

Apollo 15 landing site is strikingly clear in image captured from Earth

By Nicoletta Lanese

Scientists used powerful radar signals to capture the image.

An artist's depiction of the SPHEREx mission at work. Feb. 4, NASA announced that SpaceX will be launching the astrophysics mission, which is set to last for two years.

SpaceX secures contract to launch NASA's SPHEREx astrophysics mission

By Chelsea Gohd

SpaceX will be launching an astrophysics mission for NASA.

NASA's current exploration strategy focuses on sending astronauts to the moon and robotic missions to Mars to prepare for eventual human missions to the Red Planet.

NASA has a lot to tackle this year as Biden takes charge. Here's what the agency's acting chief has to say.

By Meghan Bartels

NASA has a big year ahead of it: Landing on Mars, further delivering on the promise of commercial flights to the International Space Station, tackling climate change, and much, much more.

An artist’s illustration of Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost lander on the moon.

NASA picks Firefly Aerospace to deliver science payloads to the moon in 2023

By Samantha Mathewson

NASA selected Firefly Aerospace to deliver 10 scientific experiments and technology demonstrations to the moon in 2023.

A picture of Messier 45, known as the pleiades star cluster or the Seven Sisters.

100,000-year-old story could explain why the Pleiades are called 'Seven Sisters'

By Adam Mann

A speculative hypothesis tries to uncover the world’s oldest story written across the night sky in the Pleiades constellation.

A person falling into a black hole and being stretched while approaching the black hole’s horizon.

Curious kids: Could a human enter a black hole to study it?

By Leo Rodriguez, Shanshan Rodriguez