How will NASA’s upcoming Habitable Worlds Observatory (HWO) mission differentiate Earth-sized exoplanets from other exoplanets, specifically Earth-sized exoplanets within the habitable zone, also called exoEarths? This is what a recent study accepted for publication in The Astronomical Journal hopes to address as an international team of researchers investigated the potential future capabilities of HWO and what shortcomings need to be addressed for it to conduct groundbreaking science, specifically with discovering exoEarths.
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Ground testing anomaly destroys Firefly Aerospace’s Alpha booster intended for next flight
An explosion captured by security camera footage shows the results of an anomaly seen during acceptance testing of Firefly Aerospace’s Alpha rocket booster designated for the Flight 7 mission. Image: Harold’s Auto Parts
Firefly Aerospace suffered a setback on its road to resuming launches with its Alpha rocket.
The Rubin Observatory's upcoming images may stack up to space telescope ones. Here's how
The algorithm has already been tested on images from the Subaru telescope and will now be used on the Vera C. Rubin Observatory once science results begin to flood in.
Astronauts on the moon and Mars? World space leaders lay out visions for an ambitious future
At a major space congress in Sydney, leaders from NASA, ESA, ISRO, CNSA, and more shared visions for humanity's return to the moon, journeys to Mars and the tech shaping the future of space.
Firefly Aerospace's Alpha rocket explodes during preflight test
Firefly Aerospace's seventh Alpha rocket exploded on Monday (Sept. 29) during preflight testing. The vehicle was destroyed, and Firefly is assessing the damage to its test stand.
How would a government shutdown affect NASA?
International Space Station astronauts can breathe easy — other NASA missions not so much.
Love and hate in 'Foundation' Season 3: Emmy-winner Cherry Jones spills the tea on her on-screen relationship (exclusive)
'Foundation' actress Cherry Jones discusses her character's tempestuous relationship with Brother Dusk.
The ultimate night sky IQ test
From twinkling constellations to stellar life cycles, this starry skywatching quiz will test your cosmic knowledge.
'Space: Above and Beyond': 30 years on, Fox's failed military sci-fi series is almost lost to time... and that's a shame
Death to the Chig! We take a look back at this pioneering TV show on its 30th birthday.
Cores of Planets in the Solar System
The cores of planets in our solar system exhibit a fascinating diversity, reflecting their formation, size, and composition. Understanding these internal structures provides crucial insights into planetary evolution and the forces that shape celestial bodies.
SpaceX Falcon 9 launch paints glowing 'jellyfish' across Western US skies (photos, video)
SpaceX's Falcon 9 lit up the evening sky Sept. 28, when the expanding 'jellyfish' plume from the rocket's ascent could be seen for hundreds of miles.
Biosphere 2's latest mission: Learning how life first emerged on Earth – and how to make barren worlds habitable
Despite being just outside Tucson, Arizona, Biosphere 2 looks almost like a colony on another planet.
Secrets of ancient life on Earth may live in Japan's hot springs
Ancient iron-metabolizing microbes may have turned toxic oxygen into an energy source.
Canon EOS R50 V review
Targeted at content creators, the Canon EOS R50 V may not be the obvious choice for budding astrophotographers. But do the features and brand name make it an affordable option for capturing the night sky?
Webb studies moon-forming disc around massive planet
The NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope has provided the first direct measurements of the chemical and physical properties of a potential moon-forming disc encircling a large exoplanet. The carbon-rich disc surrounding the world called CT Cha B, which is located 625 light years away from Earth, is a possible construction yard for moons, although no moons are detected in the Webb data. The disc offers insight into how the moons of Solar System gas giants like Jupiter might have formed.
The Black Hole That Broke the Rules
Black holes are regions of space where gravity is so intense that nothing, not even light, can escape their grasp. They come in dramatically different sizes. Stellar mass black holes are the remnants of massive stars that have collapsed under their own gravity, typically weighing between three and a few dozen times the mass of our Sun and compressed into a region just kilometres across. Supermassive black holes, by contrast, are the giants lurking at the centres of galaxies, weighing millions to billions of solar masses. These beasts didn't form from a single collapsing star but grew over billions of years through gas accretion and mergers with other black holes.
The Asteroid Belt's Slow Disappearing Act
The asteroid belt is found orbiting between Mars and Jupiter and is a vast collection of rocks that is thought to be a planet that never formed. When our Solar System formed 4.6 billion years ago, the material in this region should have coalesced into a planet, however, Jupiter's gravitational influence prevented this from happening, stirring up the region so that collisions became destructive rather than constructive. What remains today contains only about 3% of the Moon's mass scattered across millions of kilometres.
Chinese astronauts add debris shielding to Tiangong space station during 6-hour spacewalk (video)
Two Chinese astronauts installed more debris shielding on the Tiangong space station during a six-hour spacewalk on Friday (Sept. 26). It was the fourth EVA of the Shenzhou 20 mission.
IAC 2025 - One-to-one with ESA Director General Josef Aschbacher
Video: 00:14:08
Watch the one-to-one interview with Josef Aschbacher, Director General of the European Space Agency (ESA), extracted from Plenary 1 of the 76th International Astronautical Congress (IAC 2025). In this session, he shares his insights into ESA's strategic vision.
A Black Hole Merger's "Kick" Was Measured For The First Time
Black hole mergers are some of the most violent events in the universe. Just how violent is becoming more clear in part due to a new paper published in Nature Astronomy. For the first time, it tracks the “recoil” that the newly formed black hole gets from asymmetric gravitational waves that are released during the merger. Turns out they are strong enough to “kick” the new, supermassive combined black hole into motion at a speed of thousands of kilometers a second.
Hubble Telescope finds galaxy with puzzling shape | Space photo of the day for Sept. 29, 2025
The Hubble Space Telescope saw a galaxy that has features of both elliptical and spiral galaxies, puzzling experts.
