Space News & Blog Articles

Way back in 2006, the Spitzer Space Telescope (SST) took an infrared look at a strange object called Herbig-Haro 49/50. It's a jet flowing away from a hot young star. The Spitzer image showed a fuzzy blob at the end of the jet. Was it part of the jet, or something more distant? Recently, the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) focused its infrared eye on the same object and sent home a fantastic snapshot of this cosmic tornado. It also answered the question about the blob: it turns out to be a distant galaxy, itself bursting with hot young stars.

The U.S. Space Force has certified ULA's new Vulcan Centaur rocket to launch national security missions, doubling the number of providers for such flights.

Mars is cold and dry, but long ago, it was warmer and wetter. Today, its geology is driven by wind and sand, but it was also shaped by water and maybe even glaciers. Glacial activity on Mars was long assumed to be dry, with glaciers frozen right to their beds, scouring the landscape of the Red Planet. But now, researchers think they've found evidence of subglacial melting, where a layer of water forms under the glacier, helping to form various features on Mars.

NASA has canceled the planned June liftoff of a Cygnus ISS resupply mission due to damage the freighter incurred during transport to the launch site.

NASA's Parker Solar Probe has successfully completed its second science-gathering flyby of the sun, the space agency announced earlier this week.

Europe's star-mapping Gaia space observatory has entered its retirement orbit, after gathering valuable cosmic data for more than a decade.

Astronomers have discovered two new exoplanets that are similar to other worlds found in the Milky Way, but unlike any in our own solar system.

Dark matter is a confounding concept that teeters on the leading edges of cosmology and physics. We don't know what it is or how exactly it fits into the Standard Cosmological Model. We only know that its unseen mass is a critical part of the Universe.

Sabine Wren's Force FX lightsaber is a huge 55% off for Amazon's Big Spring Sale and it's the lowest price we've ever seen it, better than half price.

If you need something done, do it yourselves.

The Space Launch System (SLS) core stage and rocket boosters have now been stood up and mated in preparation for NASA's Artemis 2 moon mission.

Here's how to watch all the partial solar eclipse action unfold live online.

Two spacecraft flying as one – that is the goal of European Space Agency’s Proba-3 mission. Earlier this week, the eclipse-maker moved a step closer to achieving that goal, as both spacecraft aligned with the Sun, maintaining their relative position for several hours without any control from the ground.

Blue Origin has announced an April 14 liftoff date for its star-studded, all-female NS-31 mission launching on its New Shepard rocket.

Astrophysicist and artist Ed Belbruno explains how art helps scientists communicate their work to the public and even discover solutions to spaceflight and astronomy problems.

Solar Cycle 25 has surpassed its predecessor — but is the end in sight?

Just how rare are planetary alignments?

The European Space Agency (ESA) has powered down its Gaia spacecraft after more than a decade spent gathering data that are now being used to unravel the secrets of our home galaxy.

Dark energy may have a completely unknown aspect of physics acting as an accomplice in its efforts to defy gravity, suppressing the growth of large-scale structures like galaxy superclusters.

Image: Spying a spiral through a cosmic lens (Webb telescope image)

The search for evidence of life on Mars just got a little more interesting with the discovery of large organic molecules in a rock sample. The Mars Curiosity Rover, which is digging in the Martian rock beds as it goes along, tested pieces of its haul and found interesting organic compounds inside them.