Solar system

For the first time, we are sending a spacecraft to explore an alien ocean world—a moon that might host life today

The famous exploding star T Coronae Borealis is due to detonate any day now, but it’s running a little late

Sooner or later a doomsday asteroid will wipe out most life on Earth—unless, that is, we prevent threatening space rocks from hitting us in the first place

We are in a new and different kind of moon race, one the U.S. is losing. To win, says a former NASA official, we need new strategies

Comet C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan-ATLAS) could soon shine very bright in Earth’s skies

A small asteroid, 2024 PT5, will spend the next two months alongside our planet as a mini moon before swooping back to deep space

Scientists are putting a new spin on the creation of binary asteroids

Rather than building an obsolescent, obscenely-over-budget jumbo rocket, NASA should turn to building truly innovative space technologies and plan a realistic lunar landing program

Supermoons are popular in the media, but are they really so different from how our extraordinary moon ordinarily appears?

The world’s first commercial space walk, performed by billionaire Jared Isaacman and SpaceX engineer Sarah Gillis, tested new technology and was practically flawless

Starliner’s first crewed test flight has concluded with a successful touchdown—and two astronauts still in orbit awaiting a different ride home

Wispy whorls on the moon’s surface are as lovely as they are strange. Scientists are starting to unravel their origins