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Want some crazy space phenomena? You don't have to leave the neighborhood for it.

With a telescope at just the right distance from the Sun, we could use its gravity to enhance and magnify a potentially inhabited planet.

From here on Earth, looking farther away in space means looking farther back in time. So what are distant Earth-watchers seeing right now?

If there are human-sized creatures walking around on other planets, would we be able to view them directly?

Pluto failed to meet the definition of a planet, but some astronomers think there might be a legitimate Planet 9 out there.

Most potentially hazardous asteroids remain unidentified. NEO surveyor could change that, but only if it's funded, and soon.

Jupiter's mysterious auroral events are caused by vibrating waves of plasma.

We just observed the first ‘lunar formation’ in an exoplanetary system. This one image, above, is the first to show moons actively forming around a planet. This colourful image shows […]

Tiny fluctuations in old Kepler data reveals four runaway planets that are reminiscent of Earth.

Scientists find routes using arches of chaos that can lead to much faster space travel.

Known as orphaned planets, rogue planets, or planets without parent stars, these "outliers" might be the most common planet of all.

As long as it remains operational, we’ll have a chance to conduct groundbreaking science with it. In the history of spaceflight, only five spacecraft ever launched by humanity possess enough energy […]

Phobos and Deimos only have two explanations, and neither one adds up.

A newly discovered “ultrahot Jupiter” has the shortest orbit of any known gas giant.

Astronomers possibly solve the mystery of how the enormous Oort cloud, with over 100 billion comet-like objects, was formed.

Out of the four rocky planets in our Solar System, only Earth presently has plate tectonics. But billions of years ago, Venus had them, too.

Massive objects like black holes, stars, and rogue planets routinely pass near our Solar System. An ensuing comet storm could destroy us.

Einstein's "happiest thought" led to General Relativity's formulation. Would a different profound insight have led us forever astray?

The sky is blue. The oceans are blue. While science can explain them both, the reasons for each are entirely different.

You might be inclined to modify gravity instead, but those ideas have grossly unequal evidence supporting them. What is it, exactly, that you’re supposed to do when the predictions of […]

And why, even at its faintest, it always outshines every other star and planet. If you’ve been looking to the west after sunset recently, you may have noticed that there’s one […]

In 2006, the IAU demoted Pluto. Here’s what we know today. In 2006, the last planet in our Solar System suffered an unforgettable insult, as Pluto — known for generations as our ninth […]

When the average person has a "theory," they're just guessing. But for a scientist, a theory is the pinnacle of what we can achieve.

There are exposed planetary cores orbiting stars, and we may have already found them. When we take a look at the planets in our Solar System, there’s a pretty clear difference […]

Conjunctions this close are rare, but give humanity an opportunity to view our Solar System’s faintest planet. With eight planets orbiting our Sun, any two will eventually appear close together from […]

JWST just found its first transiting exoplanet, and it's 99% the size of Earth. But with no atmosphere seen, perhaps air is truly rare.

65 million years ago, a massive asteroid struck Earth. Not only did Jupiter not stop it, but it probably caused the impact itself.

Saturn's Iapetus, discovered way back in 1671, has three bizarre features that science still can't fully explain.

In our Solar System, even the two brightest planets frequently align in our skies. But only rarely is it spectacularly visible from Earth.

Science is for everyone, even those possessing strongly held beliefs that seem to conflict with the best available evidence.