Space Exploration

Space Exploration

a picture of a mountain with a blue circle in the middle.
Exoplanet LP 791-18d is likely to have an atmosphere and liquid water.
JADES deep image
Hubble showed us what our modern day Universe looks like. JWST's big goal was to teach us how the Universe grew up. Here's where we are now.
Loneliest galaxy MCG+01–02–015
With no other galaxies in its vicinity for ~100 million light-years in all directions, it's as isolated and lonely as a galaxy can be.
Photo of the Space Shuttle Challenger explosion
Memorial day is a time to remember veterans killed in the line of service. These spaceflight heroes deserve to be remembered, too.
a painting of a green and a blue planet.
"Superhabitable" planets might be real, but Earth is probably as good as it gets.
a room with a bunch of different types of helmets on display.
Science fiction movies capture a classic human flaw: getting the future mostly wrong.
a futuristic living room with a large round window.
Does humanity have a moral imperative to seed life on lifeless worlds? And should we avoid colonizing a planet if life already exists there?
a close up of a rock with holes in it.
A next-generation instrument on a delayed rover may be the key to answering the question of life on Mars.
asteroid deliver organics to Earth
When the Universe was first born, the ingredients necessary for life were nowhere to be found. Only our "lucky stars" enabled our existence.
life beyond earth
Back in 1990, we hadn't discovered a single planet outside of our Solar System. Here are 10 facts that would've surprised every astronomer.
composite JWST ALMA HST Fomalhaut
The nearby, bright star Fomalhaut had the first optically imaged planetary candidate. Using JWST's eyes, astronomers found so much more.
four exoplanets super-earth mini-neptune
They're the most common type of exoplanet known today, and many astronomers have called them "super-habitable." None of that is true.
perseverance ingenuity mars
Mars, the red planet, was a world we knew almost nothing about until our first spacecraft visited it. In just ~50 years, how far we've come!
a drawing of an astronaut on the moon.
In the spirit of the 1969 moon landing, we now have a golden opportunity to pursue “nondisruptive” creative solutions.
alpha centauri
This oddball system of three stars might be our best chance at finding nearby life in the Universe.
sun red giant swallow planet
Many planets will eventually be devoured by their parent star. For the first time, we caught a star in the act, eating its innermost planet!
a man in a space suit with a camera in his hand.
It's not about fairness. It's about using every possible advantage.
jwst background galaxies
These high-mass, rapidly star-forming galaxies have called modern cosmology into question. But hi-res simulations show no tension at all.
a group of people standing in front of a large UFO
Perhaps we should be searching for “other Mercurys” rather than “other Earths.”
a map of volcanoes on Venus with different colored dots.
Like Mars today, Venus used to be a sci-fi superstar. Recent discoveries could re-ignite our interest in Earth’s “evil twin.”
JWST vs Hubble deep field
With infrared capabilities and image sharpness far beyond Hubble's limits, JWST looked at Hubble's deepest field, revealing so much more.
Uranus 1986 Voyager 2 2023 JWST
Voyager 2 flew past Uranus in 1986, finding a bland, featureless world. Now, in 2023, JWST's sights are similar. There's a reason for that.
map of earth eclipse path April 8 2024
The next solar eclipse to occur over heavily populated areas is on April 8, 2024. For a spectacular show; here's where the best views are!
mauritius reunion ISS earth night
Mercury, Venus, and Mars are all uni-plate planets, and may always have been. Here's what's known about why Earth, uniquely, has plate tectonics.
runaway supermassive black hole
Speeding through the Universe and leaving a wake of new stars, this runaway supermassive black hole is likely the first among thousands.
WR 124 JWST composite
This beautiful JWST image of Wolf-Rayet star WR 124 has been called a "prelude to a supernova" by NASA. That might be entirely wrong.
impact crater
Many impact craters on Earth have been erased thanks to wind, water, and plate tectonics. But scientists have clever ways to find them.