Watch Blue Origin launch its New Shepard spacecraft live right here
This year has already been packed with rocket launches, and many of those have come from SpaceX. There’s no denying that SpaceX is leading the …
Space
Astronomers accidentally discover a dozen new moons around Jupiter
Astronomers oftentimes have to look very, very carefully for something that they believe exists in a certain spot in space. Whether that be an exoplanet …
Venus photobombed the Moon last night, and everyone loved it
If you’re staring at the sky on a clear night it’s usually pretty easy to spot the Moon, but we often forget that it’s sometimes …
Jupiter’s moon Io is covered in volcanos, and astronomers may have just spotted another one
Jupiter might be the largest, most eye-catching planet in our Solar System, but the planet itself isn’t the only interesting thing in its neighborhood. Jupiter’s …
Astronomers just discovered something incredible about what they thought was a run-of-the-mill asteroid
Spotting asteroids has become pretty routine for astronomers working with some of the most powerful telescopes on the planet, but every once in a while …
Watch Cape Canaveral’s iconic launch towers crumble in early-morning demolition
Cape Canaveral has always been a cherished place for the US space program, having hosting some of the most important space missions stretching back decades. …
Nearby exoplanet Ross 128 b is looking more and more like Earth’s bigger cousin
Exoplanet discoveries have been coming fast and furious for several years now, thanks in large part to increasingly power telescope technology that allows us to …
New telescope camera snaps gorgeous image of distant star cluster
NASA regularly delivers outer space eye candy snapped with its various telescopes, but the European Southern Observatory has plenty of star-gazing power as well, and …
Russia just crushed the record for fastest trip to the International Space Station
Russian cargo resupply trips to the International Space Station have become such a regular, predictable thing that even NASA rarely bothers to make a big …
Former astronaut says humans could have made it to Mars decades ago, but most would probably die
You’ve heard a whole lot about humans on Mars in recent years thanks to advancements in various technologies that could allow us to get there …
The brightest object in the universe was just discovered, but is it still there?
Space is dark, which makes finding bright things like stars pretty darn easy. It also makes it possible for high-powered telescopes to spot things that …
Check out the insane heat shield NASA just installed on the Parker Solar Probe
The Parker Solar Probe is going to get close to the Sun than any spacecraft mankind has ever launched into space. It’s going to study …
An ambitious plan to bring Mars samples back to Earth has been set into motion
We’ve learned an incredible amount of information about Mars in the past two decades, and much of it is thanks to the small fleet of …
Incredibly rude nearby star system is firing particles at Earth like a ‘cosmic ray gun’
Our Sun is obviously the most intense place in our Solar System, but it’s actually pretty chill when compared to many other systems. Eta Carinae, …
Man, space is huge
Size is relative. A carpenter ant is huge compared to a regular ant, but it’s still tiny when compared to, say, your foot. The challenge …
Outer space has way better fireworks than we ever will
Well, it’s the Fourth of July, which means sunburns, cookouts, and lots of questionable fuses being lit from coast to coast. But whether you’ll be …
Hundreds of thousands of asteroids in our Solar System were born from a few now-dead planets
It’s tempting to imagine that the asteroids that litter our Solar System have been there from the start, circling the Sun for ages while the …
A massive object devastated Uranus a long time ago and it never fully recovered
Our Solar System is a pretty calm place these days, all things considered, but that wasn’t always the case. In the period when the planets …
NASA’s Opportunity rover has been sitting silently in the dark Martian dust storm for three weeks
When you get caught in a storm here on Earth you just find shelter for a little while and let it pass, but things are …
Feast your eyes on the very first image ever captured of a planet being born
Planet formation isn’t exactly the kind of thing that happens in the blink of an eye. New worlds form over extremely long stretches of time, …
Scientists just changed their mind about that ‘Alien Probe’ asteroid again
The bizarre interstellar visitor that whizzed through our Solar System late last year stunned scientists the world over. The object, named Oumuamua snuck up out …
The possibility of alien life on Saturn’s moon Enceladus just got much more realistic
Scientists continue to peer deeper into the galaxy in the search for exoplanets that may host alien life, but our best chance of finding extraterrestrial …
Japan’s asteroid probe just arrived at a massive space rock, and now it gets to blow stuff up
Back in 2014, Japan’s space program JAXA launched an asteroid probe that had a long journey ahead of it. The spacecraft, called Hayabusa 2, spent …
Will we even recognize alien life when we see it? NASA isn’t so sure
Decades of science fiction movies, tv shows, and video games have led us to believe that when we spot another planet that has life we’re …
NASA showcases gorgeous new photo of Jupiter that looks almost too amazing to be real
Man, Jupiter sure is weird. The gas giant is one of the most-photographed objects in our Solar System thanks to its mesmerizing, swirling cloud tops, …
Popular toymaker apologizes for selling model of Nazi UFO that never actually existed
Revell is one of the most well-known and respected hobbyist brands on the planet. The company has been in business for three-quarters of a century, …
Bright fireball streaks through the sky over Russia, causing sonic boom
It was just last week that NASA publicly revealed its plans to enhance its tracking and detection systems for smaller near-Earth objects, and now a …
Blue Origin, which has yet to send a human into space, will start selling tickets for spaceflight next year
What is it with these private spaceflight companies always jumping the gun? SpaceX has become notorious for delaying and pushing back previously-stated target dates — …
NASA has a new plan to find all the Earth-threatening asteroids it hasn’t detected yet
Thanks to the steady stream of new asteroid discoveries that rolls out of NASA and other skywatching groups around the world you might think that …
Scientists discover that wind on Venus actually makes it spin faster
Ever walk down the street on a particularly windy day and feel yourself being pushed along? The planet Venus knows all about that. Researchers studying …
