Space News & Blog Articles

How can we successfully collect and return samples from Mercury and Venus to Earth? This is what a recent study presented at the 56th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference hopes to address as a pair of researchers from the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) discussed how future missions could successfully conduct sample return missions from the two innermost planets in our solar system. This study has the potential to help scientists, engineers, and mission planners better understand new methods for conducting sample returns throughout the solar system, and specifically from hard-to-reach destinations.

A new cosmic model suggests that singularities could briefly pop into existence, spewing matter and energy into the cosmos, negating the need for dark energy and dark matter.

The European Space Agency just released some new snapshots from its Mars Express orbiter that detail the dynamic terrain of the Red Planet's Acheron Fossae region.

Our Sun, like all stars, is made mostly of hydrogen and helium. They are by far the most abundant elements, formed in the early moments of the Universe. But our star is also rich in other elements astronomers call "metals." Carbon, nitrogen, iron, gold, and more. These elements were created through astrophysical processes, such as supernovae and neutron star collisions. The dust of long-dead stars that gathered together into molecular clouds and formed new, younger stars such as the Sun. Stars rich in metals. But there are still stars out there that are not metal rich. These extremely metal-poor stars, or EMPs, hold clues to the origin of stars in the cosmos.

On Monday (April 14), Aisha Bowe became the first Bahamian woman to launch to space — and she already wants to go back.

Heads up aurora chasers! Powerful geomagnetic storm conditions could trigger northern lights at mid-latitudes overnight as CME impact is detected.

Katy Perry isn't the first performer with space ambitions; Lance Bass, Beyonce, Lady Gaga and Justin Bieber all hoped to be first at one time or another.

When JWST launched, it found the most distant known galaxy: JADES-GS-z14-0, with a redshift of 14.32, and seen about 290 million years after the Big Bang. Now, a team of astronomers has gone even deeper, searching for galaxies in the redshift 15-30 range, which would be galaxies from 270 to 100 million years after the beginning of the Universe. They've found a few candidates in the 15-20 range, but these could be closer, low-mass dusty galaxies.

Planetary nebula Kohoutek 4-55 as viewed by the Hubble Space Telescope.

NASA astronaut Don Pettit and two cosmonaut colleagues will return to Earth from the International Space Station on Saturday night (April 19), if all goes to plan.

Oprah Winfrey was on hand April 14 to witness the launch of Blue Origin's historic NS-31 mission, which carried her friend of nearly 50 years, journalist Gayle King, to and from suborbital space.

Alien life could exist on the huge Saturn moon Titan, but probably not in the abundance scientists once hoped, according to a new study.

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On 12 March 2025, ESA’s Hera spacecraft soared just 5000 km above Mars and passed within 300 km of its distant moon, Deimos. Captured by Hera’s 1020x1020 pixel Asteroid Framing Camera, this video sequence offers a rare view of the red planet and its enigmatic moon. The original greyscale images have been colour-enhanced based on known surface features.

Cybernetic mercenaries team up to venture into an abandoned colony planet, grab valuable loot, and fight each other in Bungie's Marathon reboot.

Pulsar Fusion just released a video showcasing its planned Sunbird nuclear fusion rocket, which is designed to reach speeds of about 329,000 mph (500,000 kph).

A stunning new image from the James Webb Space Telescope is allowing astronomers to examine the complex and turbulent final stages of a dying star.

It’s no surprise that the future of humanity and even Earth’s biodiversity hangs in the balance and so the race to preserve life on our planet has never been more urgent. Species and ecosystems are vanishing at alarming rate so teams of scientists are turning to cutting-edge solutions to safeguard the natural world for future generations. A new paper explores cryopreservation as one solution, a technology that allows living cells to be frozen and stored for centuries, preserving genetic material and even entire organisms. This approach comes with its own challenges but as we explore this innovative frontier, it becomes clear that reimagining how and where we protect life is essential to securing the planet’s biological legacy.

Jupiter’s moon Europa is a fascinating target for study. Data from the Galileo spacecraft’s Solid State Imager showed that Europa, one of Jupiter’s moons, has a geologically young and varied surface featuring formations like pits, spots, and cryolava domes. A new study has revealed more about the composition of the cryovolcanoes and their domes but also and more excitingly perhaps that they may even provide some form of habitation as we explore the Solar System!

Journalist Gayle King conquered her fear of flying in a big way today (April 14), going to space with Katy Perry and others in Blue Origin's historic all-female flight.

The search for life involves the most sophisticated observational machines known to humanity. They peer out across the light-years, looking for some proof - any proof - that other life exists, out there. What if, despite all our efforts, those observations turn up NO evidence of life elsewhere in our Milky Way Galaxy?

Titan is Saturn's largest moon, with a thick atmosphere and liquid methane lakes, making it the only place besides Earth with stable liquid on its surface. A new paper reveals how a team of researchers have compared real craters on Titan with computer-simulated ones to determine the thickness of its icy shell. This information is important for understanding Titan's interior structure, how it evolved thermally, and its potential to produce organic molecules, making it significant for astrobiological research.