Mercury is tectonically active

New findings suggest Mercury is contracting and experiences ongoing "mercuryquakes."

Are we in a sixth mass extinction?

This short video puts modern extinctions in context by comparing them with Earth's 5 previous mass extinctions.

Rosetta spacecraft selfie with comet

An otherworldly take on an earthly trend, as Rosetta posed with its comet, 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko, in 2014.

Shark and tuna convergent evolution

Lamnid sharks and tuna have similar physical traits that make them top ocean predators. But, a new study says, they took very different evolutionary paths.

Moon and Mercury on September 29

Mercury and the moon get close on the morning of September 29! They're easiest to see from the Northern Hemisphere or southern tropics.

Possible water plumes spotted on Europa

Water plumes erupting on Jupiter's moon Europa might make it easier to investigate whether life exists in the warm ocean believed to be deep beneath its icy surface.

Moon and Mercury shortly before sunrise

September 28 is also the day of Mercury's greatest elongation, when the planet will be 18 degrees west of the sun on our sky's dome. Look shortly before sunup.

New theory on why time advances

Why does time flow inexorably toward the future? A Berkeley physicist proposes that time is expanding because space is expanding.

Last hurrah of sunlike star

New Hubble image shows the demise of a sunlike star. Our own sun will also burn out and shroud itself with stellar debris, but not for another 5 billion years.

Cassini begins epic final year at Saturn

The spacecraft will plunge repeatedly between Saturn and its rings, and finally execute a headlong plummet into the body of Saturn itself.