A new record for the most distant quasar

Astronomers have a new measurement for the distance of quasar J0313-1806, making it the new record-holder for the most distant quasar known. We're seeing it just 670 million years after the Big Bang, or more than 13 billion light-years away.

SpaceX Cargo Dragon succeeds in 1st Atlantic splashdown

Space'sX CRS-21 Cargo Dragon returned to Earth from the ISS today, January 13, 2021, splashing down off the coast of Florida for the first time ever. The ship also succeeded in the first-ever autonomous undocking.

A new look at the universe’s oldest light

New work agrees with older research suggesting the oldest light in the universe - from the most distant galaxy yet known - started its journey toward us 13.77 billion years ago.

New and rare direct image of a brown dwarf

Astronomers have obtained one of the best images yet of a brown dwarf, an object in a mass range midway between stars and planets. This brown dwarf - called HD 33632 Ab - lies 86 light-years from our sun.

How will the U.S. space program fare under Joe Biden?

Joe Biden is the United States presidential election winner, but his plans for NASA remain unclear. And while citizens digest the election results, the space industry is left wondering what comes next.

The sun in 2020

See a whole year of sun images, an image a day for 2020, taken by ESA's Proba-2 satellite.

Hostile space weather might not be all bad for exoplanet life

A new study from Northwestern University shows that solar flares - space weather - might not always be as dangerous for life on exoplanets as typically thought. In fact, it might even help astronomers discover alien life on distant worlds.

Meet PitRanger: Tiny rover designed to probe the lunar underworld

Researchers have been busily building a prototype of a 33-pound (15 kg) lunar mini-robot, set to be the key instrument in a future mission aimed at capturing high-definition images of moon pits.

220 years ago today: Ceres, 1st asteroid discovered

Giuseppe Piazzi discovered the asteroid Ceres - now considered a dwarf planet - on January 1, 1801.

New ice-mapping Mars mission slated for 2026 launch

The Mars Ice Mapper is a proposed Mars satellite being developed by NASA in collaboration with the Canadian Space Agency. Its job is to create detailed geographic maps of water ice across the surface of the red planet.