New Juno images of Io’s fiery volcanoes

Jupiter's moon Io is the most volcanically active world in our solar system. The Juno spacecraft - now orbiting Jupiter - has now gazed across a distance to acquire new images and insights about the "fires of Io."

Galaxy collision to send solar system flying?

A new computer simulation shows the Large Magellanic Cloud is hurtling toward our galaxy on a collision course. Could the collision knock our solar system out of the Milky Way?

Dark matter on the move

New evidence suggests that dark matter - the mysterious stuff that makes up a significant percentage of the universe's mass - can heat up and move around.

China’s Chang’e-4 lands on moon’s far side

China’s Chang’e-4 spacecraft set down last night, according to clocks in the Americas. It's a historic event, the first time a spacecraft has landed on the side of the moon we cannot see.

Oxygen and life: a cautionary tale

On Earth, oxygen is a signature byproduct of life. But what if astronomers found oxygen in the atmosphere of a planet orbiting a distant sun? Would that prove life exists there? Not necessarily, says a new study.

Ultima Thule seen in detail

Ultima Thule - a Kuiper Belt object and the most distant object yet seen by an earthly spacecraft - is now revealed as a "contact binary," created when two small bodies in the early solar system stuck together.

Has Mars’ methane gone missing?

The 1st results from ESA's Trace Gas Orbiter mission at Mars have been released and - surprise - no atmospheric methane. That's even though methane on Mars has been observed multiple times before. Where is it?

Spacecraft orbits tiny Bennu, breaks record

On December 31 - while we celebrated - NASA's OSIRIS-REx spacecraft went into orbit around Bennu, a near-Earth asteroid. The maneuver makes Bennu the smallest object yet to be orbited by a spacecraft.

Pluto craft to encounter Ultima Thule

New Horizons is the spacecraft that sent back those amazing images of Pluto in 2015. Ultima Thule is its next target, a billion miles beyond Pluto. The encounter is New Year's Day, but start watching now!

EarthSky’s top 5 stories of 2018

From the months-long eruption of Hawaii's Kilauea Volcano to a strange object discovered on the surface of Mars - and more - here's a quick roundup of the stories our readers enjoyed most in 2018.

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