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What happens to Earth in 5 billion years?
What will happen to Earth when our sun becomes a red giant? A possible planet for the old star L2 Puppis may offer a sneak peek.
December 11, 2016
Robot eyes to see asteroid Bennu
A spacecraft now traveling to asteroid Bennu will retrieve an asteroid sample. Scientists equipped the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft sophisticated cameras to watch it all unfold.
December 10, 2016
More evidence for young Saturn moons
Saturn’s bulging core and twisting gravitational forces suggest new ages for the planet’s moons. They appear younger than previously thought.
December 8, 2016
Chip brings exoplanets into clearer view
The new chip will let astronomers peer through the dust cloud in which new planets are forming, in much the same way that firefighters use infrared to see through smoke.
December 7, 2016
Cassini’s penultimate orbit: 1st images
Cassini spacecraft at Saturn now in its final year. Carolyn Porco said: "Let these images ... remind you that we've lived a bold and daring adventure around the solar system's most magnificent planet."
December 7, 2016
Landing on Mars is hard
Mars' atmospheric pressure is less than 1% that of Earth, so spacecraft come down hard. Europe has been trying for a Mars' soft landing since 2003. How they plan to succeed.
December 6, 2016
Star clusters seen spewing out dust
UCLA astronomers confirm that stars are responsible for producing dust on a galactic scale, a finding that's consistent with long-standing theories.
December 5, 2016
Astronomers see giant galaxy being born
The Spiderweb Galaxy - which spans some 3 times the diameter of our Milky Way - is forming inside a cluster of protogalaxies, in a dense soup of molecular gas.
December 4, 2016
Mystery of sun’s coronal heating
Exploding "heat bombs" might explain why the sun's upper atmosphere, or corona, sizzles at millions of degrees - hundreds of times hotter than at the surface.
December 2, 2016
It’s a bird, a plane, the tiniest asteroid!
Asteroid 2015 TC25 is small enough to be straddled by a person, reminiscent of the iconic bomb-riding scene in the movie Dr. Strangelove. It swept between us and the moon a year ago.
December 2, 2016
