Sign Up for Our Amazing Newsletter!
A daily update by email. Science news, great photos, sky alerts.
Thank you! Your submission has been received!
Oops! Something went wrong while submitting the form.
Planet-hunter Kepler keeps going as fuel dwindles
Kepler has discovered thousands of exoplanets, and soon will run out of fuel. Now it's begun its 18th observing campaign, with a focus on objects including the famous nearby Beehive star cluster and infamous asteroid Apophis.
May 30, 2018
Could we learn E.T.’s language?
If an extraterrestrial civilization had a language, would it have common features with Earth languages? Linguists explain why they think it's possible.
May 29, 2018
Does Planet Nine exist? Astronomers point to new evidence
A new study concludes that a large, as-yet-unknown Planet Nine - an estimated 4 times the size of Earth and 10 times its mass - is influencing the behavior of an oddball object in the outer solar system.
May 27, 2018
Is Pluto made of a billion comets?
By comparing data from the 1st-ever Pluto flyby and a 1st-ever comet rendezvous mission, scientists developed what they call the 'giant comet’ model of Pluto formation.
May 25, 2018
Fly through the Orion Nebula
Take 3 minutes to fly through the spectacular Orion Nebula, in this new 3D visualization from NASA.
May 24, 2018
Astronomers scrutinize Black Widow pulsar
They observed 2 intense regions of radiation on this rapidly spinning pulsar some 6,500 light-years away. "Like seeing a flea on the surface of Pluto," they said.
May 23, 2018
A space ant fires its lasers
A rare natural laser beaming from the heart of the spectacular Ant Nebula suggests the presence of a double star system.
May 23, 2018
A tiny helicopter for Mars 2020
"After the Wright Brothers proved 117 years ago that powered, sustained, and controlled flight was possible here on Earth, another group of American pioneers may prove the same can be done on another world."
May 22, 2018
Meet our solar system’s 1st-known permanent immigrant
Mysterious asteroid 2015 BZ509 - currently nestling in Jupiter's orbit - became less mysterious once astronomers realized it's an immigrant, captured from another solar system.
May 21, 2018
Astronomers spot exiled asteroid in outer reaches of solar system
This object was likely born in the Asteroid Belt between Mars and Jupiter, then flung billions of miles to the Kuiper Belt on the edge of the solar system.
May 21, 2018
