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New Horizons, heading out, spies 1994 JR1
New Horizons imaged this distant Kuiper Belt Object twice. It has learned its location and spin, and dispelled a theory that 1994 JR1 is a quasi-satellite of Pluto.
May 20, 2016
Giant impacts typical for Earth-like worlds
An advanced computer simulation suggests that newly forming Earth-like worlds are likely to suffer a giant impact, like that thought to have created our moon.
May 18, 2016
Small blue galaxy offers Big Bang clues
This galaxy - nicknamed 'little lion' - contains the lowest level of heavy elements ever detected in a gravitationally bound system of stars.
May 16, 2016
When will 2007 OR10 get a name?
2007 OR10 is now known as the third-largest dwarf planet. It's about a third smaller than Pluto. It's the largest unnamed body in our solar system.
May 16, 2016
News about mystery star KIC 8462852 aka Tabby’s Star
Alien megastructures - aka Dyson spheres - around a star 1,500 light-years away? Astronomers struggle to explain the most mysterious star in the universe.
May 14, 2016
New look at Mercury’s peaks and valleys
First global topographic map of Mercury shows the whole surface of our solar system's innermost planet. MESSENGER mission scientists used 100,000 images to create it.
May 14, 2016
Do no harm to life on Mars? Ethical limits of Prime Directive
A philosopher argues that now is the time to figure it out, before we make the inevitable discovery of extraterrestrial life.
May 14, 2016
Old under-ice volcanoes on Mars
An oddly textured region of southern Mars is not ice-covered today. Yet landforms here - and now certain minerals - are associated with under-ice volcanoes.
May 12, 2016
Ride along as a rocket lands
A rocketcam gives you a ringside seat on the view from space, as Blue Origin's New Shepard rocket plummets earthward for an upright landing.
May 12, 2016
Kepler confirms 1,284 new planets
The announcement more than doubles Kepler's confirmed exoplanets and suggests that, somewhere out there, we'll discover another Earth.
May 11, 2016
