Astronomy

The latest data release from the European Space Agency’s Gaia mission is sparking a frenzy of exciting new astrophysics research

Images from Japan’s Himawari-8 spacecraft shed light on the red supergiant star’s remarkable fading

Recommendations from the editors of Scientific American

The impact has slightly degraded one of the observatory’s mirror segments, but NASA says the telescope has sustained no significant damage

Space agency officials promise to deliver geology results from worlds dozens of light-years away

In the far future, we could reveal detailed views of distant worlds by turning our home star into a gravitational lens

Using a technique to block certain wavelengths of light, researchers hope to discover many more hidden pulsars

NASA and the German space agency ground the telescope on a plane, citing the astronomy community’s concerns over cost and productivity

The alien comets could illuminate the history of their planetary system

A satellite will scour the Milky Way for exoplanets orbiting stars just like the sun

E-mailed exchanges show the space agency’s internal struggle to address pleas to change the controversial name of its latest, greatest observatory