Stories by Alexandra Witze

Data from the Cassini spacecraft suggest the rings formed 4.4 billion years ago

The new discovery suggests better ways to deflect an incoming space rock

California's current water crisis offers a preview of what climate change will bring elsewhere

NASA says the rover will carry a zoomable camera, an oxygen-maker and instruments geared to the selection of samples that might be studied one day back on Earth

The Hubble space telescope could increase the chances of success for the New Horizons mission, which is currently nine tenths of the way to Pluto

A proposal claims that harnessing quantum entanglement could surpass the accuracy of any single atomic clock

A metabolic analysis suggests that dinosaurs could regulate their body temperatures, but only to a point

NASA pushes its research agenda in case Russia, which the U.S. has criticized for intervening in Ukraine, stops participating in the International Space Station 

Small differences in oxygen-isotope ratios have been used to support the big-smash theory

A scramble is on to find an object in the outer solar system's Kuiper Belt in time for a close-up visit

Planetary geologists are set to narrow down a list of landing sites for a mission set for 2020

"Pinocchio rex" roamed southern China just before the extinction of the dinosaurs

The smaller-than-expected tremor has scientists scrambling to redefine rules for areas of extreme seismic stress

An icy body found far beyond Pluto raises questions about the history and far-flung contents of our solar system

A U.S.-Mexico agreement is paving the way for a rare environmental test

With Congress unlikely to approve tax-based boosts for science, agency funding hopes are dashed

Astronomers have spotted their best candidate ever for a Thorne-Zytkow object, a hybrid star proposed almost 40 years ago

Mega-eruptions and smaller volcanoes are triggered by different mechanisms

Steep geologic faults are most likely to host strange luminescence

NASA's long-term vision, released by the agency's astrophysics division, restates its broad and popular themes for scientists to pursue including "Are We Alone?" and "How Did We Get Here?"

Measurements of starlight passing through atmospheres could enable mass measurements for planets around faint stars

The Hubble Space Telescope has observed possible plumes emanating from the moon's south pole

A predictive model will be used to map areas vulnerable to collapse

The latest views of the planet settle a decades-old argument about its evolution