Stories by Jonathan O'Callaghan

With the rise of private orbital habitats, vacations in space are becoming a real possibility for the ultrawealthy

Once unfathomable, the milestone of a single company having 10,000 satellites operating overhead signals that the era of mega constellations is here to stay

New experiments show how RNA might form not just on Earth but on other rocky planets, too

NASA spent years and billions of dollars collecting Martian samples to bring home. Now they might be stranded

Humans have been in space onboard the ISS continuously for 25 years. As the station nears its end, new commercial habitats are lining up to take its place

New peer-reviewed research reporting strange lights in the pre-space-age sky is sparking curiosity and controversy

A monumental sign of an atmosphere on TRAPPIST-1e could be the precursor to finally finding a living world around another star

Scientists are racing to learn as much as possible about the interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS before it fades from view forever

A U.S. gravitational wave detector spotted a collision between fast-spinning “forbidden” black holes that challenge physics models

Recent observations have revealed carbon monoxide venting from the largest comet ever seen, providing clues about its origins in the mysterious depths of the outer solar system

Amazon has launched its first operational Project Kuiper satellites in its attempt to compete with SpaceX’s Starlink—but experts remain concerned about space debris and astronomy

The next year of science on the James Webb Space Telescope has been announced amid mounting budgetary uncertainty that could affect the unparalleled observatory

The possibility of the asteroid 2024 YR4 impacting our planet might not be ruled out until 2028, raising the prospect we’ll need to prepare for the worst

Peculiar bursts of energy called chorus waves have been detected in deep space far from our planet, suggesting they could pose problems for long-distance space travel

The Parker Solar Probe will swoop just 6.1 million kilometers above the sun’s surface on Christmas Eve. Scientists are thrilled at what we might learn

The nearby star Vega, featured in the 1997 movie Contact, appears to have a smooth disk devoid of giant planets for reasons we can’t explain

This blazingly fast star is shooting through the Milky Way with a planet in tow

Experiment shows that a nuclear explosion could save the planet from a deadly asteroid impact

Analyzing 1,504 supernovae into the distant universe, astronomers have shown the clearest evidence yet for cosmological time dilation as predicted by Einstein

Years of careful planning helped safeguard against last weekend’s severe space weather, but we still don’t know how we’d cope with a monster event

Facing budgetary pressure for its Mars Sample Return program, NASA has turned to private industry for ideas—perhaps with one specific company in mind

The Chandra X-ray Observatory faces a premature end under new funding cuts proposed by NASA—and astronomers aren’t happy

New analyses cast doubt on claims that a meteor witnessed over the South Pacific in 2014 came from another star system and raise questions about a high-profile expedition to recover the fireball’s fragments from the seafloor

The next year of science for the James Webb Space Telescope has been selected. It includes remote galaxy observations and, at last, a hunt for exomoons