Stories by Jonathan O'Callaghan

The company’s ongoing launches of thousands of satellites for global high-speed Internet service may clash with preexisting environmental regulations

Second only to the U.S. in a fully successful Mars landing, China is now set to explore the Utopia Planitia region of the Red Planet’s surface

With Ingenuity’s five successful flights on the Red Planet, aviation may find unexpected footing in the future of space exploration

From more than 1,000 proposals, the scientists that hoped to perform the observatory’s historic first studies now know their fate

Understanding the fate of Mars’s moisture could unlock deep secrets of the planet’s past habitability

With the space agency’s latest rover set to touch down on February 18, here is the agenda for its initial months

Strange radio transmissions appear to be coming from our nearest star system. Now scientists are trying to work out what is sending them

The enigmatic origins of chondrules—tiny inclusions in most meteorites—may be revealed at last, thanks in part to pristine material returned to Earth from asteroid Ryugu

The European Space Agency telescope is allowing our Milky Way to be studied like never before

Physicists describe a way to merge quantum theory with Einstein’s special theory of relativity—and even a method to test it experimentally

The spacecraft’s first attempt to gather material from the space rock’s surface could become the largest nonlunar sample return in history

Data from an old NASA mission to our sister planet may contain overlooked evidence for the gas phosphine, a potential biosignature

Researchers say they have detected a group of lakes hidden under the Red Planet’s icy surface

In December the spacecraft will swing past our planet and drop off samples collected from an ancient asteroid

A new generation of orbiters, landers and rovers will study the Red Planet as never before, setting the stage for returning pristine samples to Earth

The interstellar visitor ‘Oumuamua, discovered in 2017, may represent an entirely new type of astrophysical object, two astronomers say

At just 1,000 light-years away, an object in a nearby star system could be our nearest known black hole—but not everyone is convinced

It could be an unprecedented view of a world in the closest planetary system to our own, but uncertainties aplenty remain

Pristine alien material from the object 2I/Borisov is being exposed to space for the first time—but the coronavirus pandemic is stopping astronomers from watching it

A new study suggests there are key differences between the compositions of Earth and its natural satellite, with significant implications for lunar history

Radar data from the Chang’e-4 mission show multiple debris layers under the rover, recording eons of lunar history

Researchers have confirmed a long-predicted key similarity between hydrogen and antihydrogen

Scientists have released the first pictures from a new telescope in Hawaii, one of three missions expected to redefine our understanding of our home star in the 2020s

A new paper suggests that the agency broke U.S. environmental law in its approval of the satellites and that if it were to be sued in court, it would likely lose