NASA Tests Its Flying-Saucer Lander for Mars
The lander, a six-meter Kevlar-inflatable disk, could carry heavier loads to the Red Planet
Stories by Lee Billings
Frenzy-Feeding Black Hole Makes Galaxy Most Luminous
A galaxy 12.5 billion light-years away gives off the light of 300 trillion suns, because its feeding black hole produces enough heat to set the whole galaxy's dust glowing. Lee Billings reports ...
Launch of First Private Solar Sail–Powered Spacecraft Set for Wednesday [Video]
With its LightSail project, the Planetary Society aims to take the next step in its decades-long quest to transform spaceflight
Scientific American Presents: Neil deGrasse Tyson-on StarTalk [Video]
Neil deGrasse Tyson is host of StarTalk, which is both a top-rated podcast and a television series on National Geographic Channel. Click here for full transcript
Dawn Spacecraft Images Reveal "Ice Rinks" on Ceres
Bright spots in the latest pictures from NASA’s mission to the dwarf planet may be water ice, researchers say
Book Review: How to Clone a Mammoth
Books and recommendations from Scientific American
Mars Travelers Could Suffer Radiation Brain Damage
Mice exposed to radiation akin to what astronauts to Mars would receive experienced cognitive impairment. Lee Billings reports
Astronomers Seek Super-Size Hubble Successor to Search for Alien Life
Controversy swirls around a bold proposal for a bigger, better—and expensive—replacement for NASA’s premier space telescope
MESSENGER’s Mercurial Swan Song and Other Interplanetary Smash-Ups
On April 30, if all goes well, after running out of fuel to fight off orbital decay NASA’s long-running MESSENGER spacecraft will end its mission to Mercury by crashing into the planet’s surface at nearly 4 kilometers per second...
Hubble's Repairman Reflects on the Telescope's Legacy
Twenty-five years ago, on April 24, 1990, the Hubble Space Telescope soared into orbit. Since then, its great discoveries have been legion, and the story of how it became the most successful and productive astronomical observatory in human history is destined to become legendary...
![Modest but Momentous: Hubble’s Brilliant, Unsung Images [Slide Show]](https://static.scientificamerican.com/sciam/cache/file/427B1288-F96A-45F9-AC54E999F9A2D97B_agenda.jpg?w=275&h=154&fit=crop)
Modest but Momentous: Hubble’s Brilliant, Unsung Images [Slide Show]
NASA’s iconic space telescope has delivered gorgeous astronomical pictures for a quarter century, but some of its keystone discoveries come from far more humble images. Here are Scientific American ’s top 10...
The Make-or-Break Moment for Hubble Repair
Former NASA astronaut Mike Massimino, veteran of two space shuttle missions to Hubble, recalls how he saved the telescope he loves
Scientific American Editor's Career Soared with Hubble
Mariette DiChristina, Scientific American's Editor in Chief, has a special place in her heart for the Hubble Space Telescope
Alien Supercivilizations Absent from 100,000 Nearby Galaxies
The most far-seeing search ever performed for “Dyson spheres” and other artifacts of “astroengineering” comes up empty. Where is everybody?
SpaceX Faces the Hard Truth about Soft Landings—They’re Tough to Do
With two partially successful landing attempts of its Falcon 9 booster, the private company inches closer to its goal of making a fully reusable rocket
...
Martian Glaciers Equal Meter-Thick Planetary Ice Shell
Radar measurements and models of Earthly glacial ice flows led researchers to conclude that the glaciers spotted on Mars from orbiters contain nearly 150 billion cubic meters of water. ..
Supermassive Black Holes Make Merging Galaxies Green
Green as a color can mean animal, vegetable or mineral. It is the stuff of crocodiles, chlorophyll and copper patina, the essence of serpentine or of snakes in the grass, the hue of a glacial lake, a stagnant pond and the Chicago River on St...
Jupiter, Destroyer of Worlds, May Have Paved the Way for Earth
Careening toward the sun, Jupiter cleared the way for Earth to form—with help from Saturn, too
Against April Fools' in Science Journalism
My lowest point as a science journalist came before I even knew what a science journalist was. I was a young punk in an eighth-grade science class at Northwood Middle School in Greenville, South Carolina...
NASA Chooses a Boulder as the Next Destination for Its Astronauts
The agency's controversial Asteroid Redirect Mission no longer calls for redirecting an asteroid into high lunar orbit
