Stories by Lee Billings

Early this morning, if all has gone well, the first golden age of interplanetary exploration will have come to a close

Books and recommendations from Scientific American

As the legendary space telescope enters its twilight years, astronomers are searching for a replacement, but no one agrees about what it should accomplish

The newfound planet is 96 light years away, but it's the closest twin to Jupiter astronomers have ever directly seen

NASA’s former director of astrophysics plans to revolutionize space science with agile, privately funded missions

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

The lander, a six-meter Kevlar-inflatable disk, could carry heavier loads to the Red Planet

With its LightSail project, the Planetary Society aims to take the next step in its decades-long quest to transform spaceflight

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

Neil deGrasse Tyson is host of StarTalk, which is both a top-rated podcast and a television series on National Geographic Channel

Bright spots in the latest pictures from NASA’s mission to the dwarf planet may be water ice, researchers say

Mice exposed to radiation akin to what astronauts to Mars would receive experienced cognitive impairment. Lee Billings reports

Controversy swirls around a bold proposal for a bigger, better—and expensive—replacement for NASA’s premier space telescope

Books and recommendations from Scientific American

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.

Former NASA astronaut Mike Massimino, veteran of two space shuttle missions to Hubble, recalls how he saved the telescope he loves

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.

Mariette DiChristina, Scientific American's Editor in Chief, has a special place in her heart for the Hubble Space Telescope

The most far-seeing search ever performed for “Dyson spheres” and other artifacts of “astroengineering” comes up empty. Where is everybody?

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

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. Lee Billings reports   

 

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.

Careening toward the sun, Jupiter cleared the way for Earth to form—with help from Saturn, too