Stories by Lee Billings

An obscure lunar region called Rimae Bode is emerging as a high-priority landing site for China’s first crewed moon mission

New insights into a tiny, tough microbe have huge implications for the search for life beyond Earth

Fresh observations from the James Webb Space Telescope show how vivid auroras surge through Uranus’s tilted magnetic field

A surprising FDA reversal on Moderna’s mRNA flu vaccine, early promise from a universal inhaled vaccine, and a desert fossil find that is reshaping spinosaurid history.

On Thursday the U.S. president ordered the release of federal files related to UFOs and aliens, although no evidence of extraterrestrials visiting Earth is known to exist

A “disappearing” star in the Andromeda galaxy is the closest and best candidate for a newborn black hole that astronomers have ever seen

Dating to only a billion years after the big bang, JADES-ID1 may be the earliest, most distant galaxy protocluster astronomers have ever seen

What’s on the road to the launch of NASA’s Artemis II, how scientists are using artificial intelligence to help stroke patients speak, and what an Indonesian cave art discovery says about early human migration

Scientists are using technology developed to study earthquakes to address an out-of-this-world risk

On Friday NASA laid out the time line for Artemis II, humanity’s first crewed mission to the moon in more than 50 years

Puzzling red spots in images from the James Webb Space Telescope are probably young supermassive black holes obscured by dense cocoons of gas

Mathematical tools from string theory are giving scientists a new way to study the networking of neurons

From crewed lunar voyages to flight tests of fully reusable rockets and launches of new orbital telescopes studying the outer limits of the cosmos, 2026 should be a banner year for space science and exploration

A look back at 2025’s biggest science stories—from federal upheaval and public health setbacks to climate policy reversals and groundbreaking discoveries in space.

NASA’s Perseverance rover has gathered groundbreaking Mars samples, but the mission to bring them home is facing serious challenges.

A major new study lays out plans for crewed missions to Mars, with the search for extraterrestrial life being a top priority

As far as annual meteor showers are concerned, 2025 has saved the best for last. This year’s Geminids are not to be missed

A machine-learning breakthrough could lift the veil on Earth’s early history—and supercharge the search for alien life

In a new book, NASA astrobiologist Caleb Scharf says the fate of life on Earth may hinge on leaving our planet behind

With the successful 11th test flight of its Starship megarocket, SpaceX is on the cusp of a new era in spaceflight

John Clarke, Michel H. Devoret and John M. Martinis shared the 2025 Nobel Prize in Physics for their work showing how bizarre microscopic quantum effects can infiltrate our large-scale, everyday world

The Habitable Worlds Observatory is poised to tell us whether Earth-like planets are common—if it can get off the ground

In his latest book, science journalist Peter Brannen argues that CO₂ is the most important—and most misunderstood—molecule on Earth

NASA faces historic budget cuts that could shutter missions and stall vital research, prompting a bipartisan outcry from all of the agency’s living former science chiefs.