Scientists Get to the Bottom of the Bright Spots on Ceres
New results from Dawn spacecraft fuel debate on whether the dwarf planet is a habitable oasis between Mars and Jupiter
Stories by Lee Billings
Jupiter, Get Ready for Your Close-Up!
Juno, NASA’s new mission to Jupiter, reaches the giant planet on July 4, 2016. Among its many firsts, Juno will peer deeper than ever before beneath the Jovian clouds and will deliver the first interplanetary LEGO kit...
A “Starshade” Could Help NASA Find Other Earths Decades Ahead of Schedule
A next-generation space telescope is in the works—but if it is to see potentially habitable planets, it will need to block out their suns
![Mapping Laniakea, the Milky Way's Cosmic Home [Video]](https://static.scientificamerican.com/sciam/cache/file/190DB0EF-2221-43C4-B430142272BB36B7_agenda.jpg?w=275&h=154&fit=crop)
Mapping Laniakea, the Milky Way's Cosmic Home [Video]
The Milky Way’s home supercluster of galaxies is far bigger than previously known
New Map Shows the Dark Side of Artificial Light at Night
More than a third of humanity cannot see the Milky Way due to light pollution, and a new wave of energy-efficient lighting could make the problem much worse
LISA Pathfinder Reports Record-Breaking Gravitational Wave Results
The successful technology demonstration paves the way for detecting mergers of supermassive black holes with future space-based observatories
For Asteroid-Hunting Astronomers, Nathan Myhrvold Says the Sky Is Falling
The wealthy technologist claims some of the world’s top experts on Earth-threatening asteroids are guilty of bad science
Giant Tsunami Remnants Spotted on Mars
Evidence indicates that waves as tall as skyscrapers and thousands of kilometers wide once washed over the Red Planet.
Astronomers Find More Than 1,000 New Planets
The Kepler mission’s announcement of 1,284 worlds previews the overwhelming number of planetary discoveries to come
How NASA's Next Big Telescope Could Take Pictures of Another Earth
A “starshade” flying alongside the WFIRST observatory could deliver images of potentially habitable worlds decades ahead of schedule
Golden Eye: Webb Telescope's Giant Mirror Unveiled
Witness the glimmering heart of NASA’s largest-ever space telescope
$100-Million Plan Will Send Probes to the Nearest Star
Funded by Russian entrepreneur Yuri Milner and with the blessing of Stephen Hawking, Breakthrough Starshot aims to send probes to Alpha Centauri in a generation
Lasers Could Hide Earth from Prying Aliens
We could use laser light to mask our transits across the sun and thus hide Earth from any intelligent aliens looking for planets to invade
Astronomers Create the First Heat Map of a Super-Earth
The super-Earth 55 Cancri e may have a magma ocean or windblown clouds of vaporized rock
Pluto's Wonders Come into Focus
NASA’s New Horizons mission has delivered a treasure trove of data from the dwarf planet
![An Israeli Moonshot [Q&A]](https://static.scientificamerican.com/sciam/cache/file/DC4EB110-34FF-41AA-97DDC2C1FEEAFA26_agenda.jpg?w=275&h=154&fit=crop)
An Israeli Moonshot [Q&A]
The co-founder of SpaceIL, a contender for the Google Lunar XPRIZE, discusses his plans to reach the moon
![10 Years at Mars: Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter's Best Images [Slide Show]](https://static.scientificamerican.com/sciam/cache/file/5FD822FB-201D-48D0-B08FD12AFB52FEC4_agenda.jpg?w=275&h=154&fit=crop)
10 Years at Mars: Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter's Best Images [Slide Show]
NASA’s most prolific interplanetary mission reaches a new milestone in Martian exploration
No Man's Land: Where on Mars Should Astronauts Go?
Inside the first meeting of the committee to colonize the Red Planet
The Recurring Question: Where Do Fast Radio Bursts Come from?
Astronomers have discovered a repeating source for an enigmatic cosmic phenomenon
Billion Sun–Bright Events Leave Radio Wave Clues
“Fast radio bursts” detected here on Earth last only a thousandth of a second, but are the result of a faraway source briefly shining a billion or more times brighter than our sun...
