Solar system

Two unusual annual meteor showers come at the end of the year, and each can spark astonishing celestial fireworks

Amid uncertainty over space agencies’ plans for future Venus exploration, enthusiasm for a private-sector mission grows

Reproducing in space is just one of many reasons we should delay settlements beyond Earth

The Lucy spacecraft’s encounter with asteroid Dinkinesh has revealed a bizarre “contact binary” double-moon companion

NASA’s Lucy mission flew past an asteroid nicknamed Dinky, only to discover an even smaller space rock orbiting it

Fine particles kicked up by the Chicxulub asteroid impact could have blocked out the sun for years, resulting in global cooling and disastrous consequences for ecosystems

An impact with a protoplanet called Theia 4.5 billion years ago seems to have left remnants deep inside Earth

Fresh investigations find that the Red Planet’s liquid-metal core is smaller than scientists thought

As space agencies turn their gaze to the moon, we need to consider what werewolves might mean for lunar exploration—and vice versa

Defunct satellites and other pieces of orbital debris are pumping metals into Earth’s fragile upper atmosphere, with effects unknown

A planet-vaporizing impact is the leading explanation for a distant star’s curiously fluctuating light

Strange patterns in the orbits of small objects in the outer solar system could be explained by gaps in our understanding of gravity rather than an as-yet-unseen new world