Solar system

With an apparent crash, the HAKUTO-R mission from the private space exploration company ispace has joined a long list of failed moon landers

A gas giant planet’s youthful glow could explain major differences between its four largest satellites

We only have a few clues about where the sun was born. Some new ones point to a crowded origin story for our nearest star

For centuries, scientific discoveries have suggested humanity occupies no privileged place in the universe. Now, however, studies of worlds beyond our solar system could place meaningful new limits on our existential mediocrity

The hunt for Martian life focuses on detecting organic molecules that could indicate its past existence. Are our instruments up to the task?

The ambitious Jupiter moon mission JUICE has begun its long journey to the Jovian system

The imagery offers a rare view of the ice giant’s ring system, bright moons and dynamic atmosphere

Do efforts to create life—by cooking up imitations in computers, robots and molecules—point toward a universal definition of biology?

The hunt for dark matter is in crisis, and it’s time for radical new ideas to explain our universe

A half-kilogram’s worth of samples gathered by NASA’s Perseverance rover for eventual return to Earth holds weighty implications for life on Mars

Four astronauts will fly around the moon in preparation for the first human landings there since 1972

How I learned to stop worrying and love the next Earth-threatening asteroid