Solar system

The celestial equivalent to latitude and longitude lets astronomers find their way across the heavens

While contending with lingering hardware issues for its crewed lunar plans, the U.S. space agency projects confidence and urgency in a time of transition

NASA’s presumptive next leader, billionaire private astronaut Jared Isaacman, already has big plans for the space agency

“Twilight rays” are but one of several viewing treats for the liminal time between day and night

The far side of the moon offers grounds for compromise between advocates and opponents of lunar development

The nearby star Vega, featured in the 1997 movie Contact, appears to have a smooth disk devoid of giant planets for reasons we can’t explain

Finding a perfect sphere is actually pretty difficult

The Martian new year arrives with the Red Planet’s vernal equinox. Explaining why requires a deep dive into celestial mechanics and Earth’s calendrical history

For the first time, we are sending a spacecraft to explore an alien ocean world—a moon that might host life today

The famous exploding star T Coronae Borealis is due to detonate any day now, but it’s running a little late

Sooner or later a doomsday asteroid will wipe out most life on Earth—unless, that is, we prevent threatening space rocks from hitting us in the first place

We are in a new and different kind of moon race, one the U.S. is losing. To win, says a former NASA official, we need new strategies