Spacecraft

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

Starship, a super powerful launch system that could revolutionize access to space, soared for mere minutes—but its test flight is still being hailed as a success

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

We now know that the first galaxies in our universe formed shockingly fast, thanks to the latest results from the James Webb Space Telescope

A candidate “rogue” supermassive black hole may weigh as much as 20 million suns and has sparked a trail of star formation that is 200,000 light-years long

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

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

Looming gaps in astronomers’ views of the heavens could undercut the revolutionary potential of NASA’s latest, greatest space telescope

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

Multiple obstacles might make it hard for NASA to turn its dream of ice giant exploration into a reality any time soon

The “absolutely monstrous” cosmic blast is estimated to be a one-in-10,000-year event

TRAPPIST-1b is probably an airless rock, but the same may not be true for its six Earth-sized siblings