On Mars, some 120 million miles away in space right now, anything that isn’t another version of dusty red stands out like a sore thumb. That’s how the Perseverance rover, a lab on wheels about the size of a Mini Cooper, spotted an unusual rock with black and white zebra …

Astronomers have discovered that Earth’s large, ever-looming moon is about to get company. Beginning on Sunday, the planet will capture an asteroid sailing nearby, drawing it in for one loop around Earth before making its exit on Nov. 25. When it leaves, it will continue its trajectory around the sun. …

The James Webb Space Telescope will soon begin a massive study of rocky worlds outside the solar system, specifically to discover if planets orbiting closely to small cool stars could have air. Scientists plan to start with LTT 1445 Ac and GJ 3929 b, and though those exoplanets might not …

This summer NASA‘s two car-sized labs exploring Mars each discovered rocks that neither mission had seen before, revealing a more diverse history for the planet than previously thought. Three major findings happened within the span of seven weeks. The Curiosity rover, which has been climbing a mountain of layered rock, …

For the first time in history, a private citizen has left the confines of a spaceship while flying through space — an exercise that before now was only performed by trained astronauts. The unprecedented commercial spacewalk was part of SpaceX‘s Polaris Dawn mission, which sent four civilians into orbit to …

Following NASA‘s tense decision to pull its astronauts off Boeing’s spaceship for their ride home, lots of eyes will be on Starliner this evening to see how it performs a landing uncrewed. The capsule, which launched in June, took test pilots Barry “Butch” Wilmore and Sunita “Suni” Williams to the …

Did the cosmos just hand us a meme that encapsulates our feelings about the universe and our place within it? At times it seems as though astronomers will forever find enigmas about space without ever providing satisfying answers.But in this case, the James Webb Space Telescope has found a riddle …

UPDATE: Sep. 2, 2024, 7:00 p.m. EDT In a statement released to Mashable on Monday, Sept. 2, NASA said the pulsing sound astronaut Butch Wilmore heard coming from a speaker inside Starliner was the result of an audio configuration between the International Space Station and Starliner and has since stopped. …

As the Perseverance rover rumbled over Mars terrain scoping out rocks, seven companies spent the summer trying to figure out how to help NASA bring its samples back to Earth. The U.S. space agency’s mission to return bits of rock, dust, and even air from the Red Planet, known as …

With Boeing’s troubled spaceship deemed too risky to bring its crew home from space, NASA has bumped the two female astronauts set for the next International Space Station rotation to free up seats. Zena Cardman, who would have been the SpaceX Crew-9 commander, and Stephanie Wilson were cut from the …