Astronomy

Supernovas, kilonovas, gamma-ray bursts... oh my! The Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope will uncover 100,000 of these explosions and many more powerful and violent cosmic events.

All eyes are on the newly discovered interstellar object 3I/ATLAS, currently inbound to the inner solar system. Initial observations have revealed that it's rich in water ice, and it's believed that it originated from the Milky Way's thick disk, ancient stars that orbit above and below the galactic plane. This could mean that 3I/ATLAS is billions of years older than the Solar System, the oldest comet ever discovered. It should reveal more as it heats up and outgasses as it gets closer to the Sun.

The moon's crescent limb will cloak and uncover stars from the iconic cluster before sunrise.

On Episode 169 of This Week In Space, Rod Pyle and Tariq Malik are joined by JPL Chief Engineer Emeritus Rob Manning to look back at the Mariner 4 Mars mission 60 years later.

When we leave Earth, we have to bring everything with us, from the air we breathe to the food we eat. For example, a 6-person, 1000-day mission might require 108 tonnes of food. In a new paper, researchers suggest ways that synthetic biology could allow us to convert local resources, regenerate resources in closed-loop environments, protect explorers from radiation, and create custom medicine on demand to support long-term space exploration.

From "Star Wars" film sets to baboons in Saudi Arabia, here's how to experience the "eclipse of the century" in style on Aug. 2, 2027.

Why isn't this ant a big sphere?

Blue Origin's powerful New Glenn rocket now has a payload for its second-ever flight —NASA's ESCAPADE Mars mission.

The new TRACERS mission will track magnetic reconnection that drives particles down into Earth's atmosphere when space weather turns bad.

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying 24 Starlink satellites launched from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California on Friday, July 18, 2025.

Very massive stars (VMSs)have had a massive impact on the formation of our universe. However, there aren’t very many of them, with only around 20 known specimens in the Milky Way and Large Magellanic Cloud. Even observing those is difficult for the current generation of telescopes, which is where an unexpected technological champion might play a role. According to a new paper by Fabrice Martins of CNRS and a group of European and American researchers, the upcoming Habitable World Observatory (HWO) might be our most useful tool when it comes to finding these elusive giants.

Astronomers have discovered an object at the edge of the solar system that is locked in a strange rhythmic dance with the ice giant Neptune.

Two teams of astronomers have simultaneously discovered a strange, spinning dead star that seems to defy our current understanding of both neutron stars and white dwarfs.

We commonly think that sperm determines the sex of a child, depending on whether it carries an X or Y chromosome, but a study now suggests that a woman's age is also a factor

We commonly think that sperm determines the sex of a child, depending on whether it carries an X or Y chromosome, but a study now suggests that a woman's age is also a factor

The Southern Delta Aquariids are active alongside the trusty Perseid meteor shower.

Over multiple generations, small nematode worms began preferring microplastic-contaminated food over cleaner options, which could have consequences for ecosystem health

Over multiple generations, small nematode worms began preferring microplastic-contaminated food over cleaner options, which could have consequences for ecosystem health

'I'm trying to make it as realistic as possible, so that a modern day Scottish person could see themselves in space one day.'

"The mountaineer defies gravity; the astronomer looks up. Both seek to reach the unreachable."