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The SpaceX CRS-12 Dragon cargo spacecraft departed the International Space Station on Sunday (Sept. 17). A SpaceX Dragon cargo ship returned to Earth today (Sept. 17) after a nine-month stay at the International Space Station. At 10:16 a.m. EDT (1416 GMT), the Dragon splashed down in the Pacific Ocean loaded with more than 3,800 lbs. […]

Saturn and its iconic rings, as seen by NASA’s Cassini spacecraft. Humanity’s light at Saturn has gone out. NASA’s robotic Cassini spacecraft burned up in the ringed planet’s atmosphere  Friday morning (Sept. 15), ending a remarkable 13-year run at Saturn that has revolutionized scientists’ understanding of the outer solar system and its potential to host life. For […]

An illustration of Moon Express’ MX-1E spacecraft on the surface of the moon. WASHINGTON — NASA is preparing to release a solicitation for the commercial transportation of payloads to the lunar surface, the latest step in the agency’s efforts to help promote the development of commercial lunar landers. In testimony Sept. 7 at a House […]

This view of Jupiter’s south pole was created using data from NASA’s Juno spacecraft. With NASA’s Cassini spacecraft now just a blur of molecules in Saturn’s cloud tops, another gas giant is rotating into the crosshairs of the planetary exploration community.  Cassini plunged intentionally to its death Friday  (Sept. 15), bringing an end to 13 […]

An artist’s concept of a Europa lander released earlier this year. NASA is examining other options for the lander that could cost less, but sacrifice some science. WASHINGTON — NASA is continuing to examine various, potentially less expensive options for a mission to land on Jupiter’s moon Europa even after completing a recent review, postponing […]

When Hartnell’s failing health sounded a possible death knell for “Doctor Who,” the producers of the show came up with a radical idea. Since the Doctor was an alien with alien biology, why not give him the ability to recover critical trauma — or even roll back death — by physically reinventing himself? After collapsing […]

View of carbonate rocks from Mount Slipper, Yukon that contain apatitic scale microfossils. Fossils are found by dissolving the carbonate rocks in weak acid. Canadian penny for scale. A critical feature of many multicellular lifeforms on Earth are hard, biological structures , such as animal bones and snail shells that are made from minerals.  Tiny […]

A new time-lapse video of stars neighboring the Milky Way shows that these close-by stars have the potential to cause disturbances to the solar system as they travel over the next hundreds of thousands of years. The European Space Agency’s (ESA) Gaia telescope is on a five-year mission to catalog a billion stars from space, […]

After the Cassini spacecraft’s final dive into Saturn’s atmosphere , the mission’s scientists and engineers say they’re proud of the little spacecraft that went far beyond expectations, sad to lose their constant view of Saturn and family of researchers, eager to return to that planet and its mesmerizing moons — and ready for some champagne. Key […]

An artist’s rendition of Cassini plunging through Saturn’s atmosphere. Today (Sept. 15), NASA’s Cassini spacecraft will dive into Saturn’s atmosphere and disintegrate. You can watch the action live right here on Space.com, starting at 4:00 a.m. PDT (7 a.m. EDT). The intentional crash is expected to begin at about 4:55 a.m. PDT (7:55 a.m. EDT, […]

As Cassini approached Saturn, it captured an inviting view of the ringed world. PASADENA, Calif. — NASA has released a new e-book highlighting intriguing images and key scientific discoveries from its Cassini mission. “The Saturn System: Through the Eyes of Cassini” reveals the top 100 images from the mission to Saturn that explored the ringed […]

Our planet as seen from space. Earth, the third planet from the sun, is the fifth largest planet in the solar system; only the gas giants Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune are bigger. Earth is the largest of the terrestrial planets of the inner solar system, bigger than Mercury, Venus and Mars. Radius, diameter and […]

Artist’s illustration showing the exoplanet WASP-12b, which is as black as fresh asphalt in optical wavelengths. Exoplanets come in pretty much all colors, including pitch black. The huge, blistering-hot alien world WASP-12b has a reflectance, or albedo, of just 0.064 at most, a new study reports. “This is an extremely low value, making the planet […]