Brandon Specktor

After enduring two weeks in the freezing lunar night, Japan's SLIM moon lander awoke long enough to snap some new pictures and communicate with researchers on Earth.

From a 'potentially hazardous' asteroid to a pair of galaxies unable to quell their attraction, here are five of the most beautiful heart-shaped objects seen in space.

Scientists using the eROSITA X-ray telescope have released a trove of data that reveals more than 900,000 objects in space, including 700,000 supermassive black holes and other 'exotic' objects.

The latest photos from NASA's immobile Ingenuity Mars helicopter reveal the extent of the rotor blade damage it sustained on its fateful 72nd flight.

NASA's Ingeunity helicopter has finally ended its three-year mission on Mars after sustaining irreparable rotor damage on its 72nd flight over the Red Planet. It was only designed to fly five times.

Japan's SLIM lander successfully reached the lunar surface on Friday, Jan. 19, but problems with its solar cells mean it could be dead on the moon within hours.

In the final hours of Dec. 31, 2023, the sun launched its most powerful solar flare in 6 years. On Jan. 2, radiation from the blast may bring auroras to Earth's skies.

Aliens made headlines in 2023, but are we really any closer to finding life beyond Earth? A recap of the best new evidence, and other remarkable stories from the year in space.

Halley's Comet was predicted to reach its farthest point from the sun on Dec. 9, beginning a 38-year journey toward Earth that culminates in 2061.

The James Webb Space Telescope has discovered a cosmic 'peanut' and 'fluff ball' that happen to be two of the four oldest galaxies in the known universe.

The James Webb Space Telescope has discovered a massive chain of 20 galaxies in the early universe, raising questions about the formation of the largest structures in the cosmos.

In the glare of the sun, an unknown number of near-Earth asteroids move on unseen orbits. A new generation of space telescopes could be our best defense against potential disaster.

If a mile-wide asteroid is discovered hurtling toward Earth, our survival might depend on launching 1,000 spacecraft — or one well-placed nuke.

NASA's Lucy spacecraft has found a hidden asteroid "moon" swirling around the larger main belt asteroid Dinkinesh, affectionately known as Dinky.

NASA's Parker Solar Probe has reached a record-breaking speed as it gets a gravitational assist from Venus to fall closer to the sun's scorching surface.

NASA researchers plan to launch three rockets carrying scientific instruments toward the moon's shadow on Oct. 14, to study changes in the atmosphere brought about by the annular solar eclipse.

You can't stare at the sun, so how do you watch an eclipse? By reflecting it off of a disco ball, a team of astronomers suggests.

One difficulty in scientifically evaluating is ghost are real is the surprisingly wide variety of phenomena attributed to ghosts.

Asteroid Dimorphos, which NASA intentionally hit with a rocket during its DART mission in September 2022, is behaving in unpredicted ways.

Astronomers found evidence of multiple stellar-mass black holes lurking in the nearby Hyades cluster, just 150 light-years from Earth.

Dubbed 'Luminous Fast Coolers,' this new class of extreme cosmic explosion is incredibly rare — and unbelievably bright.