Space News - Articles About NASA and Space

SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk celebrates the successful launch of the SpaceX Crew Dragon Demo-2 mission at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, on May 30, 2020.

The Elysium effect: The coming backlash to the billionaire 'NewSpace' revolution

By Rick Tumlinson

As entrepreneurs spend billions on space, there is a backlash building that holds their projects as icons of extravagance, even as they may help save the Earth. This is the "Elysium effect."

The Clavius crater on the moon as seen by NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter. The SOFIA observatory has detected water ice in shadowed regions of this sunlit lunar location.

NASA finds water on the moon's sunlit surface for the first time

By Chelsea Gohd

The moon has more hidden pockets of water ice than previously thought, NASA's SOFIA flying observatory reveals.

An image from the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) shows molecular gas clouds around the region where the Milky Way's central, supermassive black hole is known to exist. That region, highlighted in red, looks dark and silent.

The Milky Way's quiet, introverted monster won't spin

By Rafi Letzter

This supermassive black hole's spin has been measured for the first time, and it's surprisingly low.

Artist's illustration of NASA's Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS). Using data from TESS, scientists have discovered an "improbable" exoplanet that should've been engulfed by its star but wasn't.

Distant alien planets could be turned into dark matter detectors

By Paul Sutter

A pair of astronomers is advocating a daring new research program: to turn our widening search for life beyond Earth into a hunt for dark matter.

A magnetar is a superdense neutron star with an extremely strong magnetic field. In this illustration, the magnetar is emitting a burst of radiation.

The first star in our galaxy caught sending out fast radio bursts is doing it again

By Michelle Starr

A little dead star that dazzled us earlier this year is not done with its shenanigans.

Two images taken by NASA's OSIRIS-REx spacecraft show the sampling arm touch the surface of asteroid Bennu.

NASA's first attempt to sample an asteroid in space made a mess. It's the best mess ever, scientists say.

By Tariq Malik

A NASA spacecraft has really made a mess of things on the asteroid Bennu, and scientists are thrilled.

In one galactic year, also known as a cosmic year, the sun orbits the Milky Way.

Physicists search for imprints left by dark matter haloes as they swoosh through galactic gas

By Andreea Font

The search for dark matter is at a crossroads. Now, physicists have a new way to tell what the invisible stuff is made of.

Aliens on 1,000 nearby stars could see us, new study suggests

By Rafi Letzter

Humans have gotten good at spotting planets orbiting alien stars. But how many of those alien stars are able to look back and see us?

Physicists clock the fastest possible speed of sound

By Stephanie Pappas

Scientists have discovered how fast sound can go, a blistering 22 miles (36 kilometers) per second.

Artist’s concept of the OSIRIS REx spacecraft collecting material from Bennu.

Asteroid Bennu: Successful touchdown —but sample return mission has only just begun

By Monica Grady

The most hazardous part of the mission is over – and seemingly successful, although we will have to wait for a few more days to hear the scale of the success.

Starman sent pictures home before leaving Earth orbit.

'Starman' just zipped past Mars in his rapidly-decaying Tesla Roadster

By Rafi Letzter

Starman — the dummy riding a Tesla Roadster through space — has made his closest approach ever to Mars since his stunt launch in 2018.

Members of NASA's OSIRIS-REx asteroid sample-return mission team celebrate after receiving word that the probe completed an attempt to collect samples of asteroid Bennu 207 million miles from Earth on Oct. 20, 2020.

NASA spacecraft makes historic attempt to snag samples of asteroid Bennu

By Mike Wall

For the first time ever, a NASA probe has performed a sample-snagging operation on an asteroid in deep space.

Black holes could become massive particle accelerators

By Paul Sutter

Physicists suggest harnessing the gravitational pull of black holes to create ferocious particle accelerators. The trick? Carefully set everything up so the particles don't get lost forever.

An artist's depiction of a near-Earth asteroid.

The strange story of 2020 SO: How an asteroid turned into rocket junk and the NASA scientist who figured it out

By Meghan Bartels

As soon as he saw the data, Paul Chodas knew something was strange about the near-Earth object that had been designated 2020 SO.

This artist's impression shows the orbits of the objects in the HR 6819 triple system, which consists of a binary star pair in which one star (orbit in blue) orbits a black hole (orbit in red), as well as another star with a wider orbit (also in blue).

The closest black hole to Earth may not actually be a black hole after all

By Michelle Starr

An object identified earlier this year as the closest black hole we've ever discovered may have just been demoted.

The Dragonfly 44 galaxy looks like a smear across space.

Astronomers claimed galaxy was 98% dark matter. They were wrong.

By Rafi Letzter

Back in 2016, researchers claimed Dragonfly 44 was a "failed" Milky Way — a galaxy with a huge dark matter mass but almost no stars. Now, on closer examination, that claim has fallen apart.

Illustration of a future Moon base by the European Space Agency, which hasn’t signed the Artemis Accords.

Artemis Accords: Why many countries are refusing to sign moon exploration agreement

By Christopher Newman

Only eight countries have signed the Artemis Accords, a set of guidelines surrounding the Artemis Program for crewed exploration of the moon.

international space station expedition 62

Without gravity, the fluid around an astronaut's brain moves in weird ways

By Doris Elin Salazar

The fluid that cushions the human brain redistributes in the skull during spaceflight, according to a new study.

Higgs boson possibly caught in act of never-before-seen transformation

By Rafi Letzter

If the Higgs boson really is decaying into pairs of muons in the Large Hadron Collider, that's a big deal for particle physics.

NASA's OSIRIS-REx spacecraft will collect a sample from the asteroid Bennu on Oct. 20 using a robotic sampling arm in an event called "touch-and-go," or TAG.

NASA is about to play 'tag' with asteroid Bennu: Here's how it will work.

By Samantha Mathewson

NASA's OSIRIS-Rex spacecraft will "TAG" asteroid Bennu Tuesday (Oct. 20) and collect a sample for return to Earth.