Solar system

After its successful lunar touchdown, Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost mission could soon be joined on the moon by two more commercial spacecraft

Asteroid 2024 YR4’s risk of hitting Earth is shifting with new data, astronomers say

In partnership with NASA, the Intuitive Machines lander Athena will send a water-seeking drill, a pogo-sticking crater probe and other novel technologies to the moon

“Keep your eye on the ball” is a motto for many athletes—and for astronomers trying to find Earth-threatening space rocks

Could tiny swimming microbes help us unlock the mysteries of extraterrestrial life?

The possibility of the asteroid 2024 YR4 impacting our planet might not be ruled out until 2028, raising the prospect we’ll need to prepare for the worst

The number of planets that orbit the sun depends on what you mean by “planet,” and that’s not so easy to define

Material retrieved from the asteroid Bennu by NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft shows that all the basic building blocks of life were astonishingly widespread in the early solar system

This year, from Earth’s perspective, Saturn’s rings will appear nearly edge on, making them almost invisible

Peculiar bursts of energy called chorus waves have been detected in deep space far from our planet, suggesting they could pose problems for long-distance space travel

A little-known chapter of the Hubble Space Telescope’s history is a reminder of the risks of looking at the sun

The heavy-lift New Glenn rocket soared to success, reaching orbit on its highly anticipated inaugural flight but failing to land its booster on an ocean barge