The James Webb Space Telescope is helping astronomers become alien weather forecasters.

With a new analysis of James Webb Space Telescope observations, we're one step closer to interstellar weather forecasting — a baby step, at least. Before astronomers can issue weather forecasts for worlds beyond our solar system, they need to know what drives the atmosph…

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SpaceX rolls giant Super Heavy booster to pad ahead of Starship's 1st orbital flight.

SpaceX is gearing up for the first orbital flight of its Starship megarocket, which is now just a week away. Starship's huge first-stage booster, known as Super Heavy, was rolled out to the pad at SpaceX's Starbase site in South Texas, the company revealed in an X po…

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Earth is getting a new map — but it's impossible to draw planets accurately.

A planetary body's surface is inherently three-dimensional — and not just because of its peaks and valleys but because it must wrap around the whole world. That's obvious but easy to forget, since Earth is large enough that we experience it as flat in our everyday li…

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NASA Welcomes Albania as Newest Artemis Accords Signatory.

The Republic of Albania signed the Artemis Accords Monday during a ceremony hosted by NASA at the agency’s headquarters in Washington, joining the coalition of like‑minded nations committed to the responsible and transparent exploration of space. “It is my privilege to welco…

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Galaxies housing the James Webb Space Telescope's mysterious 'Little Red Dots' might've revealed their secrets.

Since it began sending observations back to Earth in summer 2022, the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has helped scientists create a much clearer picture of the universe, but it has also delivered some frustrating mysteries. Among these is the puzzle of the "Little R…

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A NASA spacecraft just found a giant new crater on the moon.

A newly discovered crater on the moon is giving scientists a rare glimpse into the immediate aftermath of a lunar impact. Named McGetchin crater, the feature formed sometime between April 11 and May 22 in the year 2024 when an asteroid or comet fragment struck the moon. Meas…

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SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket-landing team gets 1st-ever Neil Armstrong Space Prize.

The winners of the first-ever Neil Armstrong Space Prize just got their hardware. Those awardees — the people who developed and mastered the famous landing capability of SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket — were announced in April. But they didn't actually receive the prize un…

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On this day in space! Sept. 18, 1977: NASA's Voyager 1 spacecraft snaps stunning photo of Earth and the moon together from deep space.

On Sept. 18, 1977, NASA's Voyager 1 spacecraft took its first photo of Earth and the moon. It was the first time both the Earth and the moon were captured in a single frame. At the time, Voyager 1 was 7.25 million miles (11.7 million kilometers) away from Earth. It launc…

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SpaceX pushes next Starship launch back to Sept. 28.

SpaceX has pushed the next launch of its Starship megarocket back by nearly a week. SpaceX had originally targeted Sept. 22 for the first orbital flight of Starship, the fully reusable megarocket that the company is developing to help humanity settle the moon, Mars and more. …

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Satellite sees Greenland's most significant floating ice loss in over a decade | Space photo of the day for Aug. 24, 2026.

The massive glaciers of Greenland are disappearing right before our very eyes in new satellite imagery. What is it? Petermann Glacier in northwest Greenland connects the Greenland ice sheet to the Arctic ocean. Petermann's "ice tongue" has previously measured 43…

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Bad weather delays launch of China's historic Chang'e 7 mission to moon's south pole.

Poor weather has delayed the launch of China's latest moon mission. According to reports, the growth of Tropical Depression Narra in the Gulf of Tonkin has prompted China's space agency to delay the liftoff of Chang'e 7 significantly — possibly until 2027. "C…

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It's been 20 years since Pluto lost planet status.

In August of 2006, astronomers at the International Astronomical Union (IAU) democratically voted to reclassify Pluto as a dwarf planet — but 20 years later, with our greater knowledge and understanding of planetary systems, is it time to revisit the controversial decision?…

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China's Chang'e 7 moon probe will launch this weekend on the most ambitious lunar mission in history.

China's moon exploration program is readying an ambitious robotic mission, one composed of an orbiter, a lander, a rover, a hopper, and a wide range of international experiments including a U.S.-supported payload. In April of this year, Chang'e-7 hardware was transpo…

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SpaceX will try for 1st Starship tower catch 'in a few months,' Elon Musk says.

We'll have to wait a bit longer for a highly anticipated Starship milestone, it appears. On Aug. 4, SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk said the company aimed to attempt the first-ever catch of Starship's upper stage on the vehicle's next test flight, which is tenta…

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My favorite thing in the night sky appears on Aug. 28.

What's your favorite thing in the night sky? Maybe it's the Pleiades, that sparkling open cluster that dominates winter in the Northern Hemisphere. Perhaps it's a sight of the Milky Way arching across the summer sky. Or could it be Saturn, a close-up sight of wh…

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NASA’s Artemis II Crew Set to Receive Congressional Space Medal of Honor.

President Donald J. Trump will award each of NASA’s Artemis II crew members the Congressional Space Medal of Honor at 11 a.m. EDT on Friday, Aug. 28, during a ceremony at the agency’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, and Christina…

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Scientists just found the fastest known star in the Milky Way.

Astronomers have found the fastest known star in the Milky Way, a faint object racing around Sagittarius A*, the supermassive black hole at the heart of our galaxy. Dubbed S301, the star reaches about 15,500 miles (25,000 kilometers) per second at its fastest — more than 8%…

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Hydrogen-powered 'rocket car' tops 400 mph in record-breaking test.

Is it a rocket car? Tearing across the Utah desert at over 400 mph (644 kph), a hydrogen-powered car has set a new land speed record. Wing Commander Andy Green, a retired British Royal Air Force fighter pilot, just set a new world land speed record at the Bonneville Salt Fla…

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Rocket Lab launches private Japanese Earth-observing satellite to orbit.

Rocket Lab launched a private Japanese satellite to orbit this morning (Aug. 20), adding to a growing constellation of Earth-observing spacecraft. An Electron vehicle lifted off from Rocket Lab's New Zealand site at 9:04 a.m. EDT (1304 GMT; 1:04 a.m. on Aug. 21 local New…

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Mysterious Russian 'space activity' causes US Air Force flight to Antarctica to turn around.

A mysterious incident over the southern Indian Ocean forced a U.S. Air Force aircraft to turn around due to an unnamed hazard in space. According to several New Zealand-based news outlets, a U.S. Air Force (USAF) C-17 Globemaster transport aircraft left Christchurch Airport …

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