#space-science

A new study argues that bacteria launched from Earth on dust grains could plausibly reach Europa and, in rare cases, survive long enough to matter.

NASA’s exoplanet-hunting TESS mission has released a new all-sky mosaic that maps nearly 700 confirmed worlds and more than 5,000 candidate planets across observations gathered through September 2025.

A new historical review revisits the first dedicated SETI search beyond the Solar System and the equation that gave scientists a framework for thinking about intelligent life in the universe.

NASA says more than 650 volunteers in its citizen science programs have become co-authors on peer-reviewed research papers, highlighting how public participation is feeding directly into scientific literature.

A new preprint says a machine-learning analysis of more than 83 million TESS light curves identified 11,554 possible exoplanets, a haul large enough to potentially transform the field if confirmed.

A proposed Canadian mission called POET would search for Earth-sized and super-Earth exoplanets transiting small, cool stars where the signal could be easier to detect.

NASA engineers shut down Voyager 1’s Low-energy Charged Particles experiment after a power drop, preserving enough energy to keep the nearly 49-year-old interstellar spacecraft operating longer.

As human lunar missions move beyond short visits, the harder problem is shifting from reaching the Moon to living and working there for weeks, months, and eventually years.

New Hubble comparisons taken 25 years apart reveal visible changes in the Crab Nebula, offering a rare long-baseline look at how an iconic supernova remnant continues to evolve.

NASA says the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope has completed construction and is nearing the end of prelaunch testing, with the mission still targeting launch by May 2027 and potentially as early as fall 2026.

NASA's Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer has revealed a 'reflected shock effect' at the outer edge of RCW 86 that explains why this 2,000-year-old supernova remnant halted its unusually fast expansion.

When one celestial body passes in front of another, the resulting shadow carries encoded information about the sizes, atmospheres, and compositions of both objects — and astronomers have turned these moments of cosmic alignment into some of the most powerful tools in the scientific arsenal.

When asteroid Apophis makes its closest-ever approach to Earth in April 2029, it will be met by multiple spacecraft — including private landers — in what will be the most ambitious asteroid encounter mission ever attempted.

A spectacular fireball streaked across western European skies before a meteorite fragment crashed through the roof of a home in Germany, marking a rare direct hit on an occupied structure.

Scientists propose new chemistry-based methods to identify extraterrestrial life that may be fundamentally different from any organism found on Earth.

The Vera C. Rubin Observatory in Chile, featuring the world's largest digital camera at 3.2 gigapixels, is preparing to begin its decade-long survey of the southern sky. In its first year alone, the telescope will catalog more objects than every other optical observatory in human history combined.