Solar system

According to new simulations, many, even most, planets get ejected from their star early in their history

The next year of science on the James Webb Space Telescope has been announced amid mounting budgetary uncertainty that could affect the unparalleled observatory

Defining the word “moon” is harder than you might think

Astronomers are racing to protect the dark skies as private companies seek to place large advertisements in Earth orbit

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