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Outer Space

Composite image of evidence for wind blowing away from Sagittarius A*, with the black hole shown as a white dot in the center, cold gas in orange and X-ray data in blue. 

The Supermassive Black Hole at the Heart of Our Galaxy Seems to Be Blowing Wind—Just as Scientists Long Theorized

Scientists have been searching for evidence of this breeze since the 1970s. They’ve seen intense wind from other black holes, but they’ve struggled to observe the one at the Milky Way’s center

A 235-foot-tall Delta IV takes off with 2.1 million pounds of thrust from its three RS-68A booster main engines, creating a magnificent light show in the sky.

See 15 Inspiring Images of Americans’ Accomplishments in Space Exploration That Will Have You Reaching for the Stars

These photographs from the Smithsonian Magazine Photo Contest show the many ways that the nation’s brightest minds explore the great beyond with crewed spacecraft, rockets and space stations.

An artistic rendition of the MAVEN spacecraft orbiting Mars

NASA Officially Ends the MAVEN Mission Months After Losing Contact With the Mars Orbiter

The agency last heard from the spacecraft on December 6. Recovered fragmentary data suggest that MAVEN was spinning unexpectedly, hinting at a change in its trajectory and draining its batteries

An illustration of all 726 solar systems depicting planets confirmed as of October 30, 2018, the end of Kepler’s life span. The colors represent each planet’s temperature, ranging from chilly dark blue to fiery red. The mission yielded so much data that scientists are still announcing new planets years later.

America at 250: The Revolutionary Spark

A Blip on a Telescope in a Colorado Parking Lot Bolstered a Space Mission That Has Found Thousands of Planets … and Counting

The Kepler telescope changed how we saw the sky. It’s just one of the devices we’ve sent out beyond the reach of humans to search our solar system

People across New England and eastern Canada witnessed an ultrabright meteor explode over the weekend.

A Bright Meteor Lit Up the New England Sky Before Exploding With a Loud Boom—and Its Pieces May Have Landed in Cape Cod Bay

People reported seeing the glowing space rock or hearing or feeling its breakup from Delaware to Montreal. Experts estimate that it was about three feet wide and traveling at 75,000 miles per hour when it broke apart

A blue moon in 2015

A Smaller Than Usual Blue Moon Will End the Month With a Lunar Spectacle. Here’s What to Know About the Full Micromoon

The blue moon will be the second of two full moons in the same month, a coincidence that only takes place about every two and a half years. It will also appear to be slightly smaller and dimmer than the average full moon

Rhys Ifans (standing in second row) as the chief designer in "Star City," a spinoff of Apple TV's "For All Mankind" 

Based on a True Story

Soviet Cosmonauts Trained at Star City as They Raced to Beat America to the Moon. Now, a New TV Series Imagines What Happened Behind the Base’s Walls

Apple TV’s “Star City” takes place in a world where the space race never came to an end. A spinoff of “For All Mankind,” the show is told from the Soviet perspective

As the Psyche spacecraft approached Mars from its night side, the red planet looked like a crescent.

See NASA’s Stunning New Images of Mars Captured During an Asteroid-Bound Spacecraft’s Strategic Flyby

The Psyche mission, on its way to study an asteroid of the same name, approached within 2,864 miles of the red planet on May 15

Neptune, which appears blue because of methane in its atmosphere, has a strange set of moons.

Neptune’s Moon Nereid Might Be the Sole Intact Survivor of an Ancient Lunar Collision

A study suggests that the ice giant’s largest moon, Triton, made a dramatic entrance to the Neptunian system long ago, kicking Nereid outward and destroying the planet’s other original lunar companions

"Night at the Remarkables" 

These Ten Breathtaking Images From the 2026 Milky Way Photographer of the Year Contest Capture the Beauty of Our Galaxy

The gorgeous astrophotographs highlight the dazzling night sky and remind viewers what we risk losing to light pollution

Scientists used acidic and basic solutions to trigger chemical reactions in algae.

These Marine Algae Glow When Waves Disturb Them. Their Bioluminescence Could Power Electricity-Free Lamps of the Future

The single-celled organisms usually shimmer for mere milliseconds, but researchers figured out how to sustain their illumination. The technology could one day be used to light robots’ ways in the deep sea or space

Curiosity had a 28.6-pound rock dubbed "Atacama" stuck to its arm for a while.

NASA’s Curiosity Rover Had a Martian Rock Stuck on Its Arm for Days. Watch It Finally Shake the Stubborn Stone Off

While drilling has fractured rocks, this is the first time the instrument has ever accidentally pulled a whole chunk from the ground, according to the space agency

Illustration of a time sequence as the celestial body moves in front of a distant star

This Tiny Celestial Body Past Pluto Shouldn’t Have an Atmosphere—but Astronomers Say They May Have Detected One

Worlds this small and distant are thought to be too cold and have too little surface gravity to hold onto gases. But the findings suggest that icy, rocky objects in the solar system’s outer reaches are more dynamic than we thought

The Eta Aquarids as seen from Sri Lanka in 2024

The Eta Aquarid Meteor Shower Peaks This Week, but a Bright Moon Might Spoil the Show

This annual event, which peaks on the night of May 5 into the next morning, comes from the trail of debris left by Halley’s comet. It’s best viewed from the Southern Hemisphere, but skywatchers in the north can catch a glimpse

Tatooine is a fictional desert planet with two suns. No such planet had been found when this scene in Star Wars: Episode IV–A New Hope ​​​​​​was created.

Astronomers Discover 27 Potential Planets Each Orbiting Two Stars, Just Like the Fictional Tatooine in ‘Star Wars’

The findings could more than double our current database of worlds that loop around binary star systems. But researchers need to analyze more data before they can officially celebrate a new trove of far, far away exoplanets

The largest 3D map of the universe. Earth is at the center, and each point marks a galaxy.

This Is the Largest, Most Detailed 3D Map of the Universe. It’ll Help Astronomers Investigate a Cosmic Mystery: Dark Energy

The Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument spent five years observing the sky from Arizona. Now, researchers have a trove of data to study how the universe has evolved over billions of years

Mission engineers have shut down Voyager 1's Low-energy Charged Particles experiment.

To Keep the Voyager 1 Spacecraft on Its Interstellar Journey, NASA Turned Off One of Its Few Remaining Instruments

The probe launched almost 50 years ago and is the farthest human-made object from Earth. Shutting down one of its scientific devices will help it conserve energy and continue traveling toward the edge of the solar system

Astronauts struggle to adapt to weightlessness, even after months on the International Space Station, a study suggests.

Astronauts’ Memories of Earth’s Gravity May Influence How They Move and Hold Objects, Even After Months in Space

Examining the fine motor skills of space travelers can help improve safety for future missions, scientists say

A Lyrid meteor photographed in Yunnan Province, China, on April 24, 2022

Look Up This Week to See the Peak of the Lyrid Meteor Shower. Humans Have Documented This Dazzling Annual Display for 2,700 Years

During the wee hours of April 22, moonset times will give stargazers in much of the United States a solid stretch of dark sky before sunrise

On Thursday, Artemis 2 astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen gave their first press conference since splashing down. Here, Hansen holds Rise, the crew’s mascot and zero-gravity indicator, which visually demonstrated when they had entered space.

After Rounding the Moon, Artemis 2 Astronauts Reflect on the Magnitude of the Experience: ‘We as Countries and as Humans Did This’

In their first press conference since returning from space, the four-person crew described feeling small but united with people on Earth and said the mission was an achievement by all of humanity

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