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NASA/Johns Hopkins APL
History-making probe attempts closest-ever approach to the sun
On Christmas Eve, the Parker Solar Probe was set to become the closest spacecraft to the sun, flying within a few million miles of the solar surface.

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Starship's Super Heavy Booster is grappled at the launch pad in Starbase near Boca Chica, Texas, on October 13, 2024, during the Starship Flight 5 test. SpaceX successfully "caught" the first-stage booster of its Starship megarocket Sunday as it returned to the launch pad after a test flight, a world first in the company's quest for rapid reusability. (Photo by SERGIO FLORES / AFP) (Photo by SERGIO FLORES/AFP via Getty Images)
Sergio Flores/AFP/Getty Images
Why sonic booms from the most powerful rocket ever built have some scientists worried
How to see the Ursids, the final meteor shower that peaks in 2024
Astronauts who flew to space aboard Starliner face additional delay
Astronomers discover two populations of unusual dark comets in our solar system
Could mouse sperm orbiting Earth be the future of humanity?
December’s full moon will soon reach peak illumination. Here’s what to know
The north polar region of Jupiter's volcanic moon Io was captured by NASA's Juno during spacecraft's the 57th close pass of the gas giant on Dec. 30, 2023. The region was imaged at a scale of 1.1 miles (1.8 kilometers) per pixel.
NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS
New observations of the most volcanic world in our solar system solve a mystery that began with Voyager 1
Bottles of Dassai 23 sake are seen at Asahi Shuzo Co's facility in Iwakuni, Yamaguchi Prefecture, Japan, on July 7, 2022.
Noriko Hayashi/Bloomberg/Getty Images
Sake made in space could sell for $500,000 a glass
NASA's Perseverance Mars rover used its right-front navigation camera to capture this first view over the rim of Jezero Crater on Dec. 10, 2024, the 1,354th Martian day, or sol, of the mission, when it reached the end of its long climb from the crater floor. The rover is looking west in this image from a location nicknamed "Lookout Hill." Not visible is "Witch Hazel Hill," a scientifically significant rocky outcrop that Perseverance is headed toward. Once there, the rover will spend about six months exploring the area.
NASA/JPL-Caltech
Perseverance rover will uncover mysterious Martian history after a monthslong challenging trek
A meteor streaks in the night sky over a cactus during the annual Geminids meteor shower near the U.S.-Mexico border town of Lukeville, Arizona, U.S. December 14, 2023. REUTERS/Go Nakamura TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY
Go Nakamura/Reuters
Here’s how to watch this year’s brightest meteor shower

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CNN/Adobe Stock
Why scientists say we need to send clocks to the moon — soon
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Chris Meaney/NASA/CIL
Scientists have spotted unexpected X- and C-shaped structures in the atmosphere. They are struggling to explain them
In this photo provided by NASA, Boeing Crew Flight Test astronauts Butch Wilmore, left, and Suni Williams pose for a portrait inside the vestibule between the forward port on the International Space Station's Harmony module and Boeing's Starliner spacecraft on June 13, 2024. (NASA via AP)
NASA/AP
What the two Boeing Starliner astronauts will do in space until 2025
This composite image shows the galaxy cluster 1E 0657-56, also known as the "bullet cluster." This cluster was formed after the collision of two large clusters of galaxies, the most energetic event known in the universe since the Big Bang. Hot gas detected by Chandra in X-rays is seen as two pink clumps in the image and contains most of the "normal," or baryonic, matter in the two clusters. The bullet-shaped clump on the right is the hot gas from one cluster, which passed through the hot gas from the other larger cluster during the collision. An optical image from Magellan and the Hubble Space Telescope shows the galaxies in orange and white. The blue areas in this image show where astronomers find most of the mass in the clusters. The concentration of mass is determined using the effect of so-called gravitational lensing, where light from the distant objects is distorted by intervening matter. Most of the matter in the clusters (blue) is clearly separate from the normal matter (pink), giving direct evidence that nearly all of the matter in the clusters is dark.
NASA/CXC/CfA/M.Markevitch et al.
Scientists may have found an answer to the mystery of dark matter. It involves an unexpected byproduct

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Designated Northwest Africa (NWA) 7034, and nicknamed "Black Beauty," this Martian meteorite weighs approximately 11 ounces (320 grams).
NASA
‘Black Beauty’ was found on Earth in 2011. Now, scientists say it has revealed a new clue to life on Mars
Commander Jared Isaacman of Polaris Dawn, a private human spaceflight mission, speaks at a press conference at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, U.S. August 19, 2024. Launch aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket is scheduled for August 26. REUTERS/Joe Skipper
Joe Skipper/Reuters
‘Further and faster’: Why Trump’s NASA pick is sending shock waves through the space community
NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) rocket with the Orion spacecraft aboard is seen atop the mobile launcher at Launch 39B at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Artemis I mission is the first integrated test of the agency’s deep space exploration systems: the Space Launch System rocket, Orion spacecraft, and supporting ground systems. The mission is the first in a series of increasingly complex missions to the Moon. Launch of the uncrewed flight test is targeted for no earlier than Aug. 29 at 8:33 a.m. ET. With Artemis missions, NASA will land the first woman and first person of color on the Moon, using innovative technologies to explore more of the lunar surface than ever before.
Eric Bordelon/NASA
NASA delays first crewed flight to the moon in over 50 years
This artist's concept depicts NASA's Voyager 1 spacecraft entering interstellar space, or the space between stars. Interstellar space is dominated by the plasma, or ionized gas, that was ejected by the death of nearby giant stars millions of years ago. The environment inside our solar bubble is dominated by the plasma exhausted by our sun, known as the solar wind.
NASA/JPL-Caltech
Voyager 1 is back online 15 billion miles away in interstellar space. But the end could be near
NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope recently imaged the Sombrero galaxy with its MIRI (Mid-Infrared Instrument), resolving the clumpy nature of the dust along the galaxy’s outer ring. This image includes filters representing 7.7-micron light as blue, 11.3-micron light as green, and 12.8-micron light as red.
NASA/ESA/CSA/STScI
A galaxy named for its resemblance to a sombrero looks distinctly different in new image
The Progress 90 cargo craft carrying nearly three tons of food, fuel, and supplies approaches the International Space Station for a docking to the Poisk module. Credit: NASA+
NASA+
Astronauts had to shut down a Russian space station module due to ‘unusual odor’ from spacecraft
Astronaut Emily Calandrelli celebrates a successful mission to space.
Blue Origin
Emily Calandrelli, 100th woman in space, refuses to bow to ‘small men on the internet’
NASA's Mars Perseverance rover acquired this image using its onboard Right Navigation Camera (Navcam). The camera is located high on the rover's mast and aids in driving. This image was acquired on Nov. 19, 2024 (Sol 1333) at the local mean solar time of 12:07:26.
NASA/JPL-Caltech
Elon Musk has pledged to settle Mars. A prize-winning book offers a reality check
This is an image of the star WOH G64, taken by the GRAVITY instrument on the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope Interferometer (ESO’s VLTI). This is the first close-up picture of a star outside our own galaxy, the Milky Way. The star is located in the Large Magellanic Cloud, over 160 000 light-years away. The bright oval at the centre of this image is a dusty cocoon that enshrouds the star. A fainter elliptical ring around it could be the inner rim of a dusty torus, but more observations are needed to confirm this feature. 
K. Ohnaka et al./ESO
Unprecedented image may reveal impending supernova that could be visible from Earth
This image shows the Sun in visible light. It was taken by the Polarimetric and Helioseismic Imager (PHI) onboard the Solar Orbiter spacecraft on 22 March 2023. The instrument collected red light with a wavelength of 617 nanometres.
European Space Agency
Solar Orbiter captures the highest-resolution images of the sun’s surface yet
The SpaceX Starship lifts off from Starbase near Boca Chica, Texas, on November 19, 2024, for the Starship Flight 6 test. (Photo by CHANDAN KHANNA / AFP) (Photo by CHANDAN KHANNA/AFP via Getty Images)
Chandan Khanna/AFP/Getty Images
SpaceX calls off nail-biting catch attempt as booster splashes down to Earth
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Oliver Hull
Earth ring theory may shed light on an unexplained ancient climate event, scientists say
The moon rises behind an observation deck in New York City as seen from Hoboken, N.J., Friday, Nov. 15, 2024. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
Seth Wenig/AP
Look up this weekend for a celestial double feature
The lunar farside as never seen before! LROC WAC orthographic projection centered at 180° longitude, 0° latitude
NASA/GSFC/Arizona State University
Findings from the first lunar far side samples raise new questions about the moon’s history
Nauka docks to the Zvezda service module iss065e212164 (July 29, 2021) --- Russia's "Nauka" Multipurpose Laboratory Module is pictured shortly after docking to the Zvezda service module's Earth-facing port on the International Space Station with the Brazilian coast 263 miles below. In the foreground, is the Soyuz MS-18 crew ship docked to the Rassvet module.
NASA
‘Possibility of a catastrophic failure’: Inside the space station leak problem that has NASA worried
This is an image of the planet Uranus taken by the spacecraft Voyager 2 in 1986. The Voyager project is managed for NASA by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
NASA/JPL-Caltech
New Uranus research suggests what’s known about the planet could be wrong