China is set to launch its next robotic moon mission on Friday (May 3), and you can watch the action live. A Long March 5 rocket carrying the Chang’e 6 lunar far side sample return mission is scheduled to launch between 5:17 a.m. EDT (0917 GMT) and 6:18 a.m. EDT (1018 GMT) on Friday. The...

More than 27,000 asteroids in our solar system had been overlooked in existing telescope images — but thanks to a new AI-powered algorithm, we now have a catalog of them. The scientists behind the discovery say the tool makes it easier to find and track millions of asteroids, including potentially...

The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has performed a weather report for a distant planet. The powerful space telescope forecasts extreme wind speeds, blisteringly hot temperatures and blankets of rock clouds for the world, named Wasp-43b. As such, the extrasolar planet, or “exoplanet,”...

Last night (April 30), the sun released an extremely powerful solar flare triggering widespread radio blackouts across the Pacific region. The flare peaked at 7:46 p.m. EDT (2346 GMT) and ended shortly after at 7:58 p.m. EDT (2358). Solar flares are eruptions from the sun‘s surface that emit...

A new telescope billed as the world’s highest astronomical site is officially open for business. The Japanese University of Tokyo Atacama Observatory, or TAO, which was first conceptualized 26 years ago to study the evolution of galaxies and exoplanets, is perched on top of a tall mountain in...

A joint Chinese and European X-ray telescope mission called Einstein Probe is successfully viewing the universe in widescreen, with a telescope design that mimics the eyes of lobsters. Einstein Probe, which launched on Jan. 9 aboard a Chinese Long March rocket, is currently undergoing testing and...

The glorious, billowing Southern Ring Nebula is the cocoon of a dying star — and it has a secret. Scientists have found this nebula to exhibit a double-ring structure that evidences not one, but possibly three stars at its heart. The Southern Ring Nebula, also designated NGC 3132, is a planetary...

Three Chinese astronauts returned to Earth today (April 30) after six months in the final frontier. The Shenzhou 17 spacecraft touched down under parachutes in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region today at 5:46 a.m. EDT (0946 GMT; 5:46 p.m. Beijing time), about nine hours after departing...

NASA has selected four volunteers to go on a mission to Mars — without actually leaving Earth. The simulated mission to the Red Planet will take place at a habitat created at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston; it will simulate what it would be like for astronauts to live and work on Mars...