Space

  1. Planets

    Asteroids: A stepping stone to Mars?

    NASA's Asteroid Redirect Mission, designed to capture and move an asteroid, may be a step toward getting to Mars. But not everyone agrees it's the right step.

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  2. Planets

    Asteroids: Avoiding an Earthly smashup

    Any of nearly 1,500 asteroids could hit Earth. Experts want to learn more about the space rocks — and maybe even bump them off course.

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  3. Planets

    Explainer: What are asteroids?

    Leftovers from the creation of the solar system, asteroids are space rocks that orbit the sun. Let’s hope the big ones never become meteorites.

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  4. Earth

    Meteorites likely wiped out Earth’s earliest life

    Enormous meteorites appear to have slammed into Earth several times early in its history. Each mega-smashup would have boiled off oceans and obliterated any bit of life.

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  5. Physics

    Smooshed diamonds: A window into exoplanets?

    Scientists have compressed diamonds more than ever before. Their carbon may give clues to what conditions might be like deep within planets way beyond our solar system.

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  6. Space

    What to wear on Mars

    NASA released details of the new, more flexible apparel being designed for long-distance travelers — such as those bound for another planet.

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  7. Space

    Monster collision in space

    The smashup of four clusters of galaxies has sent a super-hot jet of charged particles spewing 2.5 million light-years into space!

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  8. Planets

    First mega-Earth found

    Astronomers are puzzled by Kepler-10c. This exoplanet is rocky like Earth — but as massive as Neptune. And that challenges their accepted ideas about how planets form.

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  9. Space

    Sun sibling spotted

    Separated at birth: Astronomers find a star 110 light-years away. It was born at the same time as our sun and from the same cloud of gas and dust.

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  10. Planets

    Distant planet may boast the longest year

    On a planet far, far away, a single pass around its sun may seem to last forever.

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  11. Planets

    A ‘Goldilocks’ world?

    Scientists have spotted a faraway planet that is nearly the size of Earth and could host liquid water. It's too far to visit, but astronomers say the galaxy could be littered with such potentially habitable worlds. Don't hang up yet, E.T.

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  12. Space

    Failed ‘star’ found in sun’s backyard

    Astronomers have identified a failed star — or brown dwarf — right in our sun’s backyard. It doesn’t burn brightly. In fact, it doesn’t burn at all, which explains its downright frosty temperature.

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