Sky and Solar

Pluto losing its planet status may be the best thing that ever happened to solar system diversity
24 August 2026

Unpopular opinion time, Pluto being reclassified as a dwarf planet was a great thing for our understanding of the solar system and for the former planet, too.
'Ghosts of Mars' at 25: Are we any closer to living on the Red Planet? We asked the experts
24 August 2026

John Carpenter's 'Ghosts of Mars' explored a future where Mars is terraformed, but is it closer to becoming a reality? We spoke to the experts to find out.
'Project Hail Mary' and 'The Martian' author Andy Weir is headed back to outer space, but not how you'd expect
24 August 2026

Weir will executive produce "Exoplanet," a new Audible sci-fi drama coming this fall.
Goodbye, Falcon 9: SpaceX planning to retire workhorse launcher when Starship is up and running
24 August 2026

SpaceX plans to retire its workhorse Falcon 9 once it gets the next-gen Starship megarocket online. But what will removing one of the most-flown rockets in history do to the current launch market?
SpaceX will set rocket-reuse record on 100th Falcon 9 launch of the year early Aug. 25: Watch it live
24 August 2026

SpaceX will set a new rocket-reuse record early Tuesday morning (Aug. 25), on its 100th Falcon 9 flight of the year. You can watch the action live.

JWST’s ‘impossible’ early galaxies may be even more massive than we thought
24 August 2026

Faint, low-mass stars could be hiding much of the mass in distant galaxies, making the surprisingly large galaxies discovered by JWST in the early Universe even harder to explain.
How to observe the 12 August 2026 solar eclipse
07 August 2026

On the evening of 12 August 2026, the Moon will pass between Earth and the Sun, producing a striking solar eclipse. Find out how, when and where to observe it safely.
Falcon 9 lunar impact: More than a new crater
05 August 2026

Today’s impact of a spent Falcon 9 rocket stage on the Moon may sound dramatic, but it is neither the first human-made object to strike our natural satellite nor the largest.
Euclid opens a new window on the first billion years of cosmic history
25 July 2026

One of the biggest mysteries in modern astronomy is how the Universe managed to grow enormous black holes so quickly.
Caught in the act: the wind that could kill a galaxy
10 June 2026

A powerful wind in the early Universe may explain why some massive galaxies lived fast and died young by stopping forming stars far sooner than expected.
Europe’s Mars rover may land in the remains of a vast ancient water system
04 June 2026

New orbital mapping suggests Rosalind Franklin’s Oxia Planum landing site is part of a clay-rich region hundreds of kilometres wide, raising the possibility that it records a much larger watery episode in Mars’s early history.