Using the Hubble Space Telescope, astronomers have discovered a most unusual exoplanet that absorbs 94% of the visible light given off by its host star, making it seem as if it is pitch-black in color, according to research published last week in the Astrophysical Journal Letters. This unusual world, officially known as WASP-12b, is a “hot Jupiter” – a giant gas planet which orbits very closely to its sun and which is heated to extreme temperatures – NASA explained in a statement. In this case, its day side reaches temperatures of up to 4,600 degrees Fahrenheit.

A dual asteroid with signs of a comet was discovered by NASA astronomers using the Hubble telescope. A double asteroid is in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. REN TV notes that the uniqueness of the celestial body is that it can be attributed to the class of comets. Astronomers have discovered that two bodies of nearly …

This week, all eyes are on Saturn and, more specifically, the Cassini spacecraft which circled the planet one last time before crashing into its murky surface on Friday. It left behind thousands of images, including some final shots like the photo of Saturn's clouds near the terminator, which is the boundary between night and day. It also took the awkwardly named "goodbye-kiss" image of Titan. The moon's gravity gave Cassini one final push around Saturn before its dramatic end.

Six NASA-backed research subjects who have been cooped up in a Mars-like habitat on a remote Hawaii volcano since January emerged from isolation Sunday. They devoured fresh-picked tropical fruits, vegetables and a fluffy egg strata after eating mostly freeze-dried food during their isolation. The crew of four men and two women are part of a study designed to better understand the psychological impacts a long-term space mission would have on astronauts.

The international Cassini spacecraft at Saturn has executed the course correction that will send it to destruction at the end of the week. The probe flew within 120,000km of the giant moon Titan on Monday - an encounter that bent its trajectory just enough to put it on a collision path with the ringed planet. Nothing can now stop the death plunge in Saturn's atmosphere on Friday.

Early on Friday morning, NASA's Cassini probe will meet its doom as it becomes a streak of plutonium-laced fireworks in the clouds of Saturn. The nuclear-powered robot was launched in 1997 year to deeply study Saturn and its mysterious collection of moons. Cassini arrived in 2004, dropped off a lander on one moon, began orbiting Saturn, and has beamed back data and images to Earth ever since. Scientists would love to keep the $3.26-billion mission going, but knew their robot would eventually run too low on propellant to safely control.

After 20 years, thousands of stunning images and a journey of eight billion kilometres, Cassini is set to plummet towards Saturn, burning up as it goes. Follow all the updates and reaction here, live

No one really knows what was just launched into orbit.

An international team of astronomers used the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope to estimate whether there might be water on the seven earth-sized planets orbiting the nearby dwarf star TRAPPIST-1. The results suggest that the outer planets of the system might still harbour substantial amounts of water. This includes the three planets within the habitable zone of the star, lending further weight to the possibility that they may indeed be habitable.

The twin spacecraft still send data back to the planet they left 40 years ago.  

An asteroid named Florence that will safely sweep past Earth on Sept. 1 is the largest object to give our planet a close shave since NASA began tracking these types of near-Earth asteroids, an agency official said. The space rock measures 2.7 miles (4.4 kilometers) across. It will pass by Earth at a safe distance of 4.4 million miles (7 million kilometers), or nearly 18 times the distance between Earth and the moon.

In its pursuit of missions that will take us back to the Moon, to Mars, and beyond, NASA has been exploring a number of next-generation propulsion concepts.

When you open Facebook on Monday, a special message about the 2017 total solar eclipse will promote NASA's live-streaming video feeds.

NASA's New Horizons spacecraft could end up bearing a message for intelligent aliens, just as the agency's venerable Voyager probes are doing. Both Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 famously carry copies of the "Golden Record," which are loaded with photos, music, sounds and other data designed to teach any extraterrestrials who might encounter the probes about humanity and its home planet.

For a large institution playing at the leadership-class supercomputing level, NASA tends to do things a little differently than its national lab and academic peers.

Nasa does not have a colony of child sex slaves on Mars, it has been forced to confirm. The space agency has looked to address claims made by a guest on Alex Jones's Infowars channel that it has kidnapped children and is holding them on Mars.

Forty years ago, the sound of human laughter was blasted out into the cosmos—but who is the person laughing? And why did the track disappear from official recordings?

Fans of experimental aircraft from the 20th century are in for a treat. NASA's Armstrong Flight Research Center has begun uploading its entire historical archive to YouTube, making hundreds of videos highlighting different test flights and strange planes from the past 70 years easily accessible.

Want to save the planet?

NASA isn't all about interplanetary exploration; in fact, the agency spends much of its time studying our home planet. This fun whiteboard animation series explains Earth science to the science-curious.

When NASA posted a job description for its "planetary protection officer" role, the space agency was fishing for candidates with advanced degrees and experience working on interplanetary missions. What it did not expect, however, was an earnest letter from nine-year-old Jack Davis: a fourth-grader who wrote the space agency asking if he could apply.

NASA's Cassini spacecraft will enter new territory in its final mission phase, the Grand Finale, as it prepares to embark on a set of ultra-close passes through Saturn’s upper atmosphere with its final five orbits around the planet.

While it is not likely we will see large supercomputers on the International Space Station (ISS) anytime soon, HPE is getting a head start on providing more advanced on-board computing capabilities via a pair of its aptly-named “Apollo” water-cooled servers in orbit.

Automating rocket safety could catalyze rapid growth in the commercial space industry.

Automaton Rover for Extreme Environments (AREE)

Nasa’s Cassini mission to Saturn is entering its final week. On 15 September, it will dive towards the planet and burn up in its atmosphere. Nasa have called it the grand finale. Cassini is one of the most ambitious space missions. It is a collaboration between Nasa, ESA and the Italian space agency, Agenzia Spaziale Italiana. The spacecraft, launched on 15 October 1997, took seven years to travel through the solar system to Saturn, which lies about 10 times further from the Sun than Earth.

Indian teenager Rifath Sharook has designed the “world’s lightest satellite” using a 3D printed carbon fiber reinforced polymer. The satellite, which weighs just 64 grams, is expected to launch on a sounding rocket from NASA’s Wallops Island facility, Virginia in June. Sharook has named the 4 cm device the ‘Kalam Sat’ in reference to former Indian President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam.

Excitement greets pictures of giant, chaotic weather systems plus new measurements that will help build unprecedented map of planet’s interior

You'd think NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) has seen everything there is to see on the Martian surface in the 11 years it's orbited our nearest neighbour, but a snapshot taken over the planet's South Pole has revealed something we can't...

The United States will revive the long-dormant National Space Council, a group meant to coordinate space policy among government agencies and departments. Vice-president Mike Pence, who will chair the council, announced its reinstatement on 7 June at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas.

NASA has found diverse minerals in rocks examined by the Curiosity rover on lower Mount Sharp, Mars. These suggest that wet environmental conditions there changed over time.

And there are indications that groundwater persisted for far longer. By John Timmer.

It's official - NASA's Asteroid Redirect mission has entered its closing down phase, which means we can't expect to see a giant boulder orbiting our Moon any time soon. Bummer. Asteroid Redirect was started in 2015 with the goal to create the first-ever mission combining robot and human efforts. The plan was to send a robotic crew to a near-Earth asteroid, grab a huge rock from it, and redirect it in a stable orbit around the Moon.

The Kepler space telescope's latest and most complete planet catalog adds 219 new candidates, including one that could be a close cousin to Earth.

Prof Stephen Hawking has called for leading nations to send astronauts to the Moon by 2020. They should also aim to build a lunar base in 30 years' time and send people to Mars by 2025. Prof Hawking said that the goal would re-ignite the space programme, forge new alliances and give humanity a sense of purpose.