For scientists trying to understand what ancient Mars might have been like, the red planet sends some mixed signals. Water-carved valleys and lakebeds leave little doubt that water once flowed on the surface. But climate models for early Mars suggest average temperatures around the globe stayed well below freezing.

The sun could be one of our biggest threats in the next 100 years. If an enormous solar flare like the one that hit Earth 150 years ago struck us today, it could knock out our electrical grids, satellite communications and the internet. A new study finds that such an event is likely within the next century. “The sun is usually thought of as a friend and the source of life, but it could also be the opposite,” says Avi Loeb at Harvard University. “It just depends on circumstances.”

Now you can visit many planets and moons in Google Maps right from your computer.

The asteroid that came “damn close” to slamming into the Earth this week could cause utter devastation several decades down the road, and scientists can’t rule out an eventual collision...

It sits more than 66,000 light-years away

Pieces weighing up to 100kg could make it to the surface, says expert, when out-of-control 8.5-tonne laboratory breaks apart in the atmosphere.

This week, Mars rules the space photos.

Until now, researchers haven't been able to map half of the galaxy we call home

Planet Nine is out there, and astronomers are determined to find it, according to a new statement from NASA. In fact, mounting evidence suggests it's hard to imagine our solar system without the unseen world. The hypothetical planet is believed to be about 10 times more massive than Earth and located in the dark, outer reaches of the solar system, approximately 20 times farther from the sun than Neptune is. While the mysterious world still has yet to be found, astronomers have discovered a number of strange features of our solar system that are best explained by the presence of a ninth planet, according to the NASA statement.

An asteroid the size of a house will zoom past the Earth on Thursday at a distance of some 26,000 miles, NASA said. That's actually fairly close, when you consider that the moon is about 239,000 miles away. “It's damn close," Rolf Densing, head of the European Space Operations Centre in Darmstadt, Germany, told The Telegraph. "The farthest satellites are 22,000 miles out, so this is indeed a close miss," he said.

Gravitational waves have been on our radar non-stop lately, from LIGO's fourth reported detection—enhanced by data from Italy's Virgo project—to this year's physics Nobel going to three of LIGO's cofounders. But here we are again and, far from getting old, the news is more exciting than ever: we've picked up a new kind of signal, from merging neutron stars rather than black holes. That's not all, though—while black hole mergers are expected to be difficult or impossible to see, this collision produced electromagnetic waves across a broad portion of the spectrum, allowing multiple telescopes to...

Scientists using NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter spacecraft, in orbit above the Martian surface, have made a surprising discovery: an ancient dried-up lake bed that once held 10 times as much water as all of the Great Lakes combined. There's a possibility that this location saw the evolution of life billions of years ago, and may offer clues as to how life arose on our own planet.

Stars are pretty much like bells. Our Sun, if it could be heard through the vacuum of space, vibrates with a song of many frequencies similar to the ringing of cathedral bells that are each hitting at different notes. If you have been near a cathedral you may notice that as the bells get louder, they chime at certain pitches when they are simultaneously rung.

The search for alien technology is about to get much more efficient.I’ve bet a cup of coffee to any and all that by 2035 we’ll have evidence of E.T. To many of my colleagues, that sounds like a losing proposition. For more than a half-century, a small coterie of scientists has been pursuing the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence, or SETI. And we haven’t found a thing.

Residents in China witnessed an astronomical event while celebrating a mid-autumn festival on Wednesday. Giant fireballs or meteors lit up the sky in China's Yunnan Province when residents were observing the full moon. Three meteors – two small and one large – streaked across the sky, Mail Online quoted an eyewitness as saying.

Astronomers around the world will turn their eyes to the sky Thursday as a roughly 20-metre-wide asteroid will fly well within the moon's orbit, about 50,000 kilometres above Earth. While this asteroid currently poses no threat to Earth, scientists are hoping to gather information to refine its orbit. With government agencies, they are also preparing for a day when a similarly sized asteroid could enter Earth's atmosphere.

Planet 9 cannot hide forever, and new research has narrowed the range of possible locations further! In January of 2016, astronomers Mike Brown and Konstantin Batygin published the first evidence that there might be another planet in our Solar System. Known as “Planet 9” (“Planet X” to some), this hypothetical body was believed to orbit at an extreme distance from our Sun, as evidenced by the orbits of certain extreme Kuiper Belt Objects (eKBOs).

Kip Thorne looks into the black hole he helped create and thinks, “Why, of course. That's what it would do.” This particular black hole is a simulation of unprecedented accuracy. It appears to spin at nearly the speed of light, dragging bits of the universe along with it. (That's gravity for you; relativity is superweird.) In theory it was once a star, but instead of fading or exploding, it collapsed like a failed soufflé into a tiny point of inescapable singularity. A glowing ring orbiting the spheroidal maelstrom seems to curve over the top and below the bottom simultaneously.

NASA astronaut Scott Kelly spent a year in space. His recollections of this unprecedented test of human endurance, and the physical toll it took, raise questions about the likelihood of future travel to Mars.

SpaceX aims to launch spaceships to Mars within five years with a new rocket design that could also be used on Earth to make rapid around-the-globe trips

Created by Berkay Ferah: What's Beyond is a 360 video, designed to watch with virtual reality glasses. Music : Gustav Holst - Neptune The Mystic (Performed by Mike Leghorn)

It's hardly the most pressing concern for Earth, but there might be a way to forewarn ourselves

“Stars just don’t do that.” By Sonya Collins.

NASA’s Cassini spacecraft will burn up in Saturn’s atmosphere on Friday, after 20 years in space.

The NASA probe that's spent the past 13 years making countless discoveries about the ringed planet and its moons was taken out of orbit and sent plunging into Saturn's atmosphere.

Greg Matloff is one of humanity's best hopes for traveling to unknown worlds.

Sure, scientists are looking forward to the radio telescope to solve some of the biggest questions in the field of astronomy. But computer science experts take note: The worldwide science project is set to push the limits of high-performance computing and management of huge data sets.

Astronomers find evidence of enormous black hole one hundred thousand times more massive than the sun in a gas cloud near the galaxy’s centre

Voyager 1, humanity's most distant emissary, has now been streaking through space for 40 years.

Though Cassini only has a few days left to study Saturn before it dies, it’s seriously making them count. Today, NASA released what it says are “the highest-resolution color images of any part of Saturn’s rings.” In true Cassini fashion, they’re absolutely mesmerizing.

Advancements in space science have real geopolitical impact back on Earth. And NASA's Cassini spacecraft will continue transmitting valuable information until the very last moments of its 20-year mission.

The International Space Station (ISS) crew had to hide in a special shelter during a massive solar flare, a nuclear scientist said. The sun produced several huge solar flares last week, one of which was the strongest observed in a decade.

Since it was launched in 2009, NASA’s Kepler mission has continued to make important exoplanet discoveries. Even after the failure of two reaction wheels, the space observatory has found new life in the form of its K2 mission. All told, this space observatory has detected 5,017 candidates and confirmed the existence of 2,494 exoplanets using the Transit Method during its past eight years in service.

Cassini is one of the most ambitious efforts in planetary space exploration. A joint endeavour of NASA, ESA and the Italian space agency, Cassini is a sophisticated spacecraft exploring the Saturnian system since 2004. The final signal will take 83 minutes to reach Earth.

In a major space policy decision, Russia will promise to join a NASA-led effort to build an international human outpost in the vicinity of the Moon. Russian industry sources told Popular Mechanics that the head of Roscosmos State Corporation, Igor Komarov, is expected to announce the news next week during a meeting with other space agencies at the 68th International Astronautical Congress in Adelaide, Australia.