Space and Astronomy News Headlines

Saturn is widely regarded as the most beautiful object in the solar system, and tonight you can get a detailed look at the iconic ringed planet through a powerful telescope during a live webcast.

Ann McClain's mother was in her front yard rose garden when her daughter called with the news.

If you're outside soon after nightfall this week — say around 10 p.m. your local time — you may notice a large and slender triangle high in the southern sky, a celestial geometry display of two stars and the brilliant ringed planet Saturn.

There may be killer asteroids headed for Earth, and NASA has decided to do something about it. The space agency announced a new "Grand Challenge" today (June 18) to find all dangerous space rocks and figure out how to stop them from destroying Earth.

NEW YORK — In 18 years, messages beamed out into space from Earth by a new alien-messaging project Monday (June 17) will reach a distant star system known as Gliese 526.

PARIS — Ground controllers put Europe's Herschel Space Observatory to sleep Monday (June 17), turning off the infrared observatory after squeezing every bit of engineering value from the spacecraft since it ceased scientific work in April.

NASA has eight new astronauts — its first new batch in four years. Among the lucky candidates: the first female fighter pilot to become an astronaut in nearly two decades. A female helicopter pilot also ...

A normally dull star in Ursa Major, the Great Bear constellation, give off an incredible flare while scientists watched, increasing its brightness 15-fold in just three minutes, before returning to normal.

Europe's next mission to Mars has passed a key milestone to enter its final construction phase in pursuit of a planned 2016 launch toward the Red Planet.

NASA's Mars rover Curiosity, which for almost a year has been driving across the Red Planet, will be the next model to roll off LEGO's CUUSOO production line, the toy company announced on Friday (June 14).

The circumstances surrounding the death of the first man in space Yuri Gagarin, who was killed in a 1968 jet crash, have long been clouded in theories and rumors. Now, the first man to walk in space says he can reveal what really happened to his friend and fellow Russian cosmonaut.

This article was updated at 12:03 p.m. EDT.

MONTREAL, Quebec — Flashing a picture of the star HR 8799 and its four alien planets on a big screen, astronomer Andrew Cumming smiled. "This is the most amazing picture in exoplanet science!" he exclaimed.

The inner workings of black holes are a bit clearer thanks to a supercomputer simulation that showed how matter falling into black holes emits light.

Gluttonous black holes in the center of some galaxies could be precursors to the brightest objects in the known universe.

Cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova, who 50 years ago this Sunday (June 16) launched aboard the Soviet Union's Vostok 6 mission, set a world record by becoming the first woman in space. But her gender wasn't the only contribution that Tereshkova made to the cultural history of space exploration — she was also the first person …

A big asteroid that flew past Earth last month belongs to a new category of space rock, scientists say.

One of the first visitors to Jupiter's icy moon of Europa could be a tiny submarine barely larger than two soda cans. The small craft might help strike the right balance between cost and capability for a robotic mission to look for alien life in the ocean beneath Europa's icy crust.