Space & Physics

The incentives in science don’t always encourage openness—but being wrong might just be the key to getting it right.

NASA scientists spent months coaxing the 46-year-old Voyager 1 spacecraft back into healthy communication

Millions of human-made objects travel at high speeds in low-Earth orbit, polluting space and increasing the chance of collision with satellites and other spacecraft

Purple may be a likely color for extraterrestrial organisms, research suggests

The telescope's studies could help end a long-standing disagreement over the rate of cosmic expansion. But scientists say more measurements are needed

Perspective and subtle motion allows us to peek over the moon’s edge and into its far side

Facing budgetary pressure for its Mars Sample Return program, NASA has turned to private industry for ideas—perhaps with one specific company in mind

A black hole weighing as much as 33 suns lurks a mere 2,000 light-years away from our solar system

How long can humanity’s artifacts endure on the lunar surface? A new installation from artist Jeff Koons is inadvertently putting this question to the test

When astronauts return to the moon later this decade, they’ll bring along science experiments to study moonquakes, lunar water ice and extraterrestrial agriculture

As the Event Horizon Telescope pursues ambitious upgrades, the project’s latest results reveal the magnetic fields around our galaxy’s supermassive black hole

At a recent workshop, researchers and journalists debated how to announce a potential discovery of extraterrestrial life