Astronomy | featured news

On Aug. 5, as nervous JPL engineers watch, the fate of the rover — capable of pulverizing rocks and ingesting soil — will rest on a landing sequence so far-fetched that some scientists were skeptical it could work.

A heavy-duty solar flare erupted on the surface of the sun midmorning Thursday, and it appeared from early data that a solar storm from the X-class eruption was headed toward Earth.

Pluto may have been kicked out of the planet club, but it has gained yet another companion. Scientists announced Wednesday the discovery of the smallest moon yet around the icy orb, bringing the tally of known moons to five. "We're not finished searching yet," said Hal Weaver of Johns Hopkins University, who thinks there may be more lurking.

This panoramic shot of the surface of Mars shows an impact crater blasted billions of years ago - and the fresh tracks created by Nasa's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity. Use the zoom tool to see the view in more detail. The scene, which is made up of 817 images taken between December 2011 and May 2012, also includes the rover's own solar arrays and deck in the foreground. Its publication coincided with Opportunity completing its 3,000th day on Mars.

Imagine that the visible universe and everything in it was once contained in a volume many times smaller than the size of a single atom. With a quantum theory of gravity, we may be able to trace the Big Bang expansion back to its very beginning, and understand precisely how our universe arose, presumably from nothing.

Astronomers have developed a new method to probe the atmospheres of extrasolar planets, which should greatly expand the search for planets that have the right temperature and composition for life. The technique allowed researchers to precisely calculate the mass of a planet named Tau Bootis b for the first time since its discovery 15 years ago.

China performed its first-ever space docking involving a piloted spacecraft on Monday, joining the ranks of history's two top spacefaring nations, the United States and Russia.

In its most ambitious space mission yet, China launched its first female astronaut and two male colleagues to dock with an orbiting module.

NASA is poised to launch its latest X-ray space telescope on a two-year hunt for hard-to-see objects lurking in the heart of the Milky Way and other galaxies.

China will be launching its first manned docking mission later this month.