Impacting asteroid spotted just hours before hitting Earth

A small impacting asteroid, 2018 LA, was discovered only eight hours before it hit the Earth, disintegrating in the atmosphere.

Why Pluto is still a planet and hundreds more lurk in the Solar System

The chief scientist on NASA’s New Horizons mission argues that Pluto is still a planet. And he believes there are hundreds of planets in the Solar System.

NASA’s TESS spacecraft will seek out Earth-like worlds around nearby stars

A NASA spacecraft is due to blast off on Monday, April 16th, 2018, to seek out Earth-like worlds and search for clues to alien life.

An artists's impression of an asteroid like 2012 DA14 making a close pass of the Earth

Missed! One of closest large asteroids on record flies by

Earth just narrowly escaped an impact by the closest large asteroid ever recorded. The space rock, which was up to 110 meters wide, shot by at half the distance of the Moon.

Superflare dents hopes of life on rocky planet orbiting nearest star

Hopes that life might exist on a rocky planet orbiting Proxima Centauri, the nearest star to the Sun, have taken a knock after the star fired off a deadly superflare.

Vast cloud of glowing gas discovered near Whirlpool Galaxy

Astronomers have discovered a vast cloud of glowing gas close to M51, the Whirlpool Galaxy, which is one of the most famous spiral galaxies in the night sky

Astronomers struggle to explain mysterious short-lived explosions

An international team of astronomers has discovered 72 new transients – bright explosions that fade away far more quickly than a supernova.

Hubble discovers the farthest star seen in the Universe

NASA’s Hubble space telescope has spotted the farthest star ever observed, nine billion light-years away, thanks to a natural magnifying glass in deep space.