Gliese 12 b, orbits a cool red dwarf star located just 40 light-years away.
R. Hurt/JPL-Caltech/NASA
Scientists have discovered a theoretically habitable, Earth-size planet
Two teams of scientists have discovered a theoretically habitable planet called Gliese 12b that’s smaller than Earth but bigger than Venus, just 40 light-years away.

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In a still taken from a video, Rocket Lab’s Electron rocket lifts off from Launch Complex 1 at Māhia, New Zealand on May 25, 2024.
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Northern lights may be visible across parts of the US this weekend. Why are they so active right now?
Scientists have developed a way to produce models of where the magnetic field lines are several times each day. Here we have created a time-lapse version of these models over four days (2-3 each day) to give you a peek at how these change over time. The spiraling arcs of magnetic field lines emerge from active regions and connect back to areas with the opposite polarity. The field lines are more concentrated where regions are more magnetically intense. And of course, they rotate with the rotation of the Sun.
NASA/Solar Dynamics Observatory
Scientists locate origin of the sun’s magnetic field
In an artist's illustration, the black hole pulls material from a companion star towards, forming a disc that rotates around the black hole before falling into it.
NASA/CXC/M. Weiss
Study proves black holes have a ‘plunging region,’ just as Einstein predicted
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• Video 0:31
ESA/PDO/AMS82/ALLSKY 7 via Reuters
Stunning comet lights up night sky 0:31
A mosaic of the Cerberus Hemisphere of the planet Mars, circa 1990. (Photo by Space Frontiers/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)
• Video 2:59
Space Frontiers/Archive Photos/Getty Images
Scientists discover Everest-sized volcano that was right under their noses 2:59

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Andre Pattenden/English Heritage
Rare lunar event may reveal Stonehenge’s link with the moon
West of Valles Marineris lies a checkerboard named Noctis Labyrinthus, which formed when the Martian crust stretched and fractured. This image is from NASA Mars Odyssey, one of an All Star set.
NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU
An Everest-size volcano hiding in plain sight on Mars? New research make waves in the science community
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NASA
The lunar far side is wildly different from what we see. Scientists want to know why
A red giant star and white dwarf orbit each other in this animation of a nova.
NASA/Conceptual Image Lab/Goddard Space Flight Center
Explosive star event will create once-in-a-lifetime sight in the sky. Here’s how to see it

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This cloudy, ominous structure is CG 4, a cometary globule nicknamed ‘God’s Hand’. CG 4 is one of many cometary globules present within the Milky Way, and how these objects get their distinct form is still a matter of debate among astronomers. This image was captured by the Department of Energy-fabricated Dark Energy Camera on the U.S. National Science Foundation Víctor M. Blanco 4-meter Telescope at Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory, a Program of NSF NOIRLab. In it, the features that classify CG 4 as a cometary globule are hard to miss. Its dusty head and long, faint tail vaguely resemble the appearance of a comet, though they have nothing in common. Astronomers theorize that cometary globules get their structure from the stellar winds of nearby hot, massive stars.
CTIO/NOIRLab/DOE/NSF/AURA
New telescope images reveal ghostly ‘God’s Hand’ in Milky Way reaching across the cosmos
To mark the 34th anniversary of the launch of the Hubble Space Telescope, NASA released this photo of the Little Dumbbell Nebula. Also known as Messier 76, the nebula is 3,400 light-years away from Earth.
NASA, ESA, STScI
Hubble Space Telescope marks 34 years with new portrait of a ‘cosmic dumbbell’
The Lunar Excursion Vehicle 2 (LEV-2 / SORA-Q) has successfully taken an image of the #SLIM spacecraft on the Moon. LEV-2 is the world’s first robot to conduct fully autonomous exploration on the lunar surface.
From JAXA
Japan’s ‘Moon Sniper’ keeps baffling experts by waking up. It has shared images from its latest lunar ‘day’
Mandatory Credit: Photo by Carlos De Saa/EPA/Shutterstock (8088253a) A View of the Eta Aquarid Meteor Shower As a Result of Earth Passing Through Dust Released by Halley's Comet Seen From Barranco De Ajuy on Fuerteventura the Canary Islands Spain Early 06 May 2013 Spain Barranco De Ajuy Spain Astronomy - May 2013
Carlos De Saa/EPA/Shutterstock
Look up for the dazzling Eta Aquariid meteor shower
NASA’s Voyager 1 spacecraft is depicted in this artist’s concept traveling through interstellar space, or the space between stars, which it entered in 2012.
NASA/JPL-Caltech
Voyager 1 is sending data back to Earth for the first time in 5 months
Recovered stanchion from the NASA flight support equipment used to mount International Space Station batteries on a cargo pallet. The stanchion survived re-entry through Earth’s atmosphere on March 8, 2024, and impacted a home in Naples, Florida
NASA
NASA says it expected space station garbage to burn up. The debris smashed into a Florida home instead
Artistic representation of the huge and slow impact on Pluto that led to the heart-shaped Sputnik Planitia structure on its surface.
Thibaut Roger
Pluto gained a ‘heart’ after colliding with a planetary body
For the first time, potential signs of the rainbow-like ‘glory effect’ have been detected on a planet outside our Solar System. Glory are colourful concentric rings of light that occur only under peculiar conditions. Data from ESA’s sensitive Characterising ExOplanet Satellite, Cheops, along with several other ESA and NASA missions, suggest this delicate phenomenon is beaming straight at Earth from the hellish atmosphere of ultra-hot gas giant WASP-76b, 637 light-years away.
ESA
Scientists spot ‘glory effect’ on a world beyond our solar system for the first time
Astronomers have found the most massive stellar black hole in our galaxy, thanks to the wobbling motion it induces on a companion star. This artist’s impression shows the orbits of both the star and the black hole, dubbed Gaia BH3, around their common centre of mass. This wobbling was measured over several years with the European Space Agency’s Gaia mission. Additional data from other telescopes, including ESO’s Very Large Telescope in Chile, confirmed that the mass of this black hole is 33 times that of our Sun. The chemical composition of the companion star suggests that the black hole was formed after the collapse of a massive star with very few heavy elements, or metals, as predicted by theory.
L. Calçada/ESO
Astronomers spot a massive ‘sleeping giant’ black hole less than 2,000 light-years from Earth
01 NASA Perseverance Mars Rover SCREENSHOT
NASA
NASA rethinks plan to return rare Mars samples to Earth
CAPE CANAVERAL, FL - JANUARY 16: Space Shuttle Columbia lifts off of launch pad 39-A from the Kennedy Space Center January 16, 2003 in Cape Canaveral, Florida. Columbia broke up upon re-entry to earth February 1, 2003. (Photo by Matt Stroshane/Getty Images)
Matt Stroshane/Getty Images
5 ways the Columbia disaster changed spaceflight forever
Mariel Williams of Royal Oak, Michigan, traveled to her family's hometown of Dayton, Ohio, to witness the total solar eclipse. "The whole neighborhood was outside with their glasses, saying their 'ooh's' and 'ahh's' as the moon creeped in," she said.
Mariel Williams
See what totality looked like across the country during the eclipse
In this handout image from NASA taken by the International Space Station crew, the Space Shuttle Discovery performs a 360 degree flip. )
NASA/Getty Images
The space shuttle was revolutionary for its time. What went wrong?
Mariel Williams of Royal Oak, Michigan, traveled to her family's hometown of Dayton, Ohio, to witness the total solar eclipse. "The whole neighborhood was outside with their glasses, saying their 'ooh's' and 'ahh's' as the moon creeped in," she said.
Mariel Williams
Striking eclipse photos from CNN readers across the continent
KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. -- The STS-107 crew arrives at KSC to take part in Terminal Countdown Demonstration Test activities. Standing, left to right, are Payload Commander Michael Anderson, Pilot William "Willie" McCool, Commander Rick Husband, Mission Specialist David Brown, Payload Specialist Ilan Ramon (the first Israeli astronaut), and Mission Specialists Laurel Clark and Kalpana Chawla. STS-107 is a mission devoted to research and will include more than 80 experiments that will study Earth and space science, advanced technology development, and astronaut health and safety.
NASA
More than 20 years later, families of the Columbia crew carry on their loved ones’ legacies
Tourists ride on camels next to the Pyramid of Khufu on the Great Pyramids of Giza, on the outskirts of Cairo, April 27, 2015. Local media reported Egypt's Minister of Antiquities Mamdouh al-Damaty attended the opening of two tombs that were under rennovation on Monday. One tomb belongs to the Priest of King Khufu while the other belongs to his eldest son. REUTERS/Mohamed Abd El Ghany
Mohamed Abd El Ghany/Reuters
When is the next total solar eclipse? It depends on how far you’re willing to travel