Beyond Our Solar System

The Voyager imaging team asked for the photo to show Earth’s vulnerability — to illustrate how small, fragile and irreplaceable it is on a cosmic scale.

Mission engineers confirmed at about 2:30 p.m. PST (5:30 p.m. EST) Thursday the spacecraft was placed in safe mode, ceasing all science operations.

Spitzer, designed to reveal the far, cold and dusty side of the universe, made discoveries its designers never even imagined, including a previously unseen ring of Saturn.

One of NASA's four Great Observatories, Spitzer launched on Aug. 25, 2003, and has studied the cosmos in infrared light. Its breathtaking images have revealed the beauty of the infrared universe.

Engineers did not have exoplanet science in mind when they designed the Spitzer Space Telescope in the 1990s, but thanks solid engineering, Spitzer’s observational powers were used far beyond original expectations.

An emerging idea, bolstered by three decades of science, is that there are "Goldilocks stars" — not too hot, not too cool, and above all, not too violent to host life-friendly planets.

This new visualization of a black hole illustrates how its gravity distorts our view, warping its surroundings as if seen in a carnival mirror.

Scientists are working with powerful space telescopes to track down specific types of black holes that may hold clues to the formation of the universe.

The discovery of a dizzying variety of planets and planetary systems is prompting a wholesale re-evaluation of what it takes for a planet to be habitable.

After nearly 16 years of exploring the cosmos in infrared light, NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope will be switched off permanently on Jan. 30, 2020.

To hunt for exoplanets, the flowerlike shade would need to stay aligned with a space telescope over vast distances. Recent work demonstrates how that's possible.

In this large celestial mosaic taken by NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope, there's a lot to see, including multiple clusters of stars born from the same dense clumps of gas and dust.

Ten things that result from Einstein’s theories of relativity, first tested 100 years ago this week.

Our solar system is a stormy place. Join us on a tour of storms.

Astronomers have crossed an important threshold in revealing a discrepancy between key techniques for measuring the universe's expansion rate. New theories may be needed to explain the forces that have shaped the cosmos.

A black hole and its shadow have been captured in an image for the first time, a historic feat by an international network of radio telescopes.

From precision GPS to batteries for one of the world’s first commercial all-electric airplanes, NASA technology turns up in nearly every corner of modern life.

What looks like a red butterfly in space is in reality a nursery for hundreds of baby stars.

A team of astronomers from have identified the most promising targets for this search in the new “TESS Habitable Zone Star Catalog.”

Humanity’s great leap into interstellar space — the space between the stars — has begun. Here are 10 things we’ve learned about going interstellar.

Just as dust gathers in corners and along bookshelves in our homes, dust piles up in space too. But when the dust settles in the solar system, it’s often in rings.

The Cigar Galaxy's wind is aligned along a magnetic field and blows huge amounts of material into space — the equivalent mass of 50 million to 60 million Suns.

Galaxy mergers can lead to prosperity and new star formation — or kick off a galaxy's demise.

Meet the women leading two of humankind's two most distant space missions.

NASA invites you to take a behind-the-scenes look at how the agency explores outer space with a new monthly series that premieres this week.