Space Time
Space Time is an Inverse series that remembers the most important moments in humanity’s exploration of outer space.
Space Time is an Inverse series that remembers the most important moments in humanity’s exploration of outer space.
Mars 3 accomplished the first soft landing on Mars. Then it died.
40 Years Ago, NASA Tested Out a Radical Rehaul of an Iconic Technology
Witness the reinvention of the humble EVA suit.
50 Years Ago, NASA Sent an Ambitious Mission to Saturn — and To Interstellar Horizons
The Pioneer 11 probe would serve as a metaphorical blueprint for the Voyager missions.
15 Years Ago, Exoplanet Astronomers Made a Breakthrough in the Hunt for Life
Detecting methane on a distant exoplanet paved the way for the hunt for organic chemistry in the cosmos.
75 Years Ago, an Astronomer Found the Weirdest Moon in the Solar System
The high cliffs of Miranda barely scratch the surface of why Uranus' moon is so unique.
5 Years Ago, SpaceX Launched Its Silliest Payload Yet — And It's Still in Orbit
The space-faring Tesla roadster set a speed record unlikely to ever fall to another car, even another Tesla.
60 Years Ago, Astronomers Cracked the Mystery of the Brightest Objects in the Universe
No one was sure what quasars were and how they connected to galaxies. Then it all changed.
65 Years Ago, America Launched Its Most Pivotal Space Mission Ever
Explorer 1 marked the entry of science into what had been a military affair.
40 years ago, NASA launched the space telescope that proved JWST could work
IRAS is a sometimes forgotten spacecraft that proved that infrared astronomy had a bright future.
15 years ago, a spacecraft swung by Mercury to beat the Sun's gravity
The MESSENGER mission needed a few gravitational assists to enter orbit around the smallest planet.
Inside NASA's monumental effort to deliver the first Webb Telescope images
After 20 years and $10 billion, here’s how the NASA team scrambled to make the first images happen.
50 years ago, NASA’s final Apollo mission left the Moon — are we ready to return?
Can the Artemis mission pick up where Apollo 17 left off?
60 years ago, one space mission crushed hopes for life around Earth's twin planet
The Mariner 2 mission proved Venus was too hot to have present-day life.
65 years ago, a street dog paved the way for human spaceflight — with a grim outcome
A Soviet street dog went up to space, but the USSR was ill-prepared for her stay in space.
55 years ago, Russia changed spaceflight forever — and lied about it a little
The Venera 4 mission sent a probe into Venus' atmosphere, but played loose with whether or not it actually survived a landing.
65 years ago, astronomy's most colorful character made a bold interplanetary claim
Did Fritz Zwicky's ballistic experiment reach solar orbit, or was it all a bunch of hot air?
65 Years Ago, “Simple Satellite” Sputnik Redefined Space Science — And Sent A Sinister Message
There was more to this launch than met the eye.
Go deeper
The Solar System’s Most Volcanic Moon Has Been This Way For Billions Of Years
A recent study confirms that Io has always been a landscape of fiery lava and violent volcanic eruptions.
Can NASA's Mars Sample Return Program Be Saved? Some Experts Think So
The quest continues to bring pristine Mars rocks to Earth.
Look! A Black Hole 33 Times More Massive Than Our Sun Was Hiding In Plain Sight
Astronomers just discovered the largest black hole in our galaxy. It was forged by a dead star.
Is Dark Matter Real? Inside the Theories That Leave This Mysterious Phenomenon Out
Is there more to the universe than meets the eye, or are the rules different than we thought? (Spoiler alert: it's probably the first one.)
These Physicists Can’t Explain Why a Small Neutron Star Came Bursting Back to Life
Magnetars are young neutron stars with magnetic fields billions of times stronger than our most powerful Earth-based magnets.
Astronomers Just Used A Bizarre New Method To Capture Evidence of Elusive Stellar Winds
The researchers used creative methods to observe the sea of charged particles from three extremely bright stars.
60 Years Ago, a Famous Physicist Made a Prediction that Changed Our Understanding Of the Universe
It would take 48 years to prove he was right.
The Solar Eclipse Gave Astronomers An Unprecedented Window Into What Drives Space Weather
The Sun is very active at the moment.
5 Years After the First Black Hole Image, Physicists Unveil A New Experiment To Map Space-Time
The first video of a churning black hole would be revolutionary.
9 Totally Stellar Images From April 8’s Solar Eclipse
In case you missed it — or just couldn’t get enough — here are the best images of the 2024 total solar eclipse.
