A huge space rock hidden behind Mars could be a chunk of the Moon, broken off in a cosmic collision

Eight countries have agreed to NASA’s new set of Moon rules — banning fighting and littering — based on the 1967 Outer Space Treaty, by which celestial bodies can’t be owned by one country

Elon Musk’s car has just passed Mars after he blasted it into space in 2018. Elsewhere in the solar system, an object thought to be an asteroid is likely a junk NASA rocket wandering since 1966

Picking up Moon rocks, fixing a lunar lander and planting an American flag are some of the tasks NASA testers are doing in the new space suits at the bottom of a deep swimming pool

Mars is the closest it will be to Earth for the next 15 years — just 62.1 million kilometres away — and you should be able to easily spot it without a telescope above Australia throughout October

Astronauts on the ISS are about to test NASA’s first new space toilet in decades — a $32 million titanium toilet more suitable for women — before its eventual use on the Moon

Inventors working to one day fly a solar-powered plane to the edge of space have performed the first jump and free fall from an electric aircraft

Japan’s space agency will land a capsule carrying samples from a 4.5 billion-year-old asteroid called Ryugu in the South Australian Outback later this year

New satellite images of emperor penguin droppings have revealed a surprising number of colonies in Antarctica, where the flightless birds are under threat from global warming

For $350,000, passengers flying to space on a 90-minute Virgin Galactic joy ride will be able to see themselves floating weightless against the backdrop of the Earth below

It’s getting busy on the way to Mars, with China joining the United Arab Emirates to launch a mission to the red planet and NASA preparing to send off its Perseverance rover

New research has discovered 37 active or recently active volcanic structures on Venus, evidence that our hot, toxic neighbour isn’t the dormant planet we thought it was

A beginner astrophotographer has braved Tasmania’s freezing winter nights to capture the Milky Way’s dance across the night sky in some of the state’s most picturesque locations

As part of its planning for a 2024 mission to the Moon, NASA has launched a competition offering almost $30,000 for the design of a space toilet that works in lunar gravity

Northern Australia is about to be treated to a special kind of solar eclipse, when the Moon moves in front of the Sun and blocks our view of the centre of our star. Here’s how to see it happen

Architects who designed a foldable origami habitat called Lunark for humans for living on the Moon and other harsh environments are preparing to test it out later this year

The SpaceX launch of two NASA astronauts is getting a lot of people excited about space travel. But becoming an astronaut requires much more than just enthusiasm. Here’s how to succeed

Four asteroids have zoomed past Earth this week at 80,000kmh, one thought to be about 44m wide. NASA had put them all on its ‘close approach’ list, but there’s no risk they’ll crash into us

UPDATED Two NASA astronauts have launched in a SpaceX rocket and arrived safely at the ISS, the first time in nearly a decade that the US has launched astronauts into orbit from the US

For the first time, astronomers have watched what they believe was the birth of a new planet, seen within a huge disk of gas and dust surrounding a newly formed star bigger than our Sun

Scientists have found that urea, the main chemical ingredient in urine, would make a good lunar concrete for building a Moon base, reducing the need to launch supplies from Earth

One of the largest Moon rocks on Earth is up for sale, probably chipped off the surface of the Moon by a collision with an asteroid or comet and then plunging down in the Sahara Desert

Ancient debris from Halley’s comet will zoom across the night sky this week, creating the eta Aquariid meteor shower with up to 20 meteors an hour to watch out for

The Hubble Space Telescope has reached its 30th year in orbit and we’re celebrating with a look at some of Hubble’s best photos of our incredible universe. Which is your favourite?

One of the world’s oldest meteor showers is taking place again in our night sky this week. You will be able to see the glorious Lyrid meteor shower at its best tonight at your place

A space telescope has taken the most detailed photos of the Sun, revealing surface spots filled with plasma strands hundreds of kilometres long and as hot as a million degrees Celsius

NASA has sparked renewed interest in the mystery of Death Valley’s sailing stones that seemingly move on their own across the desert with no human or animal help and no obvious explanation

NASA is making plans for humans to live on the Moon and has revealed its early thinking on where a base camp should be built and how astronauts would travel on the lunar surface

The massive 4.5 billion-year-old Huckitta meteorite from the NT, hidden from the public in a basement in SA for more than 20 years, is about to be rediscovered by a new generation

NASA engineers are confident they’ve fixed the Mars InSight lander by telling it to hit itself with its shovel after its 38cm digging mole became stuck in the soil on the Martian surface

Australian scientists are cooking up astronaut food to send to space for a year before testing how tasty it is using an electronic nose and tongue in preparation for Moon and Mars missions

NASA has challenged the public to design a better robot to dig on the Moon. The space agency has been working on a model but believes it can be improved and wants bright citizens to help them

A fossilised mollusc alive alongside the last of the dinosaurs 70 million years ago has shown scientists that a day on Earth once lasted only 23-and-a-half hours

Australian scientists have helped US astronomers discover the biggest explosion ever seen in the universe — and it came from a supermassive black hole

Google has added 1000 new images to Earth View – a collection of the most beautiful landscapes from Google Earth. And a farmer’s marriage proposal makes it onto Google Maps

Scientists believe a space rock shaped like a snowman that formed 4.6 billion years ago may have sparked life on Earth. It is the farthest, most primitive object we’ve ever explored in the solar system

NASA astronaut Christina Koch has landed safely back on Earth after setting a new record for the longest stay in space by a woman

Many of the inventions that make modern life on Earth safer, more efficient and more fun come from NASA or from a company helping NASA solve a space problem

Astronauts on the International Space Station have taken delivery of super-muscled mice, pest-killing worms and a robot that can sense how the astronauts are feeling

Astronauts on the International Space Station are getting a special delivery: an oven for baking choc-chip cookies. The dough is already up there waiting to be cooked and eaten

NASA’s Curiosity robot is hard at work on the surface of Mars, taking selfies and conducting chemistry experiments in the portable lab inside its belly

Fireballs from Halley’s comet are lighting up the Australian night sky this week as the Orionid meteor shower reaches its peak, putting on a show we can see without a telescope

NASA astronauts Christina Koch and Jessica Meir have completed a seven-hour spacewalk to do important repairs, leaving the four male astronauts back in the ISS

Scientists have found 20 new moons around Saturn, giving the ringed planet a total of 82. The finds put Saturn ahead of Jupiter’s 79 moons — though none as massive as Ganymede

Astronauts have grown beef in a laboratory up on the International Space Station by 3D printing meat from cells harvested on Earth and sent up into orbit on a rocket

Designs have been revealed for the Von Braun Rotating Space Station, a low-orbit, wheel-shaped hotel for 100 space tourists a week that could be open for guests by 2025

NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope has taken an amazing new photo of Jupiter’s Great Red Spot, a massive storm wider than the Earth, with furious winds reaching speeds of up to 684kmh

Thousands of cuddly looking animals called tardigrades — sometimes called “moss pigs” or “water bears” — have been left on the Moon by a lunar lander that crashed on impact

The Royal Australian Mint has released a special coin series to celebrate 50 years since Neil Armstrong took “one giant leap for mankind” onto the surface of the moon on July 20, 1969

It’s time for incredible revelations, reunions and replays as the world celebrates the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 mission and moon landing

Never-before-heard audio tapes reveal Neil Armstrong’s biggest fear ahead of the Apollo 11 trip wasn’t dying on the moon. It was failure to complete the mission and damaging the US’s reputation

Using a drone called Dragonfly, NASA will have a good look around Titan to see if microbial life or even humans could live on Saturn’s large, icy moon

UPDATED A student working at NASA in the 1970s bought a heap of junk film and carried it around for 43 years before discovering it was the only surviving original film of the moon landing

It’s time to rug up and look up at the night sky for a spectacular view of Jupiter, our solar system’s biggest planet. It’s as close as it gets to Earth and you don’t need a telescope to see it

The International Space Station is about to become the latest holiday destination with the first tourists blasting off next year. A ticket will cost about $83 million, air included

It is 50 years since Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin became the first men to walk on the moon. Learn all about this historic event and the space race in our digital inquiry kit

The moon is our nearest neighbour in space. We look at its birth, its surface, its history, its eight phases and how it has helped keep our daily lives on track since ancient times

In the early days of space exploration, the US and Russia sent rockets, animals and finally humans into the great unknown of our universe in the search for answers about what exists out there

The trio that led the Apollo 11 mission were Neil Armstrong, Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin and Michael Collins — three brave astronauts willing to risk their lives for space exploration

The astronauts were prepared to handle any problem imaginable on their moon mission. But trying to find ways to copy conditions on the lunar surface meant using some strange training techniques