Amina Khan

Planet-hunting scientists were dealt a major blow Wednesday when NASA officials announced that a crucial wheel on the Kepler space telescope had ceased to function and that the craft had been placed in safe mode. Even as NASA officials raised the...

NASA's Mars rover Curiosity has emerged from its "spring break" and is back to work, officials at Jet Propulsion Laboratory said this week. Up next on the agenda: Drilling the second target at Yellowknife Bay. The Mars Science Laboratory mission made...

NASA is sending a rover to a remote frontier on harsh terrain that's unfriendly to humans. But it won't be to the moon or Mars -- it's headed for Greenland.  From May 3 to June 8, the Goddard Remotely Operated Vehicle for Exploration and Research will...

Cigarette smoking may have earned a reputation as an unhealthy, cancer-causing pastime, but water pipes seem to have largely evaded the stigma. Now, new research shows that water pipes may simply be dangerous in slightly different ways, according to a...

It was welcome news to Earthlings: The Voyager 1 spacecraft had seemingly crossed a momentous threshold and become the first man-made object to enter interstellar space. "Voyager 1 has left the solar system," the American Geophysical Union declared...

If Mars once contained life, it might have existed in watery oases far beneath the surface, according to a new study analyzing a deep Martian crater holding signs of an ancient lake. The research, published online Sunday in the journal Nature...

NASA’s NuSTAR X-ray telescope is providing fresh views of oddly bright black holes and breathtaking supernovae, scientists said Monday at the American Astronomical Society meeting in Long Beach. NuSTAR mission scientists released high-energy X-ray...

NASA's Curiosity rover was designed to search Mars for places capable of supporting life. But the $2.5-billion mission has another, unofficial objective: To serve as a goodwill ambassador for the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in La Cañada Flintridge at a time...

After dancing around the moon for months, the twin satellites nicknamed Ebb and Flow performed their final number, crashing into the same peak near the lunar north pole and bringing the GRAIL mission to a close. A cheer went up in the control room at...

NASA led the way for Americans in space, but now the U.S. space agency is actively encouraging companies to take over primary responsibility for getting in and out of Earth's orbit. Last month, a capsule built and operated by SpaceX completed a nine-day...

NASA’s Curiosity rover has gulped in Martian air but failed to find methane – a gas linked to living things. But it has turned up signs that Mars may have lost much of its original atmosphere. Since landing on the Red Planet’s surface...

NASA’s Mars Curiosity rover has paused, wiggled its toes into the sand and is set to break out its scooper for the first time to sample the Red Planet, mission scientists announced Thursday. Having driven 484 meters from its landing site in Gale...