A technology that could propel crewed missions to Mars and robotic spacecraft throughout the solar system was recently put to the test at NASA‘s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. The result was a milestone that engineers and space scientists have been working toward for decades, and one that brings the prospect of humans setting…

On Earth, a cloudy morning giving way to a clear evening is unremarkable, the kind of forecast that barely warrants a glance at the weather app. On a gas giant orbiting a star nearly 700 light-years from Earth, the same basic pattern plays out every single day, except the clouds are not made of water…

On Earth, a blazing orange and crimson horizon marks the close of day. On Mars, the planet famous for its rust-red landscapes, the sky does the opposite, turning a cool, haunting blue at dusk. The science behind it is as beautiful as the sight itself. Imagine standing on a cold, rust-coloured plain, looking west as…

At several hundred metres below the surface, the limestone caves around Minamidaito Island are mostly untouched by sunlight, currents, and routine marine surveys. The landscape is narrow, uneven, and difficult to navigate even with modern submersibles. During one of those deep exploratory dives last year, a remotely operated vehicle passed close to a colony of…