Cassini’s 10 best pictures from its 13-year voyage around Saturn
On 15 September, NASA’s Cassini spacecraft will crash into Saturn, ending its mission with a bang. New Scientist looks back at 10 of its best images
Slingshot around Titan is the beginning of the end for Cassini
The Cassini spacecraft is passing by Titan on its final nosedive into Saturn. Plenty has been revealed about Saturn’s largest moon on Cassini’s 20-year mission
The sun just belched out the strongest solar flare in 12 years
If your GPS has been acting funny, take it up with the sun. Our star has released the most powerful solar flare since 2005
It could be snowing on Mars right now
The Red Planet may have had intense snowstorms long ago when it was wetter, but a model shows it could still have violent snowfall at night when the clouds cool
Tethered satellites could see the moon’s weird swirls up close
The moon has bright coils of dust we can’t study without getting up close. A NASA proposal would send two satellites tied together to dangle over the surface
Moon’s magnetic field lasted twice as long as we thought it did
Lunar rock shows the moon’s magnetic field lasted a billion years longer than we thought, which may help us understand how planets keep their protective fields
Nuclear reactors on rockets may fuel future crewed trips to Mars
NASA’s push to develop a rocket engine powered by a nuclear reactor could create a faster, lighter spaceship and cut the trip to Mars down to four months
Giant loner asteroids suggest baby planets formed quickly
The oldest intact asteroids hint that planets didn’t grow by slowly gathering small space rocks, but came from rapidly collapsing dust
First exomoon might have been spotted 4000 light years away
Astronomers may have found the first exomoon around a distant planet, and have asked to use Hubble to confirm whether the tantalising hints are a real discovery
General relativity passes test at Milky Way’s central black hole
Stars orbiting the supermassive black hole have been used to test Einstein’s famous theory for the first time, with no sign found of a fifth fundamental force