The Hayabusa 2 spacecraft is about to deliver asteroid rocks to Earth

The Japanese Hayabusa 2 spacecraft will drop off samples of dust and rocks from the asteroid Ryugu on 6 December before heading off to visit another asteroid

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China's Chang'e 5 is bringing back the first moon rocks in 44 years

The Chinese Chang’e 5 mission has spent two days digging on the moon and is now ready to bring back samples of lunar soil and rocks for analysis

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Does a halo of mysterious dark matter swirl around every galaxy?

Many galaxies seem to have bubbles of dark matter enveloping them, but finding out if every galaxy is like this is an ongoing area of research, writes Chanda Prescod-Weinstein

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There are weird volcanoes everywhere we look in the solar system

Bizarre volcanoes that ooze ice magma or explode like geysers reveal the geological rumblings beneath other worlds. Some might even provide the spark for alien life 

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Heat inside Mars may have melted ice and made watery habitats for life

Geothermal energy on Mars may have melted ice below the planet’s surface billions of years ago, creating an environment that could have been suitable for life

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Arecibo Observatory telescope in Puerto Rico collapses after 57 years

The Arecibo Observatory telescope in Puerto Rico has collapsed, just weeks after the US National Science Foundation revealed plans to decommission the 57-year-old structure

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China's Chang'e 5 probe is the start of a new era of lunar exploration

Chang'e 5 is set to bring moon rocks back to Earth for the first time in more than four decades – and China has even more ambitious plans for lunar missions in the coming years

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NASA can't decide whether astronauts should wash their underwear

NASA has partnered with consumer goods firm Procter & Gamble to develop a detergent that can wash clothes in space. Up until now, NASA has found it more cost-efficient to dispose of dirty garments

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Earth’s early atmosphere may have been toxic like the one on Venus

After the moon formed, Earth was probably left with an ocean of molten rock, which may have given the planet a thick atmosphere full of carbon dioxide like the one on Venus

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The universe is expanding too fast, and that could rewrite cosmology

Different measurements of the Hubble constant, the rate of space-time expansion, refuse to agree – meaning we may have to look beyond Einstein’s theories to explain the universe

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