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A new study has found five objects with similar properties to the most luminous and massive stellar system within 10,000 light-years of Earth.

As one of the nearest laboratories for studying high-mass stars, Eta Carinae has been a unique, important astronomical touchstone since its eruption in the 1840s.

NuSTAR has observed 40 “X-ray binaries” — intense sources of X-rays comprised of a black hole or neutron star that feeds off a stellar companion.

Technology image of the week: dismantling a replica of Europe’s largest environmental satellite

Cosmic bow shocks are leading astronomers to some of the galaxy’s speediest stars.

Astronomers are looking to the Andromeda galaxy for new views of dead stellar remains.

Human spaceflight and operations image of the week: Aurora borealis seen during recent suborbital launch

ESA astronaut Tim Peake and NASA astronaut Tim Kopra will exit the International Space Station next week to repair a power unit on the outside.

Space Science Image of the Week: The ExoMars Schiaparelli module is unpacked in a cleanroom in Baikonur, to be prepared for launch in March

Astronomers found this outburst in the supermassive black hole centered in the small galaxy NGC 5195.

An unusually star-deprived black hole at the site of two merged galaxies could provide new insight into black hole evolution and behavior.

Read about ESA’s service module that will power NASA’s Orion spacecraft to the Moon and beyond

2016 will be another exciting year for the European Space Agency

NASA’s Curiosity rover has driven to the downwind side of an active sand dune and returned images of cascaded sand.

British ESA astronaut Tim Peake’s message to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland

A survey of red giants shows that most host strong magnetic fields deep within their cores.

One recently developed method for determining a star’s age needs to be recalibrated for stars that are older than our Sun.

Images from Rosetta taken over the holiday period

Sunrise strikes the solar panels that power the International Space Space Station, caught by astronaut Tim Peake on New Year’s Eve

Researchers have found a new way to measure the pull of gravity at the surface of a star.

The U.S. Postal Service has previewed the New Year’s series of stamps highlighting NASA’s Planetary Science program, including a do-over of a famous Pluto stamp commemorating the NASA New Horizons’ historic 2015 flyby.

Cassini will continue to monitor activity on Enceladus from a distance, through the end of its mission in Sept. 2017.

The current strong El Niño brewing in the Pacific Ocean shows no signs of waning, as seen in the latest satellite image from the U.S./European Ocean Surface Topography Mission (OSTM)/Jason-2 mission.

The installation of its ninth mirror marks the halfway completion point for the James Webb Space Telescope’s segmented primary mirror.

Physicists determine the difference between false starts and true eruptions by studying the Sun’s magnetic field.

Ten years ago today saw the launch of Europe’s very first navigation satellite. A decade of hard work later, more than a third of the Galileo constellation has followed it into orbit and a ground network sharpening the satnav system’s accuracy encompasses the globe.

The closest this object will come to Santa and his eight tiny reindeer is about 28 times the distance between Earth and the moon.

Santa likely won’t need Rudolph’s help this year, not with a Full Moon sharing the sky over Christmas Eve and morning. This is the first Full Moon to occur on Christmas Day since 1977; another one won’t arrive until 2034.

Our satell…

New radar images show asteroid 2003 SD220, which will safely fly past Earth on Dec. 24.

New radar images show asteroid 2003 SD220, which will safely fly past Earth on Dec. 24.

Our year through the lens: a selection of our favourite images for 2015

Unable to fix a leak with the mission’s main science instrument in time to make the 2016 launch window, NASA must wait two years to try again.

Engineers developing a drill for probing Mars, the Moon and asteroids have created the world’s first portable charger to power up electric cars anywhere, anytime.

The discovery of hundreds of giant comets in the outer solar system over the last two decades means that these objects pose a much greater hazard to life than asteroids.

The Department of Energy, with NASA funding, has completed the first U.S. production in nearly 30 years of a specialized fuel to power future deep space missions.

The Department of Energy, with NASA funding, has completed the first U.S. production in nearly 30 years of a specialized fuel to power future deep space missions.

After thorough examination, NASA managers have decided to suspend the planned March 2016 launch of the Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations Geodesy and Heat Transport (InSight) mission.

NASA’s Dawn spacecraft, cruising in its lowest and final orbit at dwarf planet Ceres, has delivered the first images from its best-ever viewpoint.

An extraordinary ribbon of hot gas trailing behind galaxy cluster Zwicky 8338 has been discovered using data from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory.

NASA’s Cassini spacecraft has begun transmitting data and images from the mission’s final close flyby of Saturn’s active moon Enceladus, which took place on Saturday, Dec. 19.

The amount of methane escaping from the ground during the Arctic’s long cold period each year and entering Earth’s atmosphere is likely much higher than current estimates.

A look back at the highlights of 2015 for Europe in Space

Black holes in the hearts of galaxies could swell to 50 billion times the Sun’s mass before losing the gas disks they rely on.

Among the highlights of a recent meeting are insights into Pluto’s geology and composition as well as new details about the unexpected haze in Pluto’s atmosphere and its interaction with the solar wind.

Space Science Image of the Week: A multicolour view of the galaxies in Stephan’s Quintet as revealed by Herschel, XMM-Newton and ground observatories

Scientists used the NASA NuSTAR and ESA XMM-Newton X-ray observatories to peer inside the thick disk of material around a massive black hole.

NASA’s Curiosity rover has found much higher concentrations of silica at recent sites than anywhere else it has visited since landing on Mars.

Our week through the lens: 7-11 December 2015

Season’s greetings from Rosetta and Philae

Watch replay of ESA astronaut Tim Peake’s first live video link since he arrived at the International Space Station

ESA’s animated guide to lasers on Earth and in space, for kids of all ages

Earth observation image of the week: a Sentinel-2A image of Southern Mongolia, also featured on the Earth from Space video programme

Hubble catches Star Wars fever, showing off “lightsaber” feature shooting out of a young star system.

NASA’s Saturn-orbiting Cassini spacecraft makes its final close flyby of the ocean-bearing moon Enceladus on December 19.

The Euclid mission has passed its preliminary design review, clearing the way to start construction.

Radar imagery of asteroid 1998 WT24 has been obtained by NASA’s Goldstone Solar System Radar.

At recently studied sites, Mars Curiosity has found higher silica concentrations than at sites visited earlier in its Martian travels.

The donut-shaped disks of material that feed growing black holes may not be as smooth as once thought.

NASA’s next Mars spacecraft has arrived at Vandenberg Air Force Base, California, for final preparations before a launch scheduled in March 2016 and a landing on Mars six months later.

Europe now has a dozen navigation satellites in orbit

Join us Friday, 18 December, at 10:00 CET for the ‘Earth from Space’ video programme. This week features a Sentinel-2A image of Southern Mongolia

ESA’s CryoSat mission has provided the best maps yet of the changing height of Earth’s largest ice sheets

The pace of deploying Europe’s own satellite navigation system continued to increase with today’s launch of the latest pair of Galileo satellites, doubling the number of satellites in space within nine months.

Replay of the launch transmission of Soyuz carrying Galileo satellites 11 and 12 on 17 December at 11:51 GMT from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana

Replay of liftoff of Soyuz carrying Galileo satellites 11 and 12, at 11:51 GMT, from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana

The next great space observatory took a step closer this week when ESA signed the contract with Arianespace that will see the James Webb Space Telescope launched on an Ariane 5 rocket from Europe’s Spaceport in Kourou in October 2018.

Euclid, ESA’s dark Universe mission, has passed its preliminary design review, providing confidence that the spacecraft and its payload can be built. It’s time to start ‘cutting metal’.

Planetary nebulae, stars similar to the Sun which have burnt up their fuel and ejected their external layers, make it possible to study two main substructures of the Andromeda galaxy and determine their histories.

The reappearance of the supernova was calculated from different models of the galaxy cluster whose immense gravity is warping the supernova’s light.

NASA technology is all around us, turning trash into oil, saving women from a deadly complication of childbirth, and putting the bubbles in beer.