The concept of terraforming Mars — transforming the planet's climate to support life as we know it — has long belonged to the realm of science fiction. But a new study argues that it's time to take ...

I’ve grown up with rockets that burn chemical fuel, but NASA’s next big leap in propulsion could make those engines look as dated as steam trains. By turning to nuclear power in space, the agency is ...

Engineers have built a modern Stirling engine that quietly turns the cold of outer space into steady mechanical power, using the night sky as a heat sink instead of a fuel tank. By radiating heat away ...

Like a family in which short parents have tall children, a tiny red dwarf star is defying our understanding of how planets form by existing alongside a giant exoplanet. Giant planets are not rare per ...

The cosmos has long been a canvas for creatives who imagine a future where people live among the stars. Now, humanity stands at a pivotal juncture as the laborious, expensive and high-stakes process ...

Emily Kwong and Regina Barber of NPR's Short Wave podcast talk about the evolutionary history of kissing, how moss spores fare in space, and new clues about the collision that created the moon. It is ...

A low-density, puffy planet orbiting relatively far from a young star in a nearly perpendicular orbit. What's going on? If you think you've met the wildest exoplanet yet, you haven't learned about TOI ...

It is time now for our science news roundup from Short Wave, NPR's science podcast. And I am joined, as always, by the show's two hosts, Regina Barber... REGINA BARBER, BYLINE: Woo (ph). DETROW: ...