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Summary List Placement Jupiter and Saturn are about to line up perfectly in the night sky — the two planets will get so close on December 21 that they seem to touch.  The last time they looked this close from Earth's vantage point was nearly 800 years ago, on March 4, 1226. An astronomical event in which celestial bodies align is called a conjunction....

SpaceX recently launched NASA astronauts to the International Space Station in the first-ever crewed commercial spaceflight. But Elon Musk has not slowed down the company's other projects: SpaceX is set to launch three batches of Starlink satellites this month. The project aims to blanket the planet in high-speed, affordable internet via a fleet of up to 42,000 satellites. Scientists have warned that Starlink could...

Astronomers have discovered a black hole just 1,000 light-years from our solar system — the closest ever found. Usually scientists find black holes by detecting the X-rays they emit, but scientists stumbled upon this one when they observed two stars orbiting each other and realized a massive, invisible object was in the mix. There could be millions of other silent black holes like this...

Phosphorus is key in forming DNA and giving rise to life on Earth, but the element is rare in the universe. Scientists don't know how Earth got its phosphorus, but scientists just found phosphorus-carrying molecules forming around newborn stars.  Researchers found the same molecules on a comet orbiting Jupiter. A new study suggests that comets from newborn stars may have delivered the life-giving element...

Astronomers think they've detected an interstellar object approaching our solar system. Called "C/2019 Q4" (formerly "gb00234"), the object appears to be following a path originating from outside the solar system. It may pass near Mars in October. This would be only the second interstellar object ever observed in our solar system. The first such visitor, 'Oumuamua, took scientists by surprise in 2017. This time,...