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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....

Astronomers photographed two planets orbiting a sun-like star for the first time ever. Because the planets are so far from their star — much further than any planet in our solar system — they come through clearly in the image. Future telescopes could study this young star and its planets in more detail to learn about how systems like ours form. Visit Business Insider's...

NASA's Hubble Space Telescope recently photographed a fluffy-looking galaxy 67 million light-years away. The galaxy's center is quiet, since early star formation used up all its gas long ago. Two upcoming NASA telescopes will succeed Hubble and capture our own galaxy and the universe beyond in unprecedented detail. Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories. NASA's most powerful space telescope, Hubble, captured a uniquely...

A new space telescope launched into Earth orbit Wednesday morning. The CHaracterizing ExOPlanets Satellite (CHEOPS) was originally scheduled to launch on Tuesday, but the launch sequence was interrupted just 1 hour and 25 minutes before liftoff. The telescope is expected to take an unprecedented look at planets outside our solar system, known as exoplanets. CHEOPS will try to determine whether exoplanets are made of...

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,...