Stories by Robin George Andrews

When astronauts return to the moon later this decade, they’ll bring along science experiments to study moonquakes, lunar water ice and extraterrestrial agriculture

After an unexpected magnitude 4.8 earthquake rattled the New York City area, questions abound regarding how likely it is that a major earthquake could occur there and whether the city is prepared

Scientists have scarcely begun studying pristine material from asteroid Bennu that was brought back to Earth by the OSIRIS-REx mission, but they have already found several surprises

A nova called T Coronae Borealis spectacularly erupts every 80 years. Your only chance to see it will come any day now

At least one in a dozen binary stars shows signs of eating their planets

Eris and Makemake—two icy worlds beyond the orbit of Pluto—have seemingly fresh methane on their surface, a sign of unexpectedly hot interiors

Residents of Grindavík hope hastily constructed walls of old volcanic rock will divert hot lava streaming from fissures in the ground beneath them

A surprisingly youthful ocean within Mimas, a tiny moon of Saturn, has big implications for the solar system’s history—and for finding life beyond Earth

Lava spewed from volcanic fissures in Iceland as a long-awaited eruption finally began, potentially threatening a power plant and the nearby town of Grindavík

The best-yet map of active volcanoes on Jupiter’s moon Io hints at a hidden magma ocean—and more

The formation of Pangaea Ultima some 250 million years from now would be bad news for mammalian life. But whether it would mean the end for mammals—or whether the supercontinent will form at all—is far from certain

Washington State’s Puget Sound could face previously unknown earthquake risks, according to a new study that has pinned down the date of an ancient earthquake using tree rings and the radiation left by a mysterious cosmic force

There are no individual saviors for Tonga’s Internet infrastructure

Although the space-junk strike on March 4 will probably be harmless, such events may soon become more common—and dangerous

Our planet is vulnerable to thousands of “city-killer” space rocks. If—when—one is found on a collision course with Earth, will we be ready to deflect it?

After an alarming failure, the rover is set to continue its mission to retrieve specimens for eventual return to Earth

Seeking to collect its inaugural core sample, the mission hopes to begin what could be humanity’s boldest search for extraterrestrial life

The space agency’s DAVINCI+ and VERITAS missions could boost planetary science when they launch later this decade

Despite the best efforts of scientists eager to study Earth’s sister world, U.S. efforts to send a dedicated spacecraft to Venus languished—until NASA made a surprising announcement

Large galaxies are thought to form gradually, across billions of years of cosmic time. So why do astronomers keep finding them in the youthful early universe?

After two years of futile struggles to penetrate surprisingly sticky soil, the heat probe’s demise leaves large gaps in our understanding of the Red Planet’s interior

The iconic telescope’s tragic end foreshadows future battles over the fate of various legacy facilities

A distant galaxy has sprouted filaments hundreds of thousands of light-years long—and no one knows why

A new computer model shows how a buried ocean on Pluto might have enabled seismic waves to travel