Like a shelf in an old house, the Earth collects a lot of dust from its surroundings. This "space dust" is mostly made up of ...

Look up on a clear night and you’ll see the streaks of our new space age. What you don’t see is the growing fallout for the atmosphere that keeps us alive. A wave of satellite launches and reentries ...

For decades, solar storms have been viewed as an unavoidable force of nature capable of disrupting satellites, communications ...

Our planet’s magnetosphere has seen dramatic shifts across its history—even total reversals—but this recent wrinkle doesn’t pose a threat to life Earth’s magnetic field surrounds the planet, with ...

In an unusual perspective for an Earth-observing satellite, the Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission captured this image of the moon, Earth's only natural satellite. The Sentinel-2 mission acquired this ...

This story was originally published in the May 15, 2003, issue of Rolling Stone. Read more from that issue and the 2026 American Icons package here. I cons are hard to erase or replace. They’re ...

Astronauts and robotic spacecraft have been capturing profound photos of Earth for decades. Earth Day is an annual celebration on April 22 focused on environmentalism and conservation. Iconic images ...