Space & Future
How ancient Mars may have kept its lakes liquid
For years, scientists have puzzled over a contradiction on Mars.
The planet’s surface is covered with features that look unmistakably like ancient lake beds—shorelines, layered...
Scientists track a powerful solar region for a record 94 days
In 2024, the Sun put on one of its most dramatic shows in decades.
A single highly active region on its surface unleashed the strongest...
Young galaxies grow up fast, study finds
Astronomers have captured the most detailed look yet at faraway galaxies at the peak of their youth, an active time when the adolescent galaxies...
Astronomers see a supernova from 10 billion years ago using nature’s own telescope
Astronomers have discovered something truly remarkable: the first-ever gravitationally lensed superluminous supernova that can be seen as multiple, clearly separated images.
The distant explosion, named...
Astronomers find an ultra-hot galaxy cluster from the universe’s infancy
Astronomers have discovered something that challenges long-standing ideas about how the universe evolved: a galaxy cluster filled with extremely hot gas that formed far...
Stars and planets are linked together, and dust is the key to understanding how
Stars and planets are inextricably linked. They form together and stars shape the fate of planets. Stars create the dusty protoplanetary disks that give...
The universe may be lopsided
The shape of the universe is not something we often think about.
But my colleagues and I have published a new study suggests it could...
Earth-like planets need a cosmic-ray bath
It's quite a challenge to make an Earth-like world.
You need enough mass to hold an atmosphere and generate a good magnetic field, but not...
Why astronomy needs a giant in the Canary Islands
Size matters when it comes to telescopes. The bigger they are, the farther they can see. Prioritizing constructing large ones is therefore high on...
The interstellar comet that’s spilling its secrets
When 3I/ATLAS swept past the Sun in late October 2025, it became only the third confirmed visitor from interstellar space ever detected.
Unlike the mysterious...
Hot Jupiters with a memory of their past
How did hot Jupiters end up orbiting so close to their stars, thus earning their moniker?
This is what a recent study published in The...
Astronomers discover giant spinning cosmic structure like a “teacup ride” in space
Astronomers have discovered one of the largest rotating structures ever seen in the universe, a vast cosmic formation that spins in a way reminiscent...
Deep Space
Scientists discover galaxy that’s almost entirely dark matter
Astronomers have discovered a galaxy with very little or no stellar mass.
Galaxies like these are called ‘dark galaxies.’
It contains clouds of gas but very...
The star-forming party ended early in isolated dwarf galaxies
Gas is the stuff of star formation, and most galaxies have enough gas in their budget to form some stars.
However, the picture is a...
Cosmic crash in the Milky Way sparks new stars
A dramatic event in our galaxy may be giving birth to new stars.
A recent study led by Ph.D. student Dilda Berdikhan from the Xinjiang...
NASA’s Psyche mission to a metal world may reveal the mysteries of Earth’s interior
French novelist Jules Verne delighted 19th-century readers with the tantalizing notion that a journey to the center of the Earth was actually plausible.
Since then,...
Meteorites reveal the origin of heaviest elements in our solar system
Scientists went back to the formation of the solar system 4.6 billion years ago to gain new insights into the cosmic origin of the...