Space & Future
The Milky Way flipped its disk billions of years ago
The Milky Way is ancient, and its first stars formed shortly after the Big Bang. It's been through a lot in its long life,...
Bizarre Jupiter-Mass Exomoon Challenges Everything We Know About Planetary Systems
Astronomers have found what may be the first convincing evidence of a giant "exomoon" beyond our solar system, but the unusual object is already...
The Sun has a ‘switch-off’ moment—and it could help predict space weather years ahead
Scientists have discovered a new way to predict how active the sun's next solar cycle will be years before it reaches its peak.
The research...
Mysterious Little Red Dots may be the birthplaces of the universe’s oldest star clusters
Astronomers may have found an answer to two long-standing mysteries about the universe with a single new idea.
A study led by researchers at The...
Astronomers catch a “dark comet” red-handed
Our ability to track and visualize small rocks in space is still improving. And occasionally we’ll find a space rock that will remind us...
Scientists identify the rare “oddball” space rock that wiped out the dinosaurs
Scientists have uncovered new clues about the giant space rock that slammed into Earth 66 million years ago and triggered one of the biggest...
Astronomers find tiny rocky planets locked in eternal day and night
Astronomers have taken their most detailed look yet at the planetary system orbiting Barnard's Star, one of the Sun's closest stellar neighbors, and the...
Moon’s far side keeps a hidden record of how Earth slows the solar wind
For billions of years, the moon has been constantly bombarded by the solar wind—a stream of charged particles flowing outward from the sun.
Scientists have...
Webb Telescope finds hidden giant planet in one of the galaxy’s best-known star systems
NASA's James Webb Space Telescope has uncovered a giant planet that had been hiding in plain sight within one of the most closely studied...
Scientists are ‘listening’ to black holes to test Einstein’s theory and search for new...
Black holes are famous for swallowing everything that comes too close, including light.
But when two black holes collide and merge, they briefly produce something...
Scientists discover the Sun contains far more silver than previously thought
Scientists have discovered that the sun contains about 55% more silver than previous estimates suggested, solving a long-standing mystery about the element's abundance in...
Nearby Earth-like planet may have a rare atmosphere, giving us new hope
A rocky planet about 40 light-years from Earth may have something that scientists have struggled to find on similar worlds—a lasting atmosphere.
The planet, called...
Deep Space
Diamond rain on giant icy planets could be more common than previously thought
A new study has found that “diamond rain,” a long-hypothesized exotic type of precipitation on ice giant planets, could be more common than previously...
Scientists may have witnessed the birth of a supermassive black hole in galaxy ‘infinity’
In a discovery that could change how we understand the universe, a team of astronomers led by Yale’s Pieter van Dokkum has found what...
Hunting for wandering black holes in dwarf galaxies
Tracking down black holes at the center of dwarf galaxies has proven difficult.
In part that is because they have a tendency to “wander” and...
Astronomers discover how mysterious free-floating planets may form
A groundbreaking study by astronomers using the James Webb Space Telescope has unveiled a new class of "free-floating" planets, challenging previous beliefs about how...
What hurricanes and space storms have in common
Both storms — terrestrial and extrasolar — feature churning whirlpools of vapor.