Space & Future
NASA shuts off instrument on Voyager 1 to keep spacecraft operating
On April 17, engineers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Southern California sent commands to shut down an instrument aboard Voyager 1 called...
Scientists map 47 million galaxies in largest 3D universe map ever
Scientists have created the largest and most detailed 3D map of the universe ever made, offering a fresh way to understand how the cosmos...
Astronomers discover rare alien solar system changing in real time
Astronomers have discovered a remarkable planetary system where three very different objects orbit a distant star—and their paths are constantly changing.
The system, known as...
Invisible clumps of dark matter may explain three strange cosmic mysteries
Scientists have long known that most of the matter in the universe is invisible. This hidden material, called dark matter, makes up about 85%...
Black hole ‘dancing jets’ pack the power of 10,000 suns, new study finds
Astronomers have captured striking new details of powerful jets shooting out from a black hole, revealing just how much energy these cosmic systems can...
How dark matter could have built massive black holes after the big bang
Astronomers have long been puzzled by the discovery of extremely large black holes in the early universe.
Some of these black holes, found less than...
How a black hole and a shredded star could light up a galaxy
In 2014, a strange cloudy object called G2 made a close approach to Sagittarius A*, (Sag A*) the supermassive black hole at the heart...
Two monsters, one galaxy, and a collision 100 years away!
Space is full of objects that push the boundaries of imagination, but few do it quite as effectively as a black hole.
At its simplest,...
Scientists reveal where water is hiding on the moon after billions of years
Scientists have long suspected that water exists on the moon, but exactly how it got there—and where it is most concentrated—has remained a mystery.
Now,...
Moon dust tells a hidden story: How space delivered and transformed life’s building blocks
A new study based on samples from China’s Chang'e-5 and Chang'e-6 missions is helping scientists understand how the basic ingredients of life arrived and...
It’s not supposed to be like this: A giant planet orbits a small star
The nebular hypothesis states that stars and the planets that orbit them form from the same reservoir of material, called a solar nebula.
It's the...
Astronomers finally spot vast hydrogen clouds that fueled early galaxies
For decades, scientists believed the early universe was filled with enormous amounts of hydrogen gas—the basic ingredient needed to form stars.
But proving this idea...
Deep Space
Space scientists discover a quiet, lightweight galaxy
Space is filled with galaxies—huge groups of stars, dust, and gas, held together by gravity.
Some galaxies are busy with star-making activities, while others are...
How interstellar objects and rogue planets can be trapped in the Solar System
When Oumuamua traversed our Solar System in 2017 it was the first confirmed Interstellar Object (ISO) to do so.
Then in 2019, Comet 2l/Borisov did...
Astronomers nail down the origins of rare loner dwarf galaxies
The results provide a blueprint for finding such systems in the universe’s quieter, emptier regions.
By definition, dwarf galaxies are small and dim, with just...
Scientists discover galaxies trapped in the web of a supermassive black hole
With the help of ESO's Very Large Telescope (VLT), astronomers have found six galaxies lying around a supermassive black hole when the Universe was...
NASA’s Hubble captures a distant supernova in Gemini
NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope has captured a stunning image of a faraway galaxy that recently hosted a supernova.
This galaxy, located about 600 million light-years...