Space & Future
Astronomers discover how a mini-Neptune survived beside a hot Jupiter
Astronomers using NASA’s powerful James Webb Space Telescope have uncovered new clues about one of the strangest planetary systems ever discovered.
About 190 light years...
Astronomers witness the awesome power of a black hole’s “dancing jets”
Astronomers have long been fascinated by the powerful jets emanating from black holes.
These jets result from gas and dust being pulled into the black...
Scientists explore the surface of a super-Earth 48 light-years away
Astronomers have taken an exciting step forward in understanding planets beyond our solar system by studying not just their atmospheres, but their actual surfaces.
Using...
How can this tiny world have an atmosphere? Scientists are stunned
Far beyond Neptune, in one of the coldest and darkest regions of our solar system, astronomers have discovered something unexpected: a small icy object...
What happens when a star gets too close to a black hole
Supermassive black holes are among the most enigmatic objects in the universe.
They typically weigh millions or even billions of times the mass of the...
Astronomers finally crack the mass mystery of Orion’s hidden young stars
A star’s mass shapes everything about its life, from how bright it shines to how it eventually dies.
Small stars like our Sun burn slowly...
Astronomers discover missing planets around the galaxy’s most common stars
Astronomers have discovered something surprising about planets beyond our solar system.
Even though planets are incredibly common—scientists now estimate there is at least one planet...
Why one side of the Milky Way is hotter than the other
Scientists have discovered a surprising reason why one side of our galaxy is warmer than the other, and the explanation is something you might...
How the Milky Way’s smallest neighbors reveal the early universe
Astronomers have long been fascinated by tiny galaxies that orbit the Milky Way.
These faint and fragile systems, known as ultra-faint dwarf galaxies, are often...
Binary stars form lots of exoplanets, but many of them are ejected as rogue...
Astronomers don't have to work hard to find binary stars in the Milky Way.
They're common, even abundant. For a long time, they thought that...
Scientists finally discover the true edge of the Milky Way
For many years, astronomers have wondered where the Milky Way truly “ends.” Unlike a solid object, our galaxy does not have a clear boundary.
Its...
Potential signs of life on distant planets sound exciting, but confirmation can take years
Astronomers can use telescopes to find specific molecules in the atmospheres of neighboring planets, in nebulae—clouds of interstellar dust and gas—hundreds or thousands of...
Deep Space
Thanks to Gaia we know exactly how and when the sun will die
Our Sun is doomed.
Billions of years from now, the Sun will deplete its hydrogen fuel and swell to a red giant before becoming a...
Why the moon glitters with ancient glass beads
When Apollo astronauts walked on the moon in the 1970s, they made all kinds of unexpected discoveries.
One of the most surprising was the sight...
If exoplanets have lightning, it’ll complicate the search for life
Discovering exoplanets is almost routine now.
We’ve found over 5,500 exoplanets, and the next step is to study their atmospheres and look for biosignatures.
The James...
What it’s like to work at the bottom of the Earth
When your workplace is the South Pole, things can get a little unusual.
Light emitted billions of years ago could help solve enduring mysteries about...
Astronomers discover massive galaxy ‘shipyard’ in the distant universe
Even galaxies don't like to be alone.
While astronomers have known for a while that galaxies tend to congregate in groups and clusters, the process...