Space & Future
Your dog’s dinner could be warming the planet more than your own
Many dog owners carefully think about what they eat for the sake of the planet—but new research suggests they may want to pay just...
How ‘red geyser’ galaxies stay silent for billions of years
Some of the universe’s largest galaxies have gone strangely quiet.
They stopped forming new stars billions of years ago and have remained dormant ever since—even...
Dark stars could be the missing link in the universe’s earliest mysteries
A new study suggests that a strange and long-theorized type of object called a dark star could help explain several major mysteries uncovered by...
Thin ice may have kept ancient Martian lakes alive for decades
For years, scientists have faced a puzzling contradiction about Mars.
On one hand, the planet is covered with ancient lake beds, shorelines, and sediment layers...
A new study finds a subtle dance between dark matter and neutrinos
Time again for a tale of things dark and mysterious. A tale of dark matter. It's a well-told tale, but this time it involves...
This system reveals how super-Earths are born
One of the best things about being able to see thousands of exoplanetary systems is that we’re able to track them in different stages...
Hidden plasma rings around red dwarfs may shape the fate of their planets
When astronomers think about whether distant planets could support life, they often focus on the planets themselves.
But a growing body of research shows that...
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...
Deep Space
NASA’s Curiosity rover uncovers clues about how Mars became uninhabitable
NASA’s Curiosity rover has been exploring the Gale crater on Mars, uncovering new information about how the Red Planet went from being a place...
Mystery of the puffy exoplanet WASP-107 b solved by Webb Telescope
Why is the gas-giant exoplanet WASP-107 b so puffy?
Thanks to data from NASA's James Webb Space Telescope and previous observations from the Hubble Space...
Scientists use artificial intelligence to detect gravitational waves
When gravitational waves were first detected in 2015 by the advanced Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO), they sent a ripple through the scientific community,...
Engineers send 3D printer to space for on-demand parts
Imagine a crew of astronauts on their way to Mars. About 140 million miles from Earth, they find a cracked O-ring in their spacecraft.
Instead...
An earth-sized exoplanet found orbiting a Jupiter-sized star
Red dwarf stars, also known as M-dwarfs, dominate the Milky Way’s stellar population.
They can last for 100 billion years or longer. Since these long-lived...