Space & Future

Scientists discover cost-saving way to build structures on the moon

Scientists are exploring an exciting idea for future space missions: building structures on the Moon using the Moon’s own soil. A new study shows that...

Giant dying stars create tiny cosmic dust that could form new planets

A new study shows that some of the largest and most powerful stars in the universe are producing incredibly tiny particles of carbon dust—material...

New method may finally resolve the “Hubble tension” puzzle

Scientists have known for nearly a century that the universe is expanding, with galaxies moving away from each other over time. The speed of this...

Can Martian soil kill Earth microbes? Water bears reveal surprising clues

Scientists are using one of Earth’s toughest microscopic creatures to explore an important question for future space travel: Could the soil on Mars naturally...

6 million years ago something slammed into modern-day Brazil

Giant impacts on Earth's surface can be cataclysmic events with far-reaching consequences. They can excavate massive craters like the Vredefort Crater. There's also growing evidence...

Early Mars was warm and wet not icy

A recent study showed that Mars was warm and wet billions of years ago. The finding contrasts with another theory that this era was mainly...

Moon once had a magnetic field stronger than Earth’s—But only for brief moments

For decades, scientists have debated whether the Moon once had a powerful magnetic field like Earth’s or only a weak one. Now, a new study...

One of the biggest stars in the universe might be getting ready to explode

One of the largest known stars in the universe underwent a dramatic transformation in 2014, new research shows, and may be preparing to explode. A...

Stunning new image reveals hidden gas “rivers” at the heart of the Milky Way

Astronomers have captured the most detailed view ever of the center of our Milky Way galaxy, revealing a tangled web of cold gas filaments...

How giant galaxies could form just 1.4 billion years after the Big Bang

When the venerable Hubble Space Telescope made its Deep Fields studies of the early Universe, it discovered something that would puzzle astronomers to this...

Scientists discover Earth-like auroras on Jupiter’s giant moon

Scientists have discovered that the colorful light shows seen above Earth’s poles also occur on Ganymede, Jupiter’s largest moon—and they behave in strikingly similar...

NASA spots a young sun blowing a giant bubble in space

Astronomers have captured the first clear image of a giant “bubble” surrounding a young star that closely resembles what our own sun looked like...

Deep Space

Martian rock-metal could help 3D print on Mars

A little Martian dust appears to go a long way. A small amount of simulated crushed Martian rock mixed with a titanium alloy made a...

Astronomers use earthquakes to understand glitches on neutron stars

A team of astronomers have used a model of earthquakes to understand glitches in the timing of pulsars. Their results suggest that pulsars may have...

Early planetary migration can explain missing planets

A new model that accounts for the interplay of forces acting on newborn planets can explain two puzzling observations that have cropped up repeatedly...

Titanium clouds make this exoplanet shine like a mirror

Astronomers have found a very unusual exoplanet. It’s a Neptune-sized world that orbits its star every 19 hours, and it’s the brightest exoplanet ever discovered. They...

Ancient light reveals matter that fuels galaxy formation

Using light from the Big Bang, an international team led by Cornell University and the U.S. Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory has...