Why the Moon’s “two faces” may have very different interiors
For centuries, humans could only wonder what the far side of the moon looked like.
Unlike the near side, which always faces Earth, the far...
Why asteroids tumble instead of spin—gaia data reveals the answer
Asteroids may look like simple space rocks, but their movements hide complex physics.
Some spin neatly on their axes, while others tumble chaotically, flipping in...
Gaia telescope reveals a giant wave rippling through our Milky Way
The Milky Way galaxy is far from static.
It spins, it wobbles, and now, thanks to the European Space Agency’s Gaia space telescope, we know...
Uranus’ moon Ariel may have once hidden a 100-mile-deep ocean
Uranus’ moon Ariel may look like a frozen, airless world today, but new research suggests that beneath its icy crust, it may once have...
Astronomers detect the first heartbeat of a newborn star
Gamma ray bursts are the most luminous explosions in the universe, briefly outshining entire galaxies in a violent flash of high energy radiation.
These -...
Rogue planet shines with aurora like Earth’s northern lights
Imagine a weather report not from Earth, but from a strange, lonely world drifting through space without a star to orbit.
That is what astronomers...
New adaptive optics technology could sharpen gravitational-wave discoveries
Gravitational-wave astronomy, one of the newest and most exciting fields in science, may soon take a major step forward thanks to a breakthrough in...
Could the heaviest particles in the universe be dark matter?
For decades, scientists have tried to solve one of the biggest puzzles in physics: the nature of dark matter.
Although it makes up most of...
Astronomers discover brightest fast radio burst and unlock its galactic location
Astronomers have just spotted the brightest fast radio burst (FRB) ever seen—and for the first time, they know exactly where it came from.
This discovery,...
Astronomers discover icy alien world being eaten by a dying star
Astronomers have discovered the remains of an icy, water-rich world being swallowed by a white dwarf star outside our solar system.
The finding provides some...