Synthetic lava in the lab could help explore exoplanets

The exploration era for the new James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is getting hot – volcanically hot. A multidisciplinary group of Cornell researchers has modeled...

How NASA deflected an asteroid successfully for the first time

“And we have impact.” With that phrase, uttered amid the cheers of NASA scientists and engineers Monday evening, the agency’s so-called Double Asteroid Redirection Test,...

Astronomers map distances to 56000 galaxies, largest-ever catalog

How old is our universe, and what is its size? A team of researchers led by the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa astronomers Brent Tully...

Asteroid that formed Vredefort crater much bigger than previously thought

About two billion years ago, an impactor hurtled toward Earth, crashing into the planet in an area near present-day Johannesburg, South Africa. The impactor—most likely...

Astronomers explain Mars’ watery reflections

There is water in many places on Mars, including most of both polar ice caps – all in the frozen form. But recently, bright reflections...

NASA’s DART mission hits asteroid in first-ever planetary defense test

After 10 months flying in space, NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) – the world’s first planetary defense technology demonstration – successfully impacted its...

Astronomers detect hot gas bubble swirling around the Milky Way’s supermassive black hole

Using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), astronomers have spotted signs of a ‘hot spot’ orbiting Sagittarius A*, the black hole at the centre...

Astronomers unveil new and puzzling features of mysterious fast radio bursts

Fast radio bursts (FRBs) are millisecond-long cosmic explosions that each produce the energy equivalent to the sun’s annual output. More than 15 years after the...

Saturn’s magic ring is from its lost moon Chrysalis, shows study

Rings appear to be common around planets in the solar system, but the dramatic rings of Saturn have long puzzled astronomers, as has the...

Saturn might have torn a moon apart to make its rings

Saturn is a world of surprises. The Voyager 1 and 2 flybys and later on, the Cassini mission, opened our collective eyes to intricate details...