New telescope will explore the potential for life around our galaxy’s smallest stars

When the world’s most powerful telescope launches into space this year, scientists will learn whether Earth-sized planets in our ‘solar neighborhood’ have a key...

Mars’ surface shaped by fast and furious floods from overflowing craters, shows study

On Earth, river erosion is usually a slow-going process. But on Mars, massive floods from overflowing crater lakes had an outsized role in shaping the...

Winds in Jupiter’s great red spot are speeding up

Like the speed of an advancing race car driver, the winds in the outermost "lane" of Jupiter's Great Red Spot are accelerating – a...

Dead galaxies mysteriously ran out of fuel to make stars in early universe

"Live fast, die young" could be the motto of six early, massive, "dead" galaxies that ran out of the cold hydrogen gas needed to...

Black holes make a mess when they gobble up stars

Researchers have documented a fatal encounter between an unlucky star and an intermediate-mass black hole. While black holes and toddlers don’t seem to have much...

Galaxies discharge metal-tinged gases into the universe

Astronomers at the University of California, San Diego have learned more about what exhaust from galaxies is composed of and how galactic emissions are...

Scientists could extract water and oxygen from lunar soil

Engineers have successfully shown how water and oxygen can be extracted by cooking up lunar soil, to support future Moon bases. A laboratory demonstrator, developed...

NASA’s Hubble finds early, massive galaxies that ran out of fuel

When the universe was about 3 billion years old, just 20% of its current age, it experienced the most prolific period of star birth...

Our Moon was hit even harder by asteroids than it looks

New Curtin research has found the Moon may have been subjected to much greater impacts from asteroids and other bodies than previously thought, building...

Mars may be too small to hold large amounts of water for life, shows...

Water is essential for life on Earth and other planets, and scientists have found ample evidence of water in Mars’ early history. But Mars has...