Scientists capture stunning images of nearby galaxies in unprecedented detail
Astronomers from the National Institute for Astrophysics (INAF) have unveiled breathtaking images of five galaxies in our cosmic neighborhood, taken with the Italian VST...
The Large Magellanic Cloud survived its closest approach to the Milky Way
The Large Magellanic Cloud is a small galaxy, just a tenth of the Milky Way’s mass.
It is about 160,000 light years away, which is...
What’s behind the Martian methane mystery
The seasonal variations of methane in the Martian atmosphere is an intriguing clue that there might be life hiding under the surface of the...
Bang! Meet the big ‘Red Monsters’ of the early universe.
Astronomers have spotted for the first time a trio of supermassive galaxies that were already fully formed in the first billion years of the...
A giant meteorite impact 3.26 billion years ago helped push life forward
The Earth has always been bombarded with rocks from space. It’s true to say though that there were more rocks flying around the Solar...
Are we alone? New model explores the odds of intelligent life in the universe
Astrophysicists from Durham University have developed a new model to estimate the likelihood of intelligent life forming in our universe—and even in hypothetical universes...
Astronomers discover ultra-dense ‘super-Earth’ that’s as heavy as lead
An international team of scientists has found a fascinating new planetary system around a star similar to our sun.
The system, located about 750 light-years...
The best way to find planet nine might be hundreds of tiny telescopes
Ever since William Herschel discovered Uranus in 1781, astronomers have been eager to find new planets on the outer edge of the solar system.
But...
A new look at the most ancient light in the universe
In the earliest moments of the Universe, the first photons were trapped in a sea of ionized gas.
They scattered randomly with the hot nuclei...
Astronomers defy the zone of avoidance to find hundreds of new galaxies
There is a region of the sky where astronomers fear to look. Filled with dark clouds of dust, it hides an unseen mass.
A mass...