A trip to the sun could reveal “ultralight” dark matter if it exists
Sending an atomic clock onboard a spacecraft to fly close to the sun might be the trick to uncovering the nature of dark matter,...
Astronomers discover enigmatic cosmic explosion
Gamma-ray bursts are the most powerful explosions in the Universe, resulting from either collapsing stars or from the collision of two compact stellar remnants.
Scientists reveal the messy death of a star
Around 2500 years ago, a star ejected most of its gas, forming the beautiful Southern Ring Nebula, NGC 3132, chosen as one of the...
How this hell planet got so hot
A new study sheds light on how the “hell planet” got so devilishly hot and how other worlds might become too toasty for life.
Early dark energy could explain the crisis in cosmology
In 1916, Einstein finished his Theory of General Relativity, which describes how gravitational forces alter the curvature of spacetime.
Among other things, this theory predicted...
Mars is not a dead planet. It’s more active than previously thought
Mars, like Earth and Venus, possesses an active interior, which challenges current views on the evolution of the red planet.
One of the world’s biggest radio telescopes is hunting for signals from extraterrestrial civilizations
Breakthrough Listen, a privately funded project seeking evidence of extraterrestrial intelligence, has started operations on the MeerKAT radio telescope array in South Africa.
Over the...
A black hole consumed a star and released the light of a trillion suns
When a flash of light appears somewhere in the sky, astronomers notice.
When it appears in a region of the sky not known to host...
Astronomers caught a black hole chomping on a nearby star
The universe can be a violent place.
Stars die or collide with each other and black holes devour everything that gets too close.
These and other...
Scientists discover a black hole jet, halfway across the universe, pointing straight toward Earth
Astronomers identified an extremely bright black hole jet, halfway across the universe, pointing straight toward Earth.