Space & Future
Astronomers Discover a Stellar Stream Beyond the Milky Way for the First Time
Astronomers have discovered a faint stream of stars in another galaxy for the first time, opening a new way to investigate one of the...
Astronomers Find Three Giant Black Holes in One Ancient Galaxy for the First Time
Astronomers have discovered three actively feeding supermassive black holes inside a single distant galaxy, something never before seen so far back in the history...
Astronomers Catch a Dying Star Recycling Its Material Back into Space
Astronomers have captured a remarkable view of a dying star's remains being broken apart and mixed into the space between stars.
The discovery offers a...
A Blazar 1.5 Billion Light-Years Away Is Challenging What Astronomers Thought They Knew
About 1.5 billion light-years from Earth, a galaxy called PKS 2155-304 is giving astronomers more questions than answers.
After studying nearly two decades of observations,...
Astronomers Release the Largest 2D Map of the Universe Ever Made
Astronomers have released the largest two-dimensional color map of the universe ever created, containing an extraordinary 5.6 trillion pixels and nearly 4 billion stars,...
Rare Mars Meteorite Fills a 2-Billion-Year Gap in the Red Planet’s History
A rare meteorite from Mars is giving scientists a new look at a mysterious period in the Red Planet’s history.
Researchers at Boston College have...
Super-Earths May Be Surprisingly Solid Deep Inside, Scientists Find
Massive rocky planets known as super-Earths may be much more solid deep inside than scientists previously understood, according to new research into how minerals...
Uranus’s Magnetic Shield “Breathes” as the Planet Spins
Uranus is one of the strangest planets in our solar system, and new research shows that its unusual orientation causes the planet’s magnetic environment...
Trillion-Mile Gas Stream May Explain a Bizarre Triple-Star System
Astronomers have discovered an enormous stream of gas flowing toward a young system of three stars, potentially explaining why its planet-forming disks are strangely...
20 Years of Watching a Blazar Reveals Something Stranger Than Expected
After nearly two decades of observations, astronomers have discovered that a distant blazar behaves in ways that leading theories struggle to explain.
Instead of solving...
Mysterious Magnetic Star May Have Revealed a 90-Year-Old Quantum Secret
Scientists may have found the strongest evidence yet for one of the strangest predictions in quantum physics—a theory first proposed nearly 90 years ago.
By...
A Simple Heat Treatment Could Make 3D-Printed Metal Parts Tougher for Rockets and Electric...
Scientists have found a way to improve the performance of 3D-printed aluminum bronze, a metal that could be useful for cooling powerful electronic components...
Deep Space
How space exploration advances medicine
Space exploration might seem like it’s all about rockets and far-off planets, but it has quietly revolutionized healthcare here on Earth.
The technologies and research...
How supermassive black holes shape their host galaxies
Data from ESA's XMM-Newton X-ray observatory has revealed how supermassive black holes shape their host galaxies with powerful winds that sweep away interstellar matter.
In...
Dark matter could make planets spin faster
Dark matter is a confounding concept that teeters on the leading edges of cosmology and physics.
We don't know what it is or how exactly...
Millions of fake universes clarify how black holes grow
Black holes are surrounded by a mysterious, invisible layer—the event horizon—from which nothing can escape, be it matter, light, or information.
The event horizon swallows...
Scientists discover a rapid-orbit exoplanet
Using NASA's space telescope known as TESS, scientists have found a new planet outside our solar system that's almost double the size of Earth.
This...