Space & Future
One of the biggest stars in the universe might be getting ready to explode
One of the largest known stars in the universe underwent a dramatic transformation in 2014, new research shows, and may be preparing to explode.
A...
Stunning new image reveals hidden gas “rivers” at the heart of the Milky Way
Astronomers have captured the most detailed view ever of the center of our Milky Way galaxy, revealing a tangled web of cold gas filaments...
How giant galaxies could form just 1.4 billion years after the Big Bang
When the venerable Hubble Space Telescope made its Deep Fields studies of the early Universe, it discovered something that would puzzle astronomers to this...
Scientists discover Earth-like auroras on Jupiter’s giant moon
Scientists have discovered that the colorful light shows seen above Earth’s poles also occur on Ganymede, Jupiter’s largest moon—and they behave in strikingly similar...
NASA spots a young sun blowing a giant bubble in space
Astronomers have captured the first clear image of a giant “bubble” surrounding a young star that closely resembles what our own sun looked like...
Jupiter’s icy moons may have been born with the ingredients for life
Scientists have found new evidence that Jupiter’s largest moons may have received the chemical building blocks of life at the moment they formed.
The discovery...
Why we may still be waiting for an alien signal
Since the first Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) experiment in 1960, scientists have been scanning the Milky Way for signs of advanced alien civilizations.
They...
Could quantum light expose the universe’s biggest mystery?
Dark matter is one of the biggest mysteries in science.
Astronomers believe it makes up most of the matter in the universe, yet no one...
Scientists discover hidden teenage galaxies at the edge of the universe
Astronomers have uncovered a mysterious group of distant galaxies that may fill an important gap in our understanding of how galaxies grow and change...
Webb Telescope peers into Uranus’s mysterious upper atmosphere
For the first time, scientists have created a detailed map of the upper atmosphere of Uranus, revealing how temperature and electrically charged particles change...
Why so many space rocks look like snowmen
Far beyond Neptune, at the cold edge of our solar system, millions of icy objects drift quietly in a region called the Kuiper Belt.
These...
NASA’s Hubble finds a ghost galaxy made almost entirely of dark matter
Astronomers using the Hubble Space Telescope have discovered an extremely faint galaxy that may be made almost entirely of dark matter, the mysterious substance...
Deep Space
Scientists find new way to detect baby planets in the making
Astronomers agree that planets are born in protoplanetary disks — rings of dust and gas that surround young, newborn stars.
While hundreds of these disks...
Electrically charged dust storms could shed light on life on MARS
How’s the weather on Mars?
Tough on rovers, but very good for generating and moving highly reactive chlorine compounds.
New study shows that Martian dust storms,...
Hubble sees a bridge of stars connecting two galaxies
The poetic-minded among us like to point out how Nature is a dance. If they’re right, then galaxies sometimes form unwieldy pairs.
With the Hubble...
Spinning star may have cracked a giant galactic “bone”
Astronomers using NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory and powerful radio telescopes have likely solved a cosmic mystery—what caused a dramatic break in a massive structure...
This black widow star ate its mate to set a new record
A dense, collapsed star has shredded and consumed nearly the entire mass of its stellar companion.
In the process, it’s grown into the heaviest neutron...