Space & Future
Rare Meteorite from New Jersey Contains Clues to the Origins of Life, Scientists Find
A meteorite that crashed through the roof of a home in Hillsborough, New Jersey, has given scientists a rare look at the chemistry of...
Astronomers Uncover A Strange Nearby Planet System Unlike Anything In Our Solar System
Barnard’s Star is one of the most famous stars in the night sky for astronomers because it is so close to Earth.
Located just under...
Astronomers find new features hiding in the Orion Nebula
As one of the most prominent features of the night sky, the Orion Nebula has been studied, probed, and imaged by almost every telescope...
Hidden fifth dimension could finally explain the mystery of dark matter, scientists say
Dark matter, the mysterious substance that holds galaxies together, may be connected to a hidden fifth dimension of space, according to a new theory...
Astronomers uncover long-lost black hole hidden among 10 million stars
Astronomers have discovered the first known stellar-mass black hole hiding inside the massive star cluster Omega Centauri, solving part of a mystery that has...
Hidden oceans? Common alien planets may be concealing vast oceans, study finds
Some of the most common planets in our galaxy may be hiding far more water than scientists can currently detect—even with the powerful James...
Scientists detect a sugar in deep space for the first time, offering new clues...
For the first time, scientists have discovered a sugar molecule floating in interstellar space, a breakthrough that could help explain how some of the...
Astronomers discover four dead stars in our cosmic neighborhood
Astronomers have uncovered four previously hidden white dwarfs surprisingly close to Earth, revealing that even our own corner of the galaxy still holds major...
Chemistry reveals the origins of an interstellar comet
Somewhere in the Milky Way Galaxy is an old star that has lost one of its comets.
By some quirk of orbital mechanics, that frozen...
Scientists recreate a black hole energy trick in the lab without anything spinning
More than 50 years ago, Nobel Prize-winning physicist Sir Roger Penrose proposed an extraordinary idea.
He suggested that it might be possible to extract energy...
Scientists capture the tiny ‘drift’ that signals the birth of a star
How does a new star begin?
It is a question astronomers have been trying to answer for decades.
Now, scientists have observed an important process that...
Most of moon’s water likely remains chemically bound in its deep interior
After decades of analyzing reams of lunar rocks back here on Earth, the canonical view of the Moon was that it was anhydrous; that...
Deep Space
Did black holes change over time? Astronomers question a 50-year-old rule about quasars
Astronomers have uncovered surprising evidence that challenges a long-standing rule about quasars, some of the brightest objects in the universe.
The discovery suggests that the...
Scientists discover more bodies in the outer Solar System
The outer Solar System has been a treasure trove of discoveries in recent decades. Using ground-based telescopes, astronomers have identified eight large bodies since...
Is the universe really the same in every direction?
For a long time, scientists have believed that the universe looks the same no matter where you are or which direction you look.
This idea,...
Webb observes protoplanetary disks that contradict models of planet formation
The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) was specifically intended to address some of the greatest unresolved questions in cosmology.
These include all of the major...
Scientists find baby stars hatch from stellar eggs near galaxy’s center
Astronomers have found stellar eggs containing baby stars around the center of the Milky Way galaxy.
To make the discovery, the scientists used NSF's Atacama...