Space & Future
The solar system loses an ocean world
Saturn’s largest moon, Titan, may not have a subsurface ocean after all.
That’s according to a re-examination of data captured by NASA’s Cassini spacecraft, which...
Why the same galaxy can grow or decline—It depends on its neighbor
Galaxies may look serene from afar, but their lives are shaped by powerful internal structures and by the neighbors they keep.
A new study led...
Scientists crack 1.4-billion-year-old salt crystals to reveal Earth’s ancient air
More than a billion years before dinosaurs—and long before plants and animals—Earth looked very different.
In what is now northern Ontario, a shallow, salty lake...
Webb spots the ‘smoke’ from crashing exocomets around a nearby star
The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) was involved in yet another first discovery recently available in pre-print form on arXiv from Cicero Lu at...
Scientists solve a big bang theory puzzle that could point to dark matter
For years, one of the most intriguing mysteries in physics has been dark matter—an invisible substance thought to make up most of the matter...
Astronomers discover the violent origin of mysterious blue cosmic explosions
For years, astronomers have been puzzled by rare and dramatic flashes of blue and ultraviolet light that suddenly appear in distant galaxies and then...
Astronomers find the first compelling evidence of monster stars in the early universe
One of the greatest mysteries the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) was developed to investigate was the birth of supermassive black holes (SMBHs).
For more...
A year that mattered: Caltech’s scientific journey in 2025
Caltech is a place unlike any other, an Institute that is truly "small but mighty."
Its small size and the expertise of its community enable...
The Milky Way had a wild past, and Webb is finally revealing it
How did the Milky Way become the calm, spiral galaxy we see today?
New observations from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) suggest that our...
Gaia space telescope spots possible planets forming around baby stars
How do planets like Earth and Jupiter come into existence?
Astronomers are beginning to answer that question thanks to new observations from the European Space...
NASA’s Perseverance Rover is ready for many more miles—and new discoveries on Mars
After nearly five years on Mars, NASA’s Perseverance rover is proving it was built to last.
Since landing in February 2021, the six-wheeled robot has...
Astronomers witness a violent space collision around a nearby star
Astronomers have captured something extraordinary: the aftermath of a violent collision between large space rocks in another planetary system.
Using NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope, scientists...
Deep Space
Scientists help unravel surprise asteroid mystery
When asteroid 2019 OK suddenly appeared barreling toward Earth on July 25, 2019, Luisa Fernanda Zambrano-Marin and the team at the Arecibo Observatory in...
MIT scientists uncover the richest chemical cloud in the galaxy
Astronomers from MIT have uncovered an astonishingly rich mix of molecules in a region of space known as the Taurus Molecular Cloud-1 (TMC-1).
This dark,...
Martian sandworms: How CO₂ ice blocks carve mysterious gullies on Mars
The strange gullies etched into the red sands of Mars have long puzzled scientists.
Were they carved by running water, avalanches, or perhaps even traces...
How to make building blocks for a lunar habitat
By 2028, NASA intends to land the "first woman and first person of color" on the Moon as part of the Artemis III mission.
This...
New research shows nearest exoplanets may have life
In a new study, researchers found that Earth-like planets orbiting our closest stars may host life.
They suggest that life may be evolving on these...