Space & Future
Why lunar regolith could be the key to living on the Moon
The moon may look peaceful from Earth, but its surface is one of the harshest environments imaginable.
It is covered by a layer of fine...
Astronomers solve mystery of strange cosmic signals with rare two-star system
Astronomers have solved one of the biggest mysteries in radio astronomy by identifying the source of a strange type of cosmic signal that has...
How heavy can a neutron star get
The physics of neutron stars are almost too fantastic to believe. Something the weight of two Suns compacted to a sphere the size of...
Scientists get their best-ever look at distant planet’s surface
Astronomers have found thousands of worlds in faraway star systems, but one of the questions that’s been hardest to answer is the one that...
Is extracting oxygen from lunar soil the future of space exploration
A new race to the moon is emerging between the United States and China.
Unlike fifty years ago, the goal is no longer just about...
Everything we thought we knew about dark energy could be wrong
For nearly 30 years, scientists have believed that a mysterious force called dark energy is causing the universe to expand faster and faster.
But a...
The Sun is changing and we don’t know why
Put your ear to the ground in the right place and you can hear a train coming from miles away.
Long before it appears on...
How Giant Galaxies Burned Bright and Died Young In the Early Universe
One of the biggest mysteries in astronomy is why some of the largest galaxies in the early universe stopped making stars surprisingly early in...
Red Dwarf Stars Caught Devouring Earth-Like Planets
Astronomers have discovered some of the clearest evidence yet that stars can consume their own planets.
In a new study published in the journal Monthly...
Something just passed between us and a distant star
On the night of 18 December 2019, a star in our satellite galaxy, the Large Magellanic Cloud, briefly got brighter.
Not dramatically nor explosively, just...
Ancient “Cosmic Cities” Were Already Shaping Galaxies Soon After the Big Bang
Astronomers have discovered that galaxies were already being shaped by their surroundings just 1.2 billion years after the Big Bang, much earlier than scientists...
Black Hole “Gold Rush” Reveals Hundreds of Hidden Cosmic Collisions
Astronomers have unveiled the largest collection yet of gravitational wave detections, marking a major leap forward in our understanding of black holes and the...
Deep Space
Earth’s water arrived late: Surprising meteorite discovery changes history
A new study has found that water may not have arrived on Earth as early as scientists once believed. Instead, it seems to have...
Scientists find mystery object in the ‘mass gap’ between neutron stars and black holes
When the most massive stars die, they collapse under their own gravity and leave behind black holes.
When stars that are a bit less massive...
A new way to detect rocky exoplanet atmospheres
The total number of exoplanets discovered to date totals 5,288. Among them are a host of rocky, Earth-like exoplanets but none of them seem...
Webb Telescope Rules out Earth-like atmosphere on TRAPPIST-1 d
TRAPPIST-1 d has long fascinated astronomers as a possible Earth-like world beyond our solar system.
It is rocky, close to Earth in size, and sits...
Hungry galaxies grow fat on the flesh of their neighbors
Galaxies grow large by eating their smaller neighbors, new research reveals.
Exactly how massive galaxies attain their size is poorly understood, not least because they...