Space & Future

Scientists discover magnetic fields guiding the birth of stars

How do stars form? Scientists know that stars are born when huge clouds of cold gas in space collapse under their own gravity. But one mystery...

Scientists Warn Some Earth Pathogens May Survive a Journey to Mars

Could microbes from Earth survive on other worlds? New research suggests that the answer may be yes. Ph.D. candidate Tommaso Zaccaria studied whether tiny organisms...

Iconic cosmic collision challenges long-held ideas about dark matter

The Bullet Cluster is one of the most famous objects in astronomy. For years, many scientists have considered it one of the strongest pieces of...

Scientists find a new way to search for ancient life on Mars using ‘mirror’...

Billions of years ago, Mars looked very different from the cold, dry world we see today. Scientists believe the Red Planet once had a...

Mysterious cosmic rays are challenging what scientists thought they knew about the universe

Millions of years ago, a massive star exploded somewhere far away in our galaxy. During this violent event, called a supernova, the dying star blasted...

The universe’s famous ‘pink planet’ has salty clouds in its sky

Astronomers have discovered an unexpected surprise on the famous “Pink Planet,” a strange world known as GJ504b. Using the powerful James Webb Space Telescope (JWST),...

New Mars rock discovery could reveal secrets of the red planet’s ancient past

Scientists have discovered a completely new type of rock from Mars and, for the first time, identified the mineral garnet in a Martian sample. The...

More than 30 giant dust devils spotted twisting through ancient Martian canyons

The European Space Agency (ESA) has captured remarkable new images of dozens of giant dust devils swirling across an ancient canyon system on Mars. The...

Ancient black holes may be triggering exploding stars across the universe, study finds

Scientists are exploring a fascinating idea: some of the brilliant stellar explosions seen across the universe may have been triggered by tiny black holes...

Lava planet has hydrogen-rich, active atmosphere

It’s 2158, and you’re chugging away on your PhD in Planetary Volcanology from the University of Utopia Planitia on Mars. Graduate students still get...

Astronomers detect the fuel for star formation in some of the universe’s earliest galaxies

Astronomers have made a major breakthrough by directly detecting the gas that fueled star formation in some of the universe’s earliest galaxies. The discovery offers...

Ancient stellar debris is still falling on Earth after 100 million years, study finds

Tiny traces of material from a giant cosmic explosion are still falling to Earth more than 100 million years after the event occurred, according...

Deep Space

New quantum computer sheds light on the secrets of the universe

Scientists have taken a big step toward understanding the tiny particles and forces that make up everything in the universe. A team from the University...

May’s full moon comes with supermoon eclipse

As we approach month’s end, there is not one, not two, but three celestial events happening with our Moon! The Moon will be located on...

Astronomers discover the second lightest “cotton candy” exoplanet to date

The hunt for extrasolar planets has revealed some truly interesting candidates, not the least of which are planets known as “Hot Jupiters.” This refers to...

Webb takes highly detailed image of actively forming stars

Stars are just like kids. When they're young, they're really active and full of energy. Just like how your little brother or sister might...

Astronomers flag three exoplanets that are actually stars

The first worlds beyond our solar system were discovered three decades ago. Since then, close to 5,000 exoplanets have been confirmed in our galaxy. Astronomers...