Space & Future
Dante’s Inferno may have predicted asteroid impacts 500 years early
For more than 700 years, Dante Alighieri’s Divine Comedy has been celebrated as one of the greatest works of literature ever written.
Most readers...
Scientists reveal stunning “cosmic soccer balls” glowing in deep space
Astronomers have captured breathtaking new images of one of the strangest places in space: a glowing cloud filled with giant carbon molecules shaped like...
Saturn’s icy rings likely formed from lost moon chrysalis
You’re a long-necked Titanosaurs grazing the plains and chomping away on tree leaves about 100 million years ago in the Early Cretaceous in what...
Black holes don’t live forever, but they might live long enough to look like...
Black holes live forever, at least according to general relativity. Once material crosses a black hole's event horizon, it is trapped forever. Until the...
Volunteers help discover thousands of hidden “failed stars” near Earth
A worldwide group of volunteer sky watchers has helped scientists make one of the biggest discoveries of nearby brown dwarfs ever recorded.
Through NASA’s citizen...
How giant black holes shut down star formation
Astronomers using the James Webb Space Telescope have discovered powerful winds blasting out of some of the universe’s earliest galaxies, offering new clues about...
Why we need to treat Earth like a spaceship
Four humans recently looped around the moon.
Their vessel, an Artemis capsule, was a thin metal shell whose life-support system kept them alive: it provided...
Astronomers discover how a mini-Neptune survived beside a hot Jupiter
Astronomers using NASA’s powerful James Webb Space Telescope have uncovered new clues about one of the strangest planetary systems ever discovered.
About 190 light years...
Astronomers witness the awesome power of a black hole’s “dancing jets”
Astronomers have long been fascinated by the powerful jets emanating from black holes.
These jets result from gas and dust being pulled into the black...
Scientists explore the surface of a super-Earth 48 light-years away
Astronomers have taken an exciting step forward in understanding planets beyond our solar system by studying not just their atmospheres, but their actual surfaces.
Using...
How can this tiny world have an atmosphere? Scientists are stunned
Far beyond Neptune, in one of the coldest and darkest regions of our solar system, astronomers have discovered something unexpected: a small icy object...
What happens when a star gets too close to a black hole
Supermassive black holes are among the most enigmatic objects in the universe.
They typically weigh millions or even billions of times the mass of the...
Deep Space
NASA’s Curiosity rover finds signs Mars could have supported life
NASA’s Curiosity rover has uncovered new evidence that ancient Mars may have been able to support life.
Researchers found large deposits of carbon in rocks...
Will Neptune’s largest moon Triton finally answer, ‘Are we alone’?
We recently examined how and why Saturn’s icy moon, Enceladus, could answer the longstanding question: Are we alone?
With its interior ocean and geysers of...
This small satellite could clean up space junk in record time
What if you could build a machine that helps clean up space on a budget?
A team of students from Brown University did just that.
Their...
New study reveals the secrets of planet birth
In the vastness of space, the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is unlocking the mysteries of how planets come into being.
Scientists have been curious...
Astronomers discover a monster galaxy from the dawn of the universe by accident
Astronomers accidentally discovered the footprints of a monster galaxy in the early universe that has never been seen before.
Like a cosmic Yeti, the scientific...