Space & Future
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...
Scientists discover how an exoplanet with endless day and night could still support life
An unusual planet located about 48.5 light-years from Earth may seem far too extreme for life.
One side is permanently exposed to intense heat, while...
Deep Space
How black holes consume entropy
Entropy is one of those fearsomely deep concepts that form the core of entire fields of physics (in this case, thermodynamics) that is unfortunately...
A giant meteorite impact 3.26 billion years ago helped push life forward
The Earth has always been bombarded with rocks from space. It’s true to say though that there were more rocks flying around the Solar...
Neutron Stars with less mass than a white dwarf might exist, and LIGO and...
Most of the neutron stars we know of have a mass between 1.4 and 2.0 Suns.
The upper limit makes sense, since, beyond about two...
Since aliens obey the laws of physics, can we guess what they look like?
Since time immemorial, humans have gazed up at the stars and wondered if we’re alone in the universe.
We have asked if there are other...
Taking asteroid sample was like punching a ball pit
Asteroid Bennu, the target of NASA's OSIRIS-REx asteroid sample return mission, led by the University of Arizona, kept surprising the mission team while the...