Space & Future
Why so few planets can support life
Life needs more than water and the right temperature to exist.
New research suggests that only a small number of planets ever get the chemical...
Dead stars may be hiding the missing mass of galaxy clusters
Galaxy clusters, the largest structures held together by gravity in the universe, may be far heavier than scientists once believed.
New research suggests that much...
A giant star is changing before our eyes and astronomers are watching in real...
For decades, astronomers have been watching WOH G64, an enormous heavyweight star in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a galaxy visible with the naked eye...
Are there hidden dimensions to the universe
This is Part 1 of a series on large extra dimensions.
I always say that one of the things that separates real science from pseudoscience...
Astronomers discover a hidden factory of organic molecules in a dust-shrouded galaxy
rich mix of organic molecules deep inside a nearby galaxy, offering a new glimpse into how the basic ingredients of chemistry may form in...
A strange Martian dust storm offers new clues to how Mars lost its water
Mars today is a cold, dry desert, but its surface tells a very different story.
Ancient river channels, lake basins, and minerals formed in water...
This mysterious particle may be proof that black holes can explode
In 2023, physicists detected something that should not have existed: a single subatomic particle called a neutrino carrying an almost unimaginable amount of energy.
This...
Is there really a black hole at the Milky Way’s center—or something even stranger?
For decades, astronomers have believed that a supermassive black hole sits at the heart of our galaxy.
This object, known as Sagittarius A*, is thought...
Is there a link between primordial black holes, neutrinos, and dark matter
Humanity has worked itself into a position where we can detect a single high-energy particle from space and wonder where in Nature it came...
After 50 years, Jupiter’s true size is finally revealed
For more than half a century, scientists believed they had a solid grasp of Jupiter’s size and shape.
As the largest planet in the solar...
Webb Telescope spots rare five-galaxy merger just 800 million years after the big bang
Astronomers have spotted an unexpected and dramatic event in the early universe: a tightly packed collision involving at least five galaxies just 800 million...
Why planets with two suns almost never survive
Planets with two suns, like the famous desert world Tatooine from Star Wars, capture our imagination.
Yet in real life, these so-called circumbinary planets—planets that...
Deep Space
Milky Way has 1.5 trillion solar masses, according to Hubble & Gaia
A new study has shown the mass of the Milky Way: 1.5 trillion solar masses.
The finding is from the measurements from the NASA/ESA Hubble...
How a mudball meteorite from Costa Rica cheated death in the asteroid belt
In April 2019, a rare and powerful meteorite fell near the town of Aguas Zarcas in northern Costa Rica.
Scientists say it’s one of the...
Wind-powered tumbleweed rover could roll across Mars
Imagine exploring Mars not with a handful of expensive, heavy rovers, but with swarms of lightweight, wind-driven spheres rolling across the red planet like...
Why the carbon in your body and the oxygen you breathe came from ancient...
Where did the carbon in our bodies and the oxygen we breathe come from?
Astronomers have been asking this question for decades, and a new...
Scientists find a massive star-forming region of Milky Way
In a new study, researchers have made new observations of a massive star-forming region of the outer Milky Way.
This is the first high-resolution, radio...