Space & Future
Space Rocks Don’t Just Burn Up—Scientists Discover What Really Happens
When a space rock plunges into Earth’s atmosphere, it creates a brilliant streak of light before some pieces may eventually reach the ground as...
Ancient Meteorite Dust Reveals Magnetism May Have Helped Build Our Sun
About 4.6 billion years ago, our solar system looked nothing like it does today. Instead of a sun surrounded by planets, it began as...
Astronomers Discover 4 Strange Planets Around One of Our Closest Stars
Astronomers have taken their most detailed look yet at a fascinating group of small planets orbiting Barnard’s Star, one of the closest stars to...
Why a Planet’s Slow Spin Could Turn It into a Scorching World Like Venus
Why did Earth become a comfortable home for life while its similar-sized neighbor Venus turned into a scorching world with a crushing atmosphere?
Scientists think...
Astronomers Find a Flaw in a Cosmic Yardstick Used for 50 Years
For more than half a century, astronomers have relied on a basic assumption when estimating the number of stars inside distant galaxies: stars of...
Dry Martian Meteorite Reveals Early Water in Mars’s Crust
Billions of years ago, Mars was hypothesized to have been a habitable world with flowing liquid water and the potential for life.
But directly studying...
Mysterious Gravitational Waves May Be Echoes of Ancient Dark Stars
A faint gravitational-wave signal spreading across the universe may contain clues about mysterious stars that existed more than 13 billion years ago, according to...
Hidden Stars Reveal Early Galaxies Were Far Bigger Than We Thought
Some of the earliest massive galaxies in the universe may be hiding enormous numbers of small, faint stars, suggesting they contain much more mass...
One Giant Asteroid Impact May Have Reshaped Mars’ Tiny Moon Deimos
A single asteroid impact may have dramatically reshaped Deimos, the smaller of Mars' two moons, creating both a huge depression near its south pole...
Dying Galaxies Reveal What Happens After Black Hole Jets Switch Off
Astronomers have discovered a group of faint "dying" radio galaxies that could change our understanding of what happens after supermassive black holes stop producing...
Mars Dust Could Threaten Astronauts’ Lungs, NASA Warns
Future astronauts exploring Mars will face a danger that may be much harder to avoid than extreme cold or radiation: dust.
NASA has released a...
Hubble Discovers a Lost Galaxy Swallowed by the Milky Way 11.8 Billion Years Ago
The Milky Way has not always been the enormous spiral galaxy we see today. Like many large galaxies, it grew partly by swallowing smaller...
Deep Space
Here’s what we know about Earth’s temporary mini-moon
For a little over a month now, the Earth has been joined by a new ‘mini-moon.’
The object is an asteroid that has been temporarily...
Why our planet has managed to stay habitable for billions of years
A study by the University of Southampton gives a new perspective on why our planet has managed to stay habitable for billions of years...
The sun’s magnetic field may originate near its surface, shows study
The sun's surface is a mesmerizing display of sunspots and flares, all driven by its magnetic field.
Traditionally, scientists believed this magnetic field was generated...
Scientists reveal some mystery of fast radio bursts from the universe
In the vast universe, some extremely strong radio waves occasionally blink, with duration of only milliseconds.
Such fast radio bursts were discovered by astronomers in...
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...