Space & Future
Why so many space rocks look like snowmen
Far beyond Neptune, at the cold edge of our solar system, millions of icy objects drift quietly in a region called the Kuiper Belt.
These...
NASA’s Hubble finds a ghost galaxy made almost entirely of dark matter
Astronomers using the Hubble Space Telescope have discovered an extremely faint galaxy that may be made almost entirely of dark matter, the mysterious substance...
Astronomers get to the heart of Mira A’s latest outburst
Just a few hundred light-years from Earth, the famous variable star Mira A is huffing and puffing its outer layers to space. Its most...
The moon is still shrinking: New study reveals recent tectonic activity
For a long time, people imagined the moon as a quiet, frozen world where nothing much happens anymore.
But new research shows that the moon...
A cosmic jellyfish from the early universe surprises astronomers
Astronomers using the James Webb Space Telescope have discovered the most distant “jellyfish galaxy” ever seen, offering a rare glimpse into how galaxies changed...
Utah’s “soda pop” geysers may hold clues to life on distant ocean worlds
In the dry desert of eastern Utah, strange geysers shoot cold, fizzy water into the air.
Instead of boiling like the famous hot geysers in...
If aliens already called, why didn’t we hear?
For more than 60 years, scientists have been scanning the skies for signs of intelligent life beyond Earth.
Using powerful telescopes, they have searched for...
Scientists make a game-changing find in the Bennu asteroid
In 2023, NASA's OSIRIS-REx mission delivered samples of the 4.6-billion-year-old asteroid Bennu to Earth.
Upon examining them, scientists discovered that the asteroid - which existed...
James Webb Telescope detects rotten-egg gas on alien worlds for the first time
Astronomers have detected a smelly gas best known for the odor of rotten eggs—hydrogen sulfide—in the atmospheres of four giant planets far beyond our...
How a rare element could fuel the next generation of space missions
Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) are taking a fresh look at neptunium, a rare radioactive metal that...
Scientists finally solve the mystery of how the most common planets form
Astronomers have finally figured out how the most common types of planets in our galaxy are formed—by watching a set of baby planets grow...
Astronomers spot one of the earliest galaxy clusters ever discovered
Astronomers using two of NASA’s most powerful space telescopes have discovered a massive cluster of galaxies forming much earlier in the universe than scientists...
Deep Space
How NASA’s Webb telescope will continue Spitzer’s legacy
As one window to the universe closes, another will open with an even better view.
Some of the same planets, stars and galaxies we first...
Scientists capture first polarized radio signals from distant cosmic explosion
An international team of astronomers has captured the first-ever polarized radio waves from a distant cosmic explosion.
This explosive event (known as gamma-ray burst GRB...
Neptune’s vanishing clouds linked to solar cycle, study finds
For the first time in nearly 30 years of observations, Neptune's cloud cover has dramatically decreased, and researchers think the sun's solar cycle might...
Radio telescope confirms free-floating binary planets in the Orion Nebula
Planets orbit stars. That’s axiomatic.
Or at least it was until astronomers started finding rogue planets, also called free-floating planets (FFPs). Some of these planets...
Scientists find a fascinating link between water and planet formation
In a thrilling leap forward for astronomy, scientists have uncovered a fascinating link between water and the birth of planets.
For the first time, they've...