Space & Future
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...
Astronomers finally crack the mass mystery of Orion’s hidden young stars
A star’s mass shapes everything about its life, from how bright it shines to how it eventually dies.
Small stars like our Sun burn slowly...
Astronomers discover missing planets around the galaxy’s most common stars
Astronomers have discovered something surprising about planets beyond our solar system.
Even though planets are incredibly common—scientists now estimate there is at least one planet...
Why one side of the Milky Way is hotter than the other
Scientists have discovered a surprising reason why one side of our galaxy is warmer than the other, and the explanation is something you might...
How the Milky Way’s smallest neighbors reveal the early universe
Astronomers have long been fascinated by tiny galaxies that orbit the Milky Way.
These faint and fragile systems, known as ultra-faint dwarf galaxies, are often...
Deep Space
Why we are so scared of space—and how this fear can drive conspiracy theories
There are many home-grown problems on Earth, but there's still time to worry about bad things arriving from above.
The most recent is the asteroid...
Saturn’s rings will disappear in 2025. don’t worry, they’ll return soon enough
The rings of Saturn are some of the most well-known and captivating spectacles in the night sky, which are so large they can easily...
Astronauts could see auroras on Mars with their eyes
On March 15th, 2024, the Sun released a powerful solar flare that coincided with a heightened period of solar activity.
This was accompanied by a...
Astronomers find a strange lopsided planet
I’ve often stated that planets come in a wide range of sizes but rarely do I find myself stating they come in a wide...
This mysterious interstellar visitor was probably a dark hydrogen iceberg, not aliens
The aliens came on Oct. 19, 2017.
That was the day telescopes picked up a strange object with an odd, elongated shape that moved like...