Space & Future
Moon once had a magnetic field stronger than Earth’s—But only for brief moments
For decades, scientists have debated whether the Moon once had a powerful magnetic field like Earth’s or only a weak one.
Now, a new study...
One of the biggest stars in the universe might be getting ready to explode
One of the largest known stars in the universe underwent a dramatic transformation in 2014, new research shows, and may be preparing to explode.
A...
Stunning new image reveals hidden gas “rivers” at the heart of the Milky Way
Astronomers have captured the most detailed view ever of the center of our Milky Way galaxy, revealing a tangled web of cold gas filaments...
How giant galaxies could form just 1.4 billion years after the Big Bang
When the venerable Hubble Space Telescope made its Deep Fields studies of the early Universe, it discovered something that would puzzle astronomers to this...
Scientists discover Earth-like auroras on Jupiter’s giant moon
Scientists have discovered that the colorful light shows seen above Earth’s poles also occur on Ganymede, Jupiter’s largest moon—and they behave in strikingly similar...
NASA spots a young sun blowing a giant bubble in space
Astronomers have captured the first clear image of a giant “bubble” surrounding a young star that closely resembles what our own sun looked like...
Jupiter’s icy moons may have been born with the ingredients for life
Scientists have found new evidence that Jupiter’s largest moons may have received the chemical building blocks of life at the moment they formed.
The discovery...
Why we may still be waiting for an alien signal
Since the first Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) experiment in 1960, scientists have been scanning the Milky Way for signs of advanced alien civilizations.
They...
Could quantum light expose the universe’s biggest mystery?
Dark matter is one of the biggest mysteries in science.
Astronomers believe it makes up most of the matter in the universe, yet no one...
Scientists discover hidden teenage galaxies at the edge of the universe
Astronomers have uncovered a mysterious group of distant galaxies that may fill an important gap in our understanding of how galaxies grow and change...
Webb Telescope peers into Uranus’s mysterious upper atmosphere
For the first time, scientists have created a detailed map of the upper atmosphere of Uranus, revealing how temperature and electrically charged particles change...
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...
Deep Space
Tidal steams of interstellar objects may flow through the Milky Way like braided rivers
We know that interstellar objects occasionally visit our solar system.
So far, we have only discovered two interstellar objects (ISOs), but that’s mainly because we...
Planet factories may be running on empty sooner than we thought
A new international study has revealed that planet-forming disks around young stars lose their gas much faster than their dust, challenging long-standing ideas about...
Scientists catch rare mid-sized black hole in the act of devouring a star
Astronomers have caught a rare type of black hole in the act of devouring a star—an event that lit up the universe in X-rays.
This...
NASA discovers new worlds in a river of young stars
Using observations from NASA's Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS), astronomers have discovered a trio of hot worlds larger than Earth orbiting a much younger...
Scientists discover the earliest Milky Way-like galaxy
Astronomers, using the incredible James Webb Space Telescope, have made a groundbreaking discovery.
They've found a galaxy far away in the universe, which looks a...