Space & Future
Astronomers discover Sun-like star that likely swallowed one of its planets
A team of astronomers has found strong evidence that a star similar to our sun may have eaten one of its own planets.
The star,...
A star’s death throes involves a lot of kicking
When stars like our Sun age, they puff up into red giants.
Their bubbling outer mass gradually escapes into space, and their remaining cores contract...
The best place to look for alien megastructures might be moon dust
Our search for technosignatures - clear signs of advanced civilizations beyond Earth - takes many forms.
Many are driven by the famous Drake equation, which...
A tiny lab-made universe may help solve the mystery of time
Time seems like one of the most basic parts of everyday life. We use clocks to measure it, plan our days around it, and...
Consciousness may exist beyond humans, animals, and even Earth
Could consciousness exist in alien life forms that look nothing like us? Could it even appear in machines?
According to a new paper by philosophers...
Cosmic “galaxy-killing wind” may explain why some galaxies died so young
Astronomers have discovered a powerful “galaxy-killing wind” in the early universe that may help solve one of the biggest mysteries in modern astronomy: why...
JWST finds exoplanets choked by diesel smog
It’s 2134, and humanity has finally embraced green technologies while ridding the Earth of harmful fossil-burning technologies, most notably gasoline, wood, coal, and oil.
As...
The Universe is Still Running Away From Us
Here's one of the most unsettling facts in all of science. The universe is not just expanding, it’s expanding faster and faster.
Every galaxy is...
Scientists use light echoes to hunt dark matter around giant black holes
Dark matter remains one of the biggest mysteries in science.
Scientists cannot see it directly, yet they believe it makes up most of the matter...
Mysterious “little red dot” may be a giant black hole wrapped in gas
Astronomers using NASA's powerful James Webb Space Telescope may have solved one of the biggest mysteries of the early universe.
A strange object known as...
Astronomers discover massive star-making fuel supply in one of the universe’s earliest galaxies
Astronomers have discovered a huge reservoir of cold gas in one of the earliest known galaxies, providing new clues about how some galaxies grew...
This is how supermassive black holes feed themselves
How supermassive black holes (SMBH) in the center of galaxies accrete material, how they feedback into the surrounding region, and how they regulate these...
Deep Space
Earth’s magnetic field has a 200-million-year cycle, shows new study
The findings of a new study by the University of Liverpool provides further evidence of an approximately 200-million-year long cycle in the strength of...
Scientists discover an exoplanet atmosphere never seen before
New observations of WASP-39 b reveal a never-before-seen molecule in the atmosphere of a planet — sulfur dioxide — among other details.
From platypus to parsecs and milliCrab: why do astronomers use such weird units
You may have heard about an asteroid set to fly near Earth that is the size of 18 platypus, or maybe the one that’s...
Why is the universe ripping itself apart?
What is the universe made of? This question has driven astronomers for hundreds of years.
For the past quarter of a century, scientists have believed...
Astronomers make a new map of all the matter (and dark matter) in the...
There’s a lot of matter in the Universe, but not all of it is visible to us.
Matter is, essentially, anything that has mass and...