Space & Future
Mars’ “young” volcanoes tell a story of long, hidden activity
Volcanoes may look like simple mountains that erupted once and then fell silent, but in reality they are often the surface expression of complex...
Astronomers watch a giant star quietly collapse into a black hole
Astronomers have captured one of the clearest views ever of a massive star dying—not in a dramatic supernova explosion, but by quietly collapsing into...
Astronomers discover “inside-out” planet system that defies cosmic rules
Astronomers have discovered a surprising planetary system that does not follow the usual rules of how planets form.
The finding, led by researchers from the...
How big can a planet get? Scientists have new answers
When it comes to planets, bigger is not always easier to understand. The largest planets in the universe are gas giants—massive worlds made mostly...
Can life begin on a moon without a sun
Free-Floating Planets, or as they are more commonly known, Rogue Planets, wander interstellar space completely alone. Saying there might be a lot of them...
Scientists capture a stunning “cosmic egg” as a dying star
NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope has captured a striking new image of the Egg Nebula, a rare and short-lived object formed as a star nears...
How a single Martian storm triggered massive water loss
Mars’ water disappeared somewhere, but scientists have been disagreeing for years about where exactly it went.
Data from rovers like Perseverance and Curiosity, along with...
Why so few planets can support life
Life needs more than water and the right temperature to exist.
New research suggests that only a small number of planets ever get the chemical...
Dead stars may be hiding the missing mass of galaxy clusters
Galaxy clusters, the largest structures held together by gravity in the universe, may be far heavier than scientists once believed.
New research suggests that much...
A giant star is changing before our eyes and astronomers are watching in real...
For decades, astronomers have been watching WOH G64, an enormous heavyweight star in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a galaxy visible with the naked eye...
Are there hidden dimensions to the universe
This is Part 1 of a series on large extra dimensions.
I always say that one of the things that separates real science from pseudoscience...
Astronomers discover a hidden factory of organic molecules in a dust-shrouded galaxy
rich mix of organic molecules deep inside a nearby galaxy, offering a new glimpse into how the basic ingredients of chemistry may form in...
Deep Space
Why dark matter halos of ultra-diffuse galaxies are so odd
Scientists have found that dark matter halos of ultra-diffuse galaxies are very odd, raising questions about physicists’ understanding of galaxy formation and the structure...
How our Milky Way’s black hole shapes space like a football
Deep in the heart of our galaxy, the Milky Way, lies a supermassive black hole named Sagittarius A* (Sgr A*).
This colossal space monster, sitting...
Where are all these rogue planets coming from?
There’s a population of planets that drifts through space untethered to any stars. They’re called rogue planets or free-floating planets (FFPs.)
Some FFPs form as...
Why the carbon in your body and the oxygen you breathe came from ancient...
Where did the carbon in our bodies and the oxygen we breathe come from?
Astronomers have been asking this question for decades, and a new...
Scientists discover unusual ‘warm Jupiter’ orbiting low-mass star
An international group of researchers has made a surprising discovery: a Jupiter-sized planet called TOI-4860 b orbiting a small star in the Corvus constellation.
The...