Space & Future

Astronomers Release the Largest 2D Map of the Universe Ever Made

Astronomers have released the largest two-dimensional color map of the universe ever created, containing an extraordinary 5.6 trillion pixels and nearly 4 billion stars,...

Rare Mars Meteorite Fills a 2-Billion-Year Gap in the Red Planet’s History

A rare meteorite from Mars is giving scientists a new look at a mysterious period in the Red Planet’s history. Researchers at Boston College have...

Super-Earths May Be Surprisingly Solid Deep Inside, Scientists Find

Massive rocky planets known as super-Earths may be much more solid deep inside than scientists previously understood, according to new research into how minerals...

Uranus’s Magnetic Shield “Breathes” as the Planet Spins

Uranus is one of the strangest planets in our solar system, and new research shows that its unusual orientation causes the planet’s magnetic environment...

Trillion-Mile Gas Stream May Explain a Bizarre Triple-Star System

Astronomers have discovered an enormous stream of gas flowing toward a young system of three stars, potentially explaining why its planet-forming disks are strangely...

20 Years of Watching a Blazar Reveals Something Stranger Than Expected

After nearly two decades of observations, astronomers have discovered that a distant blazar behaves in ways that leading theories struggle to explain. Instead of solving...

Mysterious Magnetic Star May Have Revealed a 90-Year-Old Quantum Secret

Scientists may have found the strongest evidence yet for one of the strangest predictions in quantum physics—a theory first proposed nearly 90 years ago. By...

A Simple Heat Treatment Could Make 3D-Printed Metal Parts Tougher for Rockets and Electric...

Scientists have found a way to improve the performance of 3D-printed aluminum bronze, a metal that could be useful for cooling powerful electronic components...

Mysterious ‘Little Red Dots’ May Be Giant Stars That Gave Birth to the Universe’s...

One of the biggest mysteries revealed by the James Webb Space Telescope may finally have a promising explanation. Astronomers believe that the strange objects known...

Pluto’s Frozen Heart May Still Be Alive with Flowing Liquid Nitrogen

Pluto may be far colder than any place on Earth, but scientists have discovered evidence that something surprising may still be moving beneath its...

Astronomers Witness a Giant Star’s Final Moments from The Very First Flash of Its...

Astronomers have captured one of the rarest events in the universe—the very first moments of a massive star exploding. The discovery has given scientists an...

Venus May Still Be Alive with Active Volcanoes, Surprising Study Finds

For many years, scientists believed Venus was a dead world with little or no geological activity. Although it is Earth's closest planetary neighbor, Venus...

Deep Space

Is there life out there? NASA’s James Webb Telescope finds intriguing clues on distant...

Do you ever look up at the stars and wonder if we're alone in the universe? Well, NASA's James Webb Space Telescope has found something...

A solar radio eclipse ring of fire

On October 14, as most Californians were treated to a partial solar eclipse (see bottom right "visible" image showing the sun's crescent peeking out...

This ‘hell planet’ orbits its star every 17.5 hours

New technology has helped astronomers follow the fiery trail of the so-called “hell planet.” It’s an exoplanet located 40 light years from Earth and nicknamed...

‘Planet confusion’ could slow Earth-like exoplanet exploration

When it comes to directly imaging Earth-like exoplanets orbiting faraway stars, seeing isn’t always believing. A new Cornell study finds that next-generation telescopes used to...

Dying stars breathe life into Earth, says new study

As dying stars take their final few breaths of life, they gently sprinkle their ashes into the cosmos through the magnificent planetary nebulae. These ashes,...