Space & Future
Astronomers detect the fuel for star formation in some of the universe’s earliest galaxies
Astronomers have made a major breakthrough by directly detecting the gas that fueled star formation in some of the universe’s earliest galaxies.
The discovery offers...
Ancient stellar debris is still falling on Earth after 100 million years, study finds
Tiny traces of material from a giant cosmic explosion are still falling to Earth more than 100 million years after the event occurred, according...
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...
Deep Space
The habitability of Earth tells us the likelihood of finding life elsewhere
The hunt for habitable worlds has become a hot topic in astronomy.
For decades, the search has been focussed on planets in the "Goldilocks zone”;...
Scientists discover new tardigrade fossil in 16-million-year-old amber
Tardigrades, also known as water bears, are a diverse group of charismatic microscopic invertebrates that are best known for their ability to survive extreme...
Organic molecules come from the universe’s cold places, shows study
Life, as we all know, is based on chemistry.
Prebiotic chemical building blocks existed on our planet for a long time before life arose.
Astrobiology and...
Scientists discover a giant young planet in a unique double star system
Astronomers have discovered a young gas giant planet orbiting one star in a fascinating double star system—while the other star still has a disk...
Scientists unravel the mystery of mid-sized black holes in star clusters
A team of researchers led by Michiko Fujii from the University of Tokyo has discovered a potential way that intermediate-mass black holes (IMBHs) could...