Space & Future
3-billion-year-old asteroid crater offers rare window into Earth’s violent past
Scientists have confirmed the age of the oldest known asteroid impact crater on Earth, revealing that a huge space rock struck our planet about...
Webb Telescope captures a giant galaxy being born around a growing black hole
Astronomers have used the James Webb Space Telescope to witness one of the most remarkable events ever observed in the early universe—a giant galaxy...
Scientists create inchworm-inspired soft robot that could explore Mars one day
Scientists have created a tiny robot inspired by the humble inchworm, and it could one day help inspect damaged sewer pipes, explore dangerous environments,...
Mars Express captures dozens of dust devils in Mars valley
Dust devils are a regular feature on Mars.
Just like those found on Earth, these mini whirlwinds form when parts of Mars are warmed by...
Scientists discover two giant planets fluffier than cotton candy
Astronomers have discovered two of the fluffiest planets ever found.
These giant worlds are so light and airy that they are actually less dense than...
NASA’s Hubble discovers ancient galaxy that helped clear the universe’s primordial fog
Astronomers using NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope have made an unexpected discovery that sheds new light on one of the universe’s greatest transformations.
They detected ultraviolet...
Mysterious ‘dark force’ may actually slow the growth of cosmic structures
Dark matter is one of the biggest mysteries in science. It cannot be seen directly because it does not emit, absorb, or reflect light.
Yet...
Astronomers discover giant ‘bow and arrow’ galaxy stretching 1.8 million light-years across
Astronomers have discovered a strange and spectacular galaxy that looks like a giant bow and arrow stretching across space.
The unusual object, named RAD-BAARG (Bow-And-Arrow...
The long-lived Chicxulub hydrothermal system lasted 8 million years
When a massive, ten-kilometer asteroid slammed into Earth about 66 million years ago, it created a massive crater.
The impact triggered a megatsunami and a...
Did gravitational tides cause Earth’s extinctions?
Life on Earth took a long evolutionary journey that eventually created us, the purportedly intelligent species that dominates the planet.
But there was no grand...
Scientists discover magnetic fields guiding the birth of stars
How do stars form?
Scientists know that stars are born when huge clouds of cold gas in space collapse under their own gravity.
But one mystery...
Scientists Warn Some Earth Pathogens May Survive a Journey to Mars
Could microbes from Earth survive on other worlds? New research suggests that the answer may be yes.
Ph.D. candidate Tommaso Zaccaria studied whether tiny organisms...
Deep Space
Scientists find binary stars could reflect light from one another
In a new study, researchers found binary stars can reflect light from one another as well as radiating it.
Binary stars are two stars locked...
An alternative to black holes: Gravastars with big bangs inside
One foundational part of astrophysics concerns how stellar mass black holes form.
When a star several times more massive than our Sun runs out of...
The most metal-free star ever observed is found in our own backyard
The Big Bang essentially created two elements: hydrogen and helium.
It also produced tiny traces of lithium and a few other light isotopes, but in...
Scientists find an exoplanet with the potential to form moons
Astronomers at the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian have helped detect the clear presence of a moon-forming region around an exoplanet —...
Scientists find new way to tell water temperature on faraway moons
Scientists have come up with a clever way to figure out the temperature of the vast oceans hidden under the icy shells of moons...