Space & Future
Supermassive black holes are picky eaters during galaxy mergers, study finds
Black holes are famous for their enormous appetites, pulling in gas, dust, and even light itself.
But new research shows that even the largest black...
How stardust really travels: A new study rewrites the story of life’s building blocks
The atoms that make up life on Earth—carbon, oxygen, nitrogen, and more—were forged inside stars long before our planet existed.
For decades, astronomers believed they...
The solar system loses an ocean world
Saturn’s largest moon, Titan, may not have a subsurface ocean after all.
That’s according to a re-examination of data captured by NASA’s Cassini spacecraft, which...
Why the same galaxy can grow or decline—It depends on its neighbor
Galaxies may look serene from afar, but their lives are shaped by powerful internal structures and by the neighbors they keep.
A new study led...
Scientists crack 1.4-billion-year-old salt crystals to reveal Earth’s ancient air
More than a billion years before dinosaurs—and long before plants and animals—Earth looked very different.
In what is now northern Ontario, a shallow, salty lake...
Webb spots the ‘smoke’ from crashing exocomets around a nearby star
The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) was involved in yet another first discovery recently available in pre-print form on arXiv from Cicero Lu at...
Scientists solve a big bang theory puzzle that could point to dark matter
For years, one of the most intriguing mysteries in physics has been dark matter—an invisible substance thought to make up most of the matter...
Astronomers discover the violent origin of mysterious blue cosmic explosions
For years, astronomers have been puzzled by rare and dramatic flashes of blue and ultraviolet light that suddenly appear in distant galaxies and then...
Astronomers find the first compelling evidence of monster stars in the early universe
One of the greatest mysteries the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) was developed to investigate was the birth of supermassive black holes (SMBHs).
For more...
A year that mattered: Caltech’s scientific journey in 2025
Caltech is a place unlike any other, an Institute that is truly "small but mighty."
Its small size and the expertise of its community enable...
The Milky Way had a wild past, and Webb is finally revealing it
How did the Milky Way become the calm, spiral galaxy we see today?
New observations from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) suggest that our...
Gaia space telescope spots possible planets forming around baby stars
How do planets like Earth and Jupiter come into existence?
Astronomers are beginning to answer that question thanks to new observations from the European Space...
Deep Space
Astronomers use earthquakes to understand glitches on neutron stars
A team of astronomers have used a model of earthquakes to understand glitches in the timing of pulsars.
Their results suggest that pulsars may have...
One in twelve stars ate a planet
That stars can eat planets is axiomatic.
If a small enough planet gets too close to a large enough star, the planet loses. Its fate...
Tabletop particle accelerator could probe for other dimensions in the universe
Scientists at the Laboratory for Laser Energetics have discovered a method to accelerate electrons to record energies in very short distances.
With such a...
Scientists discover Jupiter’s unknown journey
In a new study, scientists found more information about Jupiter's journey through the solar system 4.5 billion years ago.
They used advanced computer simulations and...
Scientists find the closest black holes to Earth in our cosmic backyard
Imagine having mysterious cosmic monsters right next door!
Scientists say they might have found the closest black holes to Earth ever, and guess where they...