Space & Future

How long do civilizations last

It is one of the most famous questions in science, and it was asked, as legend has it, over lunch. Enrico Fermi, the physicist who...

Scientists discover cost-saving way to build structures on the moon

Scientists are exploring an exciting idea for future space missions: building structures on the Moon using the Moon’s own soil. A new study shows that...

Giant dying stars create tiny cosmic dust that could form new planets

A new study shows that some of the largest and most powerful stars in the universe are producing incredibly tiny particles of carbon dust—material...

New method may finally resolve the “Hubble tension” puzzle

Scientists have known for nearly a century that the universe is expanding, with galaxies moving away from each other over time. The speed of this...

Can Martian soil kill Earth microbes? Water bears reveal surprising clues

Scientists are using one of Earth’s toughest microscopic creatures to explore an important question for future space travel: Could the soil on Mars naturally...

6 million years ago something slammed into modern-day Brazil

Giant impacts on Earth's surface can be cataclysmic events with far-reaching consequences. They can excavate massive craters like the Vredefort Crater. There's also growing evidence...

Early Mars was warm and wet not icy

A recent study showed that Mars was warm and wet billions of years ago. The finding contrasts with another theory that this era was mainly...

Moon once had a magnetic field stronger than Earth’s—But only for brief moments

For decades, scientists have debated whether the Moon once had a powerful magnetic field like Earth’s or only a weak one. Now, a new study...

One of the biggest stars in the universe might be getting ready to explode

One of the largest known stars in the universe underwent a dramatic transformation in 2014, new research shows, and may be preparing to explode. A...

Stunning new image reveals hidden gas “rivers” at the heart of the Milky Way

Astronomers have captured the most detailed view ever of the center of our Milky Way galaxy, revealing a tangled web of cold gas filaments...

How giant galaxies could form just 1.4 billion years after the Big Bang

When the venerable Hubble Space Telescope made its Deep Fields studies of the early Universe, it discovered something that would puzzle astronomers to this...

Scientists discover Earth-like auroras on Jupiter’s giant moon

Scientists have discovered that the colorful light shows seen above Earth’s poles also occur on Ganymede, Jupiter’s largest moon—and they behave in strikingly similar...

Deep Space

NASA’s Parker Solar Probe makes record-breaking journey to the Sun

NASA’s Parker Solar Probe has made history by flying closer to the Sun than any spacecraft before it. On December 24, 2024, the probe came...

These two galaxies have almost no dark matter

In two new study, researchers confirmed that they have found a galaxy with almost no dark matter. The studies were led by Yale University researchers. In...

The earliest galaxies formed amazingly fast after the Big Bang. Do they break the...

The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is the largest and most powerful space telescope built to date. Since it was launched in December 2021 it...

What would asteroid mining do to the world’s economy

About a decade ago, the prospect of “asteroid mining” saw a massive surge in interest.

NASA’s Spitzer detects a starry region bursting with bubbles

This infrared image from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope shows a cloud of gas and dust full of bubbles, which are inflated by wind and...