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
When Uranus and Neptune migrated, three icy objects were crashing into them every hour
The giant outer planets haven’t always been in their current position. Uranus and Neptune for example are thought to have wandered through the outer...
How to confirm life on other planets
The search for life on other planets has received a major boost after scientists revealed the spectral signatures of almost 1000 atmospheric molecules that...
NASA’s Webb telescope reveals complex asteroid belts around nearby star Fomalhaut
Astronomers have discovered a complex asteroid belt around a young star called Fomalhaut, using NASA's James Webb Space Telescope.
The debris belts, which are the...
Scientists use James Webb Telescope to catch hidden black holes eating stars
Astronomers have used NASA’s powerful James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) to uncover black holes secretly devouring stars in galaxies full of dust.
These violent star-shredding...
Astronomers find surprising conflict between James Webb data and universe models
A new study using data from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has revealed surprising results that challenge long-standing ideas about how the universe...