Space & Future
Astronomers catch a black hole erupting after 100 million years
Astronomers have captured one of the clearest views yet of a supermassive black hole coming back to life after an extraordinarily long period of...
A new atlas of the Milky Way’s ghost particles
Right now, as you read this sentence, roughly a trillion neutrinos are passing straight through your body.
They slip through flesh and bone and even...
Scientists may have solved the mystery behind the universe’s gravitational waves
Scientists at the University of Colorado Boulder think they may have cracked a mystery that has puzzled astronomers since the first detection of the...
Your dog’s dinner could be warming the planet more than your own
Many dog owners carefully think about what they eat for the sake of the planet—but new research suggests they may want to pay just...
How ‘red geyser’ galaxies stay silent for billions of years
Some of the universe’s largest galaxies have gone strangely quiet.
They stopped forming new stars billions of years ago and have remained dormant ever since—even...
Dark stars could be the missing link in the universe’s earliest mysteries
A new study suggests that a strange and long-theorized type of object called a dark star could help explain several major mysteries uncovered by...
Thin ice may have kept ancient Martian lakes alive for decades
For years, scientists have faced a puzzling contradiction about Mars.
On one hand, the planet is covered with ancient lake beds, shorelines, and sediment layers...
A new study finds a subtle dance between dark matter and neutrinos
Time again for a tale of things dark and mysterious. A tale of dark matter. It's a well-told tale, but this time it involves...
This system reveals how super-Earths are born
One of the best things about being able to see thousands of exoplanetary systems is that we’re able to track them in different stages...
Hidden plasma rings around red dwarfs may shape the fate of their planets
When astronomers think about whether distant planets could support life, they often focus on the planets themselves.
But a growing body of research shows that...
How ancient Mars may have kept its lakes liquid
For years, scientists have puzzled over a contradiction on Mars.
The planet’s surface is covered with features that look unmistakably like ancient lake beds—shorelines, layered...
Scientists track a powerful solar region for a record 94 days
In 2024, the Sun put on one of its most dramatic shows in decades.
A single highly active region on its surface unleashed the strongest...
Deep Space
Some young planets are flattened smarties, not spheres.
One of contemporary astronomy’s most pressing questions concerns planet formation.
We can see more deeply than ever into very young solar systems where planets are...
Quantum physics may rewrite the secrets of black holes
For over a century, black holes have fascinated scientists with their mysterious nature.
According to Einstein's theory of general relativity, black holes are regions in...
New analysis of black hole reveals a wobbling shadow
In 2019, the Event Horizon Telescope Collaboration delivered the first image of a black hole, revealing M87*—the supermassive object in the center of the...
Small but mighty: MIT scientists spot tiny asteroids in the main belt
Astronomers at MIT have made a groundbreaking discovery, spotting the smallest asteroids ever detected in the main asteroid belt—a region between Mars and Jupiter...
Earth may be slowly feeding the moon with water and nitrogen, study finds
The Moon is often seen as a dry, lifeless world covered in dust.
But new research suggests its surface may hold more useful material than...