Space & Future
Something just passed between us and a distant star
On the night of 18 December 2019, a star in our satellite galaxy, the Large Magellanic Cloud, briefly got brighter.
Not dramatically nor explosively, just...
Ancient “Cosmic Cities” Were Already Shaping Galaxies Soon After the Big Bang
Astronomers have discovered that galaxies were already being shaped by their surroundings just 1.2 billion years after the Big Bang, much earlier than scientists...
Black Hole “Gold Rush” Reveals Hundreds of Hidden Cosmic Collisions
Astronomers have unveiled the largest collection yet of gravitational wave detections, marking a major leap forward in our understanding of black holes and the...
The Sun just did something nobody expected and it kept going for 19 days
The Sun is not known for being quiet!
It blasts out energy equivalent to 100 billion nuclear bombs every single second, routinely hurls billion tonne...
Ancient Region Near Jupiter May Have Created Six Types of Meteorites
Scientists have discovered that a region just outside Jupiter’s orbit may have acted like a giant “planet factory” in the early solar system, producing...
A Beautiful Death How a Dying Star Created the Crystal Ball Nebula
Planetary nebulae like the Crystal Ball Nebula (NGC 1514) are sort of like stellar obituaries.
Though crystal balls supposedly reveal the future, the Crystal Ball...
Scientists Detect Sand-Like Clouds That Vanish Daily on Alien World
Astronomers using NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope have discovered unusual weather patterns on a giant exoplanet nearly 700 light-years away from Earth.
The planet, called...
Webb Telescope finds methane-rich atmosphere on rare Saturn-sized exoplanet
Astronomers using NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope have discovered a giant planet with an atmosphere rich in methane, offering scientists a rare look at...
NASA detects powerful gamma rays from a rare “supercharged” supernova
Astronomers have made an exciting discovery that could change how we understand some of the most powerful explosions in the universe.
Using data from NASA’s...
Tiny galaxies around the Milky Way may reveal what the infant universe was really...
Astronomers are turning to some of the smallest galaxies in the universe to answer one of the biggest questions in science: what was the...
Scientists discover a new way to spot alien life by looking for hidden patterns
For many years, scientists searching for life beyond Earth have focused on one main question: what kinds of molecules should they look for on...
Ancient galactic crash may have reshaped the Milky Way 11 billion years ago
The Milky Way may have gone through a violent cosmic collision billions of years ago that dramatically changed the structure of our galaxy, according...
Deep Space
This ancient supernova remnant looks like a stellar dandelion
In 1181, Japanese and Chinese astronomers saw a bright light appear in the constellation Cassiopeia.
It shone for six months, and those ancient observers couldn’t...
Titan’s thick methane ice could explain its strange surface and atmosphere
Saturn’s largest moon, Titan, is a unique place in our solar system.
It’s the only moon with a thick atmosphere and liquid rivers, lakes, and...
What sounds captured by NASA’s rover reveal about Mars
Listen closely to sounds from Mars, recorded by NASA’s Perseverance:
The rover’s mechanical whine and click in a light Martian wind; the whir of rotors...
Gamma-ray burst unveils secrets of life’s building blocks in the universe
In a breathtaking discovery, scientists have witnessed the birth of rare chemical elements in one of the brightest gamma-ray bursts ever recorded.
This event sheds...
How sound waves could help track space junk and meteors
Every year, Earth is bombarded with objects from space—some natural, like meteoroids, and others manmade, like space junk.
Most burn up harmlessly in the atmosphere,...