The Pillars of Creation first awed the public back in 1995. And astronomers are already seeing signs of changes in the stellar nursery. | Continue reading
We know a lot about the Sun, but not nearly everything. In this video Dr. Anna Funk describes how NASA's hard at work answering some fundamental questions about our nearest star. | Continue reading
This 7,000-year-old stone circle tracked the summer solstice and the arrival of the annual monsoon season. It's also the oldest known astronomical site on Earth. | Continue reading
It’s Official: Astronomers Have Discovered Another Earth Kepler-186f | Continue reading
Unusually bright in ultraviolet light, HD1 may also set another cosmic record. | Continue reading
The University of Chicago, where Eugene Parker spent virtually all of his long career, announced Wednesday that the renowned scientist died March 15, 2022, at age 94. | Continue reading
The nature of space weather hasn’t changed much. But society has, and understanding and predicting space weather is more important than ever. | Continue reading
Earth’s periodic passage through the galaxy’s dark matter disk could initiate a series of events that ultimately lead to geological cataclysms and mass extinctions. | Continue reading
About 20 years ago, studies indicated hitting an asteroid with something big could shatter it. But now, better models and computer code are showing the opposite: destroying an asteroid is hard to do. | Continue reading
All cells on Earth are made of phospholipid membranes. Now astronomers have found the component molecules in interstellar space. | Continue reading
The ancient Egyptians watched Earth’s night sky closely and named constellations after their gods. But did the builders of the pyramids really make these monuments with the stars in mind? | Continue reading
Scientists suspect it might be raining diamonds on Neptune and Uranus. Evidence of opal on Mars hints at a watery past. Outside our solar system, there may be rubies and sapphires too. But the gems t | Continue reading
‘Oumuamua zipped through the inner solar system in 2017, revealing just how little we know about planetary systems beyond our own. | Continue reading
Who cares what happens to bootprints on the Moon? All humans should. And thankfully the US Congress and president agree. | Continue reading
Pseudoscience and genuine archaeological mysteries surround humanity's oldest known temple. But was it the world's first astronomical observatory? | Continue reading
After a total loss of power, many thought the Soviet's Salyut 7 space station was gone for good. But two bundled up cosmonauts gave it six more years of life. | Continue reading
The grand discovery of alien life is likely to come in the form of frustratingly subtle chemical clues. | Continue reading
Researchers helped mice stay mighty with an experiment to counter the effects of microgravity. The gene treatment might also enhance muscle and bone health on Earth — and in humans. | Continue reading
The "missing baryon problem" plagued scientists for over 20 years. But a new celestial phenomenon and cutting-edge telescopes helped them find it earlier this year. | Continue reading
“It is unnatural in a large field to have only one shaft of wheat, and in the infinite universe only one living world.” | Continue reading
The discovery hints that subsurface oceans are common in the outer solar system, which is good news for the those seeking extraterrestrial life. | Continue reading
Like a phoenix rising from its ashes, scientists believe one of Mars’ current moons, Phobos, may have been born from a ring of dust left by former versions of itself. | Continue reading
An amateur astronomer’s discovery kicked off a Space Age detective story. | Continue reading
Our sister world’s rapidly moving clouds have long fascinated astronomers. And in the last few decades, we’ve learned quite a bit about them. | Continue reading
Anonymous | Continue reading
A new method for hunting minor planets uncovered 139 new small and distant worlds. And the novel technique could even help resolve the mystery of Planet Nine. | Continue reading
SpaceX and other companies are rushing to put thousands of small, inexpensive satellites in orbit, but pressure to keep costs low and a lack of regulation leave those satellites vulnerable to hackers. | Continue reading
An experimental “oxygen plant” in the Netherlands can extract oxygen trapped within simulated Moon dust, leaving behind metals that might be valuable to future explorers. | Continue reading
Time travel — long a staple of science fiction — may not be too far from reality. | Continue reading
Why astronomers keep changing what it means to be a planet. | Continue reading
For the first time, astronomers have mapped the surface of a pulsar in detail. And the result challenges our textbook picture of a pulsar’s appearance. | Continue reading
The discovery of 19 more galaxies missing their dark matter bolsters controversial recent research and may have dramatic implications for galaxy formation. | Continue reading
The monster black hole in galaxy cluster Abell 85 is roughly the size of our solar system, but packs the mass of 40 billion suns. | Continue reading
Astronomers have identified the first known galaxy with three supermassive black holes in its core. The galaxy, NGC 6240, helps explain how huge galaxies can form relatively quickly. | Continue reading
Astronomers made the first direct measurement of water vapor in Europa’s atmosphere. It's the best evidence yet for water plumes erupting from the icy moon. | Continue reading
A wormhole is a hypothetical concept that connects two separate areas of space-time. But if the Milky Way has one, we might be able to detect it by looking for oddly orbiting stars near it. | Continue reading
When the Huygens probe dropped into Titan’s atmosphere January 14, 2005, no one knew what to expect. The 72 minutes the probe spent live on the moon's surface have taught us volumes about this potent | Continue reading
Scientists have discovered what may be the oldest written records of auroras to date. They were hidden in ancient cuneiform tablets from the Middle East. | Continue reading
Scientists have discovered what may be the oldest written records of auroras to date. They were hidden in ancient cuneiform tablets from the Middle East. | Continue reading
New simulations suggest that when two stars collide, the resulting product can be extremely magnetic, and it may ultimately wind up as a magnetar. | Continue reading
In 1992, astronomers discovered the first exoplanet, or planet outside our solar system. But it didn’t come in any form they’d really anticipated. | Continue reading
Astronomers discovered a bizarre star that went supernova not once, but twice. | Continue reading
How do we popularize astronomy responsibly? | Continue reading
With bugs, algae and other resource-efficient foods we could feed one million people on Mars within a century of arriving there. Scientists even invented a martian diet. | Continue reading
This hot, acidic neighbor with its surface veiled in thick clouds hasn't benefited from the attention showered on Mars and the Moon. But Venus may offer insights into the fate of the Earth. | Continue reading
Although Jupiter is large as planets go, it would need to be about 75 times its current mass to ignite nuclear fusion in its core and become a star. | Continue reading
What the dark patches are is still a mystery, though astronomers dating back to Carl Sagan have suggested they could be extraterrestrial microorganisms. | Continue reading