Astronomy

Image of planetary nebula NGC 7027 with illustration of helium hydride molecules. In this planetary nebula, SOFIA detected helium hydride, a combination of helium (red) and hydrogen (blue), which was the first type of molecule to ever form in the early universe. This is the first time helium hydride has been found in the modern universe.

NASA’s Flying Telescope Spots Oldest Type of Molecule in the Universe

An infrared telescope mounted in a Boeing 747 has detected the first type of molecule to form after the big bang

Harvard astronomers theorize that a meteor that struck Earth's atmosphere in 2014 could have been from another solar system, judging by what scientists know about 'Oumuamua, an interstellar object that zipped through our solar system in 2017. (An artist's depiction of 'Oumuamua is seen here.)

An Interstellar Meteor May Have Collided With Earth in 2014

Researchers have identified an object that, they theorize, was traveling too fast to have originated within our solar system

Scientists Find a Tiny Speck of Comet Inside a Meteorite

The little fragment found in Antarctica was protected from the elements and preserves the chemical signature of the early solar system

A photographic plate of the 1919 total solar eclipse, taken by Andrew Claude de la Cherois Crommelin and Charles Rundle Davidson during an expedition to Sobral, Brazil. The 1919 eclipse was used by Arthur Eddington, who observed it from the island of Principe off the west coast of Africa, to provide the first experimental evidence of Einstein's theory of relativity.

What the Obsolete Art of Mapping the Skies on Glass Plates Can Still Teach Us

The first pictures of the sky were taken on glass photographic plates, and these treasured artifacts can still help scientists make discoveries today

2007 OR10 is the largest object in our solar system with out a name.

The Largest Unnamed Object in the Solar System Needs a Title—and You Can Help

2007 OR10 needs a snazzier moniker; the public can now choose between ‘Gonggong,’ ‘Holle’ and ‘Vili’

The image reveals the black hole at the center of Messier 87, a massive galaxy in the nearby Virgo galaxy cluster. This black hole resides 55 million light-years from Earth and has a mass 6.5 billion times that of the sun.

Astronomers Capture First-Ever Image of a Supermassive Black Hole

The Event Horizon Telescope reveals the silhouette of a black hole at the center of a galaxy 55 million light-years away

Margaret Dayhoff was a pioneer of using computers to tackle some of the biggest scientific questions of the day.

How Margaret Dayhoff Brought Modern Computing to Biology

The pioneer of bioinformatics modeled Earth’s primordial atmosphere with Carl Sagan and made a vast protein database still used today

Exoplanet Core Orbiting a Dying Star May Help Astronomers Understand What Lies in Store for Our Solar System

It's likely the planetesimal orbiting a white dwarf 410 light years away was the core of a minor planet caught in its immense gravity

The most recent vortex on the left and the first one discovered in 1989 by Voyager 2.

There's a Dark and Stormy Vortex Brewing on Neptune

It is the sixth massive dark and stormy vortex found on the planet since 1989 and the only one astronomers have watched develop

The positions of the globular clusters used to estimate the mass of the Milky Way.

How Much Does the Milky Way Weigh?

Measurements from the Gaia satellite and Hubble Space Telescope show our galaxy tips the scales at about 1.5 trillion solar masses

Using Landmine Detectors, Meteorite Hunt Turns Up 36 Space Rocks in Antarctica

The scientists had a hunch that more meteorites were hidden a foot below the ice—they were right

That's so metal.

Planetary Smash-Up May Have Produced This Distant Iron Exoplanet

Computer simulations suggest Kepler 107c could have been formed when two rocky planets collided, stripping it down to its metal core

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Astrophysicist Mercedes Lopez-Morales Is Grooming the Next Generation of Planet Hunters

"The Daily Show" correspondent Roy Wood, Jr. talks with the astrophysicist about adrenaline, fear, curiosity and attracting younger generations to science

We Finally Know How Long a Day on Saturn Is

By studying oscillations in the planet's iconic rings, researchers have determined it takes Saturn 10 hours, 33 minutes and 38 seconds to rotate once

A picture taken on January 21, 2019 in Duisburg, Germany, shows a view of the Super Blood Moon above an industrial plant during a lunar eclipse.

Ten Stunning Photos of the Super Blood Wolf Moon Lunar Eclipse

A lunar eclipse was visible across much of the world last night, bathing the moon in a reddish glow

Scientists Predict Sun Will One Day Turn Into Giant Crystal Ball

New observations of white dwarfs confirm theory that the star remnants transition into solid structures as they cool

Planet Hunter TESS Is Already Spotting Hundreds of Crazy New Worlds

The first data from the space telescope's mission tallies more than 200 potential planets, including some just 50 light-years away

Ring in the New Year With Dazzling Total Lunar Eclipse of a Supermoon

The celestial show will be visible on the East Coast around 12:12 a.m. on January 21, 2019

A map of the moon with labeled features, from Selenographia by Johannes Hevelius.

The 17th-Century Astronomer Who Made the First Atlas of the Moon

Johannes Hevelius drew some of the first maps of the moon, praised for their detail, from his homemade rooftop observatory in the Kingdom of Poland

An artist's conception of the view from Farout.

Meet Farout, the Solar System's Most Distant Minor Planet

Observations suggest the object is 300 miles in diameter, pinkish-red and 3.5 times as far away from the sun as Pluto

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