Astrophysics

Dancing during the last day of Hatun Puncha.

Andean Solstice Celebrations Capture the Wondrous Churn of Spacetime

Exploring the similarities and differences between Indigenous and Western cosmologies

A 2018 colorized image of Jupiter's south pole created by citizen scientist Gabriel Fiset, using data from NASA's Juno spacecraft.

How Jupiter May Have Gifted Early Earth With Water

A new model of the solar system suggest we have gas giants to thank for our watery world

Stephen Hawking's memorial stone in Westminster Abbey.

A Message From Stephen Hawking Is On Its Way to a Black Hole

After his ashes were interred at Westminster Abbey, a musical composition and "message of hope" were broadcast toward 1A 0620-00, the nearest black hole

The oxygen distribution from MACS1149-JD1 appears green in this ALMA image.

Astronomers Find Signature From the Universe's Earliest Known Stars

The first lights may have winked to life just 250 million years after the Big Bang

Joe, the "fat boy" from the Pickwick Papers.

The Case for Charles Dickens, the Science Communicator

A new exhibition dives into the Victorian novelist's passion for science

Venus shines brightly in the distance in this picture taken on the International Space Station.

Venus and Jupiter May Meddle With Earth's Orbit and Climate

In 405,000-year cycles, the tug of nearby planets causes hotter summers, colder winters and drier droughts on our home planet

Gaia's all-sky view of our Milky Way Galaxy and neighboring galaxies, based on measurements of nearly 1.7 billion stars.

New Star Map Could Change Everything We Know About the Milky Way

The map includes 1.7 billion stars and is already revealing new details about star evolution and the formation of our galaxy

If a Cosmic Bubble Destroys the Universe, Scientists Now Know When It'll Happen

Don't panic yet; the end won't be for at least 10 octodecillion years, if it happens at all

The Center of the Milky Way May Be Chock-Full of Black Holes

Researchers spotted about a dozen black holes lurking at our galactic center—and there may be up to 10,000 more

Awesome Con provided an opportunity for science fiction and real-life science to play off of one another. The Robot from Netflix's Lost in Space reboot (center) illustrates the former, while the NASA jacket of the con attendee on the right nods to the latter.

The Real Science Behind Your Favorite Nerd Culture at Awesome Con

Astrophysicists, vehicle technicians and biologists joined the party to bring cutting-edge research to fictional worlds

Icarus, the most distant star ever detected

Meet Icarus, The Most Distant Star Yet Detected

The blue supergiant lies 9 billion light-years away

An artist's illustration of the Tiangong-1 space lab in orbit.

China's Tiangong-1 Finally Crashes Back to Earth

Most of the craft likely burned up as it re-entered the Earth’s atmosphere

Diffuse galaxy NGC1052-DF2

Scientists Thought All Galaxies Had Dark Matter, but They Just Found One Without It

The find defies the assumption that the mysterious matter is necessary for galaxy formation

Why Don't We See Fireflies in the Western U.S.?

You asked, we answered

How It All Began: A Colleague Reflects On the Remarkable Life of Stephen Hawking

The physicist probed the mysteries of black holes, expanded our understanding of the universe and captured the world's imagination, says Martin Rees

Artists interpretation of the earliest stars

Astronomers May Have Just Detected the Universe's First Stars

A long-sought radio signal indicates the first stars began burning 180 million years after the initial Big Bang

Nicknamed the Hand of God, this pulsar wind nebula is powered by a pulsar: the leftover, dense core of a star that blew up in a supernova explosion. Before astronomers had any idea what they were, Jocelyn Bell Burnell found the signal of a pulsar in her telescope data in 1967.

Fifty Years Ago, a Grad Student’s Discovery Changed the Course of Astrophysics

By identifying the first pulsars, Jocelyn Bell Burnell set the stage for discoveries in black holes and gravitational waves

Researchers estimate more than a trillion planets could exist in the elliptical galaxy at the center of this image.

Astronomers Spot Signs of Planets Outside the Milky Way

Researchers estimate that more than a trillion planets may lurk beyond our galaxy's bounds

Pi^1 Gruis

Astronomers Get Best Look Yet at the Surface of a Red Giant Star

The image shows convection cells on the star are huge, confirming some theories about star evolution

Galaxy SPT0615-JD

Behold Hubble's Best Image of a Distant Galaxy Yet

The galaxy is roughly 13.3 billion light years away, and formed just 500 million years after the universe began

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