The Search for Life

An artist's impression of K2-18b and its distant host star, visualized as if the planet had water and a hydrogen-rich atmosphere.

Smart News

Chemical Hints on a Distant Planet Offer ‘Strongest Evidence Yet’ for Life Outside Our Solar System, Astronomers Say

The James Webb Space Telescope spotted possible signatures for life in an exoplanet’s atmosphere. Still, researchers caution it’s far too early to call the findings definitive

An artist’s impression of ten hot planets similar to Jupiter outside our solar system that scientists have detected. Creative liberties were taken for the colors of the planets, which are currently unknown. The exception is the top-right one, which is known to sport a blue exterior.

Science

From Worlds That Look Like Cotton Candy to Others Covered in Volcanoes, These Are the Strangest and Most Captivating Exoplanets

Scientists are using an array of instruments to detect other planets, some of which may harbor life—and others that most definitely don’t

In 2013, the Curiosity rover drilled this hole, which measures about 0.6 inches wide and 2.6 inches deep, into martian rock. The sample is now thought to contain long-chain organic molecules.

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Curiosity Rover Discovers Largest Organic Compounds Ever Found on Mars, a Possible Sign of Ancient Life

The molecules may be remnants of fatty acids, which form cell membranes in Earth’s organisms, though they might have formed through a non-biological process

The new SPHEREx telescope and PUNCH satellites took off aboard a Falcon 9 rocket on March 11.

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NASA’s New Space Telescope Launches to Explore the Origins of the Universe After a Series of Delays

Called SPHEREx, the instrument will map 450 million galaxies and search for water molecules that may be clinging to space dust

Researchers used a miniaturized laser mass spectrometer to identify signs of fossils in a gypsum quarry in Algeria. They suggest the same tool could find early fossils on Mars.

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Scientists Hope This Tool Could Identify Tiny Fossils on Mars, Revealing Hints to Potential Early Life on the Planet

If Mars ever hosted microorganisms in its bygone oceans, their fossils might still be preserved in minerals—and now, we have a new potential way to find them

Past, Present, Future

Astrolabes were astronomical calculating devices that did everything from tell the time to map the stars. This 16th century planispherical astrolabe stems from Morocco.

Innovation

The Story of the Astrolabe, the Original Smartphone

Prosperous times likely paved the way for this multifunctional device, conceptual ancestor to the iPhone 7

Besides exceptional facial hair, what could these two gentlemen have in common?

Science

The Hidden Connections Between Darwin and the Physicist Who Championed Entropy

These magnificently bearded men both introduced a dose of randomness and irreversibility into the universe

An illustration shows the record-breaking supernova ASASSN-15lh as it would appear from an exoplanet about 10,000 light-years away.

Science

Astronomers Have Found the Brightest Supernova Yet

The powerful blast is so weird that it could be a whole new kind of star explosion

Science

Watch the Universe Evolve Over 13 Billion Years

A new computer simulation, called Illustris, can take you on an epic journey through space and time

The Andromeda Galaxy

Science

What Does the Future of the Universe Hold?

The collision of our galaxy with the Andromeda galaxy is billions of years away, but it’s never too early to wonder what will happen

How We Explore

People in New Delhi celebrate India's successful landing of a spacecraft near the moon's south pole on Wednesday.

Smart News

India Lands a Spacecraft Near the Moon’s South Pole, a First in Lunar Exploration

No other mission has successfully touched down in this scientifically interesting moon region, which contains water ice in lunar craters

The James Webb Space Telescope's first Deep Field image

Science

NASA Releases First Breathtaking Images Taken by James Webb Space Telescope

The five pictures from the most powerful space observatory ever launched offer a deep look back in time and the promise of stellar things to come

CAMS results for November 28 to December 14 from 2010 to 2016. Each point is direction from which a meteor was measured to approach, with red showing faster meteors and blue slower ones.

Science

Introducing the Global Effort to Map the Night Sky

How astronomers around the world are piecing together a patchwork quilt of celestial activity

Telescope array

Science

The Hunt for High-Energy Photons Takes Place From a Mountaintop in Mexico

A new telescope built from water tanks might help answer some of the biggest questions in astronomy

Astrophysicist Kip Thorne dared to dream of a machine to find gravitational waves.

Science

The Detection of Gravitational Waves Was a Scientific Breakthrough, but What’s Next?

Scientists are sitting on top of the world after this monumental discovery and are eager to keep exploring the universe

Galaxies, Quasars, Clusters

JADES-GS-z14-0 is the most distant known galaxy, dating to less than 300 million years after the Big Bang. Scientists were surprised to find oxygen there.

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Scientists Detect ‘Unexpected’ Oxygen in the Most Distant Galaxy Ever Found, Defying Ideas About the Early Universe

The findings suggest galaxies formed much more quickly than astronomers assumed

DESI, seen here beneath star trails, aims to create a 3D map of the universe.

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Mysterious Dark Energy Might Be Weakening—and That Could Upend Predictions About the End of the Universe

Astronomers thought dark energy was a constant. But now, findings from the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument provide even more evidence that it may be fluctuating

Spiral galaxies imaged by JWST that rotate in the same direction relative to the Milky Way (red) and in the opposite direction relative to the Milky Way (blue). The number of galaxies rotating in the opposite direction relative to the Milky Way as observed from Earth is far higher.

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James Webb Space Telescope Reveals That Most Galaxies Rotate Clockwise

This preferred direction of spin might be due to one of two reasons: either our entire universe exists in a black hole, or astronomers have been measuring the universe’s expansion incorrectly

Understanding the Cosmos

JADES-GS-z14-0 is the most distant known galaxy, dating to less than 300 million years after the Big Bang. Scientists were surprised to find oxygen there.

Smart News

Scientists Detect ‘Unexpected’ Oxygen in the Most Distant Galaxy Ever Found, Defying Ideas About the Early Universe

The findings suggest galaxies formed much more quickly than astronomers assumed

A representation of the evolution of the universe over 13.77 billion years.

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James Webb Telescope Confirms the Universe Is Expanding Faster Than We Thought—and Scientists Still Don’t Know Why

The findings suggest that astronomers’ widely accepted cosmology models might be missing something—meaning the longstanding mystery known as the “Hubble tension” continues

A picture taken by the Hubble Space Telescope that contains GN-z11, the galaxy with the newly discovered black hole at its center. When GN-z11 was first imaged, it was the farthest galaxy ever seen in the universe.

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Astronomers Discover the Oldest Known Black Hole, Breaking a Record Set Last Year

The supermassive structure dates to about 400 million years after the Big Bang, and it’s particularly large for its age