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Astronomy

Stars in the ancient dwarf galaxy Pictor II

Astronomers Discover a Rare Primitive Star That Provides a Chemical Snapshot of the Early Universe

PicII-503 is likely a second-generation star, born from the remnants of the very first stars, according to a new study

A green fireball meteor flew above central California on the night of March 22.

Two Green ‘Fireballs’ Streaked Across the West Coast Sky, Some of the Latest in a String of Dazzling Meteors Above the U.S.

Some of the space rocks exploded, causing loud booms, and a piece of one may have crashed into a house

Illustration of L98-59d (lower left) orbiting its host star, a red dwarf

Scientists May Have Discovered a New Type of Planet Beyond the Solar System. The Catch? It Smells Like Rotten Eggs

L98-59d seems to be a molten planet with an atmosphere full of hydrogen sulfide

An artist’s illustration of the exoplanet HD 219134 b, a rocky world about 21 light-years from Earth. This scorching planet, which orbits extremely close to its host star, might have a partially molten surface and volcanoes.

Alien Life Could Look Nothing Like What We Expect. Here’s How Microbes Beyond Earth Might Live Without Liquid Water

Like the lead character of “Project Hail Mary,” some scientists are proposing ways that life might exist beyond a star’s “habitable zone,” often considered the gold standard of potential livability

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A Meteor Streaked Across the Morning Sky as a Dazzling ‘Fireball’ Before Exploding With a Thunderous Boom Above Ohio

A six-foot-wide, seven-ton asteroid caused the rare celestial spectacle

An artist's conception of a magnetar surrounded by a wobbly accretion disk

Astronomers Witnessed the Birth of a Magnetar for the First Time. It Explains the Mysterious Flickering of an Ultrabright Supernova

New research suggests that the highly magnetized remnants of stars are responsible for powering some of the universe’s most brilliant supernova explosions

The Van Allen Probes spent seven years studying two donut-shaped rings of radiation around the Earth.

A 1,300-Pound Spacecraft Might Be Plummeting Through Our Atmosphere Right Now

The debris poses minimal risk of harming anyone

Dimorphos, on the lower right, surrounded by debris moments after DART's collision in September 2022. The asteroid's larger companion, Didymos, is on the left. 

NASA’s Asteroid-Smashing DART Mission Changed a Space Rock’s Orbit Around the Sun, Marking a First for Humanity

Studying the 2022 collision’s effects can help scientists protect the Earth from celestial objects that might head toward us

New data suggest that the asteroid will pass the moon at a distance of 13,200 miles.

Asteroid 2024 YR4 Won’t Slam Into the Moon, According to NASA

Both Earth and the moon will be dodging the infamous space rock in 2032

New images of Uranus show the planet in blue, the upper atmosphere in red, auroras in lighter red spots and rings in white.

Take a Look at Uranus’ Weird, Lopsided Upper Atmosphere Bespeckled with Auroras

A new 3D map of gas surrounding the planet will help researchers better understand the strange world

Galileo's handwritten notes in a 1551 copy of Ptolemy's Almagest

Cool Finds

A Scholar Recognized the Inscriptions in the Margins of This Manuscript. The Scribbles Turned Out to Be Galileo’s Handwritten Notes

Found in a 16th-century copy of an ancient astronomy treatise, the annotations suggest that the trailblazing scientist studied Earth-centric models before lending his support to heliocentrism

A total lunar eclipse last year photographed from Kannur, India

The Eerie ‘Blood’ Moon Will Grace the Night Sky This Week, Thanks to a Total Lunar Eclipse

The orb will take on the spooky hue for about an hour on March 3 because of sunlight filtering through Earth’s atmosphere

CDG-2 as seen by the Hubble Space Telescope

Astronomers Spotted a Galaxy That’s Made Up Almost Entirely of Dark Matter

The researchers found the galaxy thanks to the Hubble Space Telescope

Saturn's rings are surprisingly young

A Smashing New Proposal About Saturn’s History Might Explain Its Iconic Rings and Some of Its Odd Moons

A crash involving the planet’s largest moon, Titan, and a hypothetical moon may have triggered a curious sequence of events

An artistic rendering of the 'inside out' solar system

Astronomers Discover an Exoplanet in the Wrong Place, Hinting at a Planetary System That Was Born ‘Inside Out’

A rocky planet was found orbiting its host star in an unusual location

An artist's rendition of an imploding star, surrounded by expelled gas and dust shown in red

A Star Suddenly Brightened, Then Faded Into Darkness. Astronomers Say It May Have Turned Into a Black Hole

If confirmed, this disappearing act might provide the closest and best observational evidence for the birth of a black hole

The particle collider smashes together atomic nuclei—comprised of particles called protons and neutrons—to break them into their smaller components.

The U.S.’s Only Particle Collider Recreated Moments From the Early Universe. Now, It Has Closed—to Make Way for a New Instrument

The end of the facility’s 25-year run is “bittersweet”

An artist's impression of an asteroid

An Asteroid Might Slam Into the Moon in 2032—and Create a Fiery Flash That’s Visible to Earthlings, New Research Suggests

Currently, NASA estimates that asteroid 2024 YR4 has a 4.3 percent chance of hitting our lunar companion

The JADES-ID1 protocluster

Astronomers Spot a Huge Cluster of Galaxies Forming Earlier in Cosmic History Than Thought Possible

The young galaxy cluster existed about 12.8 billion years ago and has an estimated mass 20 trillion times that of the sun

Researchers are using an instrument at the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory to uncover the original text of reused parchments.

Medieval Monks Wrote Over a Copy of an Ancient Star Catalog. Now, a Particle Accelerator Is Revealing the Long-Lost Original Text

The parchments initially contained references to a star catalog and maps created during the second century B.C.E.

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