Astronomy

Cool Finds

Jupiter Officially Has 12 New Moons

The new satellites are mostly tiny and include one oddball that is on a collision course with some of the 78 other moons orbiting the planet

July 18, 2018

Art Meets Science

The Supernova That Launched a Thousand Gorgeous Space Images

By colorizing one of the first Hubble satellite images, illustrator Dana Berry ushered in a new era of stunning space visuals

July 17, 2018

New Research

Scientists Explain The Thrill of Detecting a Neutrino From a Far-Off Galaxy

For the first time, the IceCube observatory has triumphantly tracked a neutrino back to a massive blazar

July 12, 2018

New Research

Our Galaxy Is Really Greasy and Smells Like Moth Balls

A new study estimates that a quarter to half the carbon in interstellar space is in the form of greasy aliphatic carbon

June 28, 2018

Cool Finds

Now That the Smog Has Lifted, Astronomy Returns to London’s Royal Observatory

A new telescope that filters out light pollution and interference will watch the stars from the site constructed in 1675

June 28, 2018

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

June 20, 2018

New Research

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

May 22, 2018

Big Data is Transforming How Astronomers Make Discoveries

The next game-changer is likely lurking in the data we already have—but it will take scientists years to uncover it

May 15, 2018

New Research

The Sun Will Produce a Beautiful Planetary Nebula When It Dies

A new model of stellar death shows our low-mass star has enough juice to produce a beautiful ring of gas and dust before winking out

May 8, 2018

Five Things to Know About NASA’s InSight Mission to Mars

This Saturday, the craft will launch on its mission to search for clues about the Red Planet’s interior

May 3, 2018

Future of Art

Comet “Snowstorm” Swirling in This Stunning GIF Is a Tricky Illusion

“Things are not quite as they seem,” explains astronomer Mark McCaughrean

April 30, 2018

New Research

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

April 25, 2018

Trending Today

Five Things to Know About NASA’s New Planet-Hunting Satellite

TESS will scan the skies in search of the next crop of exoplanets

Updated: April 18, 2018 | Originally Published: April 16, 2018

New Research

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

April 6, 2018

New Research

Meet Icarus, The Most Distant Star Yet Detected

The blue supergiant lies 9 billion light-years away

April 3, 2018

New Research

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

March 30, 2018

Women Who Shaped History

The Rockstar Geologist Who Mapped the Minerals of the Cosmos

A professor told Ursula Marvin she should learn to cook. Instead she chased down meteorites in Antarctica

March 30, 2018

New Research

70,000 Years Ago, a Passing Star Shook Up Our Solar System

The red dwarf likely came within one light-year of the sun, altering the course of some asteroids and comets

March 22, 2018

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

March 14, 2018

New Research

Purple Haze: Alien Atmospheres Recreated In the Lab

By combining various gases with plasma, researchers are learning about the haze around distant planets

March 13, 2018