Astronomy

In an exclusive excerpt of her new book The Great Shadow, historian Susan Wise Bauer explores how sickness is distinct from injury and has shaped the way we think about ourselves and our world

Large galaxies grow by eating small ones.

Billionaire Jared Isaacman is taking the reins at NASA at a challenging time for the space agency, as it faces budget cuts and technical hurdles that could scuttle its most ambitious missions

Astronomers using the James Webb Space Telescope have discovered a bizarre-looking exoplanet that defies explanation

Oceans hiding within the crusts of distant moons are tantalizing targets for scientists looking for life beyond Earth

There could be liquid water trapped under the southern polar cap of Mars. But new observations suggest otherwise.

The post New Radar Data Chills Prospects of a Subglacial Lake on Mars appeared first on Sky & Telescope.

This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image features the blue dwarf galaxy Markarian 178 (Mrk 178) against a backdrop of distant galaxies in all shapes and sizes. Some of these distant galaxies even shine through the diffuse edges of Mrk 178.

A distant world with carbon in its atmosphere and extraordinarily high temperatures is unlike any other planet we’ve seen, and it’s unclear how it could have formed

A distant world with carbon in its atmosphere and extraordinarily high temperatures is unlike any other planet we’ve seen, and it’s unclear how it could have formed

Gemini North captured new images of Comet 3I/ATLAS after it reemerged from behind the Sun on its path out of the Solar System. The data were collected during a Shadow the Scientists session — a unique outreach initiative that invites students around the world to join researchers as they observe the Universe on the world’s most advanced telescopes.

The largest study so far into the genetics of chronic fatigue syndrome, or myalgic encephalomyelitis, has implicated 259 genes – six times more than those identified just four months ago

The largest study so far into the genetics of chronic fatigue syndrome, or myalgic encephalomyelitis, has implicated 259 genes – six times more than those identified just four months ago

Everyone’s favorite interstellar comet posed for one more portrait recently. The European Space Agency’s XMM-Newton mission nabbed 3I/ATLAS on December 3rd from about 283 million kilometers distant. This comes as the comet is set to make its closest passage versus Earth this coming Friday, on December 19th.

The U.S. government is dismantling the National Center for Atmospheric Research, jettisoning key climate science projects in the process

It has been a busy year for the European Space Agency’s Proba-3 mission. The satellite duo has already created more than 50 artificial solar eclipses in orbit since the mission operations began less than a year ago. The resulting data confirm Proba-3's ability to provide the missing puzzle piece in our observations of the Sun's enigmatic atmosphere – the corona.

In astronomy, there is a concept called “degeneracy”. It has nothing to do with delinquent people, but instead is used to describe data that could be interpreted multiple ways. In some cases, that interpretation is translated into exciting new possibilities. But many times, when that happens, other, more mundane explanations are ignored for the publicity that the more interesting possibilities provide. That seems to have been the case for many “sub-Neptune” exoplanets discovered recently. Some theories have described them as Hycean worlds - worlds that are filled with water oceans or ice. But a new paper from Robb Calder of the University of Cambridge and his co-authors shows that, most likely, these planets are almost all made of molten lava instead.

Our understanding of the true nature of the cosmos relies on measurements of its expansion, but cosmologists have been arguing back and forth about it for more than 100 years

Our understanding of the true nature of the cosmos relies on measurements of its expansion, but cosmologists have been arguing back and forth about it for more than 100 years

The combination of a supernova and a kilonova may have produced a rare space explosion that astronomers have never seen before

A scientist, a journalist and a remarkable scent‑detecting dog race to learn what’s endangering the last southern resident orcas