Astronomy

Engineers have developed a class of origami structures that unfold in one smooth motion to create flower-like shapes, which could have applications in space

What lies in the heart of Orion?

A distant galaxy nicknamed "Cosmic Grapes" is bursting with massive star-forming clumps — far more than expected — offering fresh clues about how galaxies grew in the early universe.

Our Moon is a seismically active world and its long history of quakes could affect the safety of permanent base structures there. That's one conclusion from a study of quakes along the Lee-Lincoln fault in the Taurus-Littrow valley where the Apollo 17 astronauts landed in 1972. “The global distribution of young thrust faults like the Lee-Lincoln fault, their potential to be still active and the potential to form new thrust faults from ongoing contraction should be considered when planning the location and assessing stability of permanent outposts on the Moon,” said Smithsonian senior scientist emeritus Thomas R. Watters, lead author of the paper.

Supercomputer simulations are helping scientists sharpen their understanding of the environment beyond a black hole’s "shadow," material just outside its event horizon.

The exoplanet TRAPPIST-1 d intrigues astronomers looking for possibly habitable worlds beyond our Solar System because it is similar in size to Earth, rocky, and resides in an area around its star where liquid water on its surface is theoretically possible. But according to a new study using data from the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope, it does not have an Earth-like atmosphere.

Deep in the darkness, tiny red specks of light have been driving astronomers to distraction. These mysterious "little red dots" discovered by the James Webb Space Telescope shouldn't exist, they’re impossibly compact yet blazingly bright, defying our understanding of how galaxies form. Now, Harvard researchers believe they've solved this billion year old puzzle with a theory involving the universe's rarest structures; dark matter halos.

Mars still holds the promise of being one of the first places in the solar system humanity will colonize. However, if there was evolutionarily distinct, extant life on the planet, it might sway the heart of even the most ardent Mars colonization fans. So astrobiologists are in a race against time to try to determine whether or not such life exists, before the entire planet becomes an analogue of the Earth’s biosphere, if only unintentionally, and only a shadow of the ones that exists here. A new paper from the Christopher Temby and Jan Spacek of the Agnostic Life Finder (ALF) team discusses one of the most promising ways to prove definitively that life exists on the Red Planet - finding polyelectrolyte polymers - in other words, DNA.

When black holes are disrupted by things like infalling matter or gravitational waves, they vibrate like a bell struck with a clapper. The vibrations decay over time as the black hole returns to an equilibrium state. Astrophysicists can measure these vibrations to learn more about the black hole.

Using the powerful James Webb Space Telescope, scientists have spotted a moon nestled near Uranus’s rings that’s so small you could walk around it

Astronomers have learned how to find supernova explosions in their earliest stages, giving us an unprecedented look at how these stars blow up.

From Miami to Maine, the East Coast is under moderate or high rip current risk advisories because of Hurricane Erin

The family-friendly animated outer space flick scores its home video release starting today (Aug. 19).

We chatted to Moleskine President Ward Simmons about their new NASA-inspired notebook collection.

The James Webb Space Telescope has discovered a new moon that is small and dim in orbit around Uranus. The discovery brings the planet's total to 29, and scientists say there are probably more to be found

The James Webb Space Telescope has discovered a new moon that is small and dim in orbit around Uranus. The discovery brings the planet's total to 29, and scientists say there are probably more to be found

A device that has been likened to a pacemaker for the brain has given a man with severe depression great relief

A device that has been likened to a pacemaker for the brain has given a man with severe depression great relief

Astronomers using NASA's James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) have discovered a newfound moon orbiting icy Uranus, the seventh planet from the sun.

See the waning crescent moon rendezvous with Jupiter and Venus in the eastern sky on Aug. 20.