Astronomy

Astronomers using the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope have found strong evidence of a giant planet orbiting a star in the stellar system closest to our own Sun. At just 4 light-years away from Earth, the Alpha Centauri triple star system has long been a compelling target in the search for worlds beyond our solar system.

What was the Universe like before the first stars formed? Dark, obviously. But there must have been some level of activity in the gas clouds that preceded the first stars. New research shows that these primordial clouds were turbulent, clumpy, and supersonic.

Searching for life on Mars has been an explicit goal of the astrobiological community for decades. However, they have not really had the resources to effectively do so, and they might be running out of time. Crewed missions to Mars are planned for as little as 15 years from now (though those timelines might be changing…again), and by the time that happens it may be too late to separate Martian life from unintentionally transplanted Earth-life. According to a group of researchers from the Agnostic Life Finding Association, there is one final chance to detect Martian life before it is irreversibly contaminated - the Mars Life Explorer (MLE). But to do its job properly, it’s going to need an upgrade.

Scientists have finally solved a billion year old mystery that explains how life on Earth survived its earliest and most vulnerable stages. Using powerful computer simulations, researchers have proved that our planet's completely liquid core could generate the magnetic field that acts as an invisible shield against deadly cosmic radiation. This groundbreaking discovery reveals that Earth has been protecting life far longer than previously thought, creating a safe haven where the first complex molecules could form and evolve without being destroyed by high energy particles from space.

The James Webb Space Telescope’s latest look at a planetary nebula, NGC 6072, provides new insights into the lifecycle of stars. This could help astronomers predict what will happen to our Sun during its final days as well.

A jet from a young star created an expanding bubble that collided with the star's protoplanetary disk. Astronomers have found these explosive bubbles before, but never one that's collided with the disk. What does this mean for planet formation?

Massive galaxies like the Milky Way have smaller satellite galaxies that are tidally disrupted and absorbed. Astronomers think this is how galaxies assemble hierarchically. New research examines galaxies much less massive than the Milky Way to see if they also have their own, much less massive satellites.

Imagine building an entire city on the Moon using nothing but sunlight and lunar soil! Chinese scientists have made this science fiction dream a reality by creating a revolutionary machine that acts like a solar powered 3D printer, melting lunar soil at temperatures exceeding 1,300°C to create strong construction bricks. This technology could transform space exploration by eliminating the need to transport heavy building materials from Earth, making lunar bases not only possible but affordable.

Earth has endured, and been shaped by, a constant rain of material from elsewhere in the Solar System. Some of the material was large, like the Chicxulub asteroid that ended the dinosaur's reign. But most of it is in the form of tiny micrometeorites. Those tiny rocks hold clues to Earth's ancient atmosphere.

August sees all of the naked eye worlds excepting Mars hiding in the dawn. Set your alarm, and you can uncover Mercury through Saturn all in the dawn twilight sky, crowned with a fine close conjunction of Jupiter and Venus on Tuesday, August 12th. You can see the changing scene each morning starting this weekend, as the two get ever closer from one morning to the next.

Ingenuity marked a number of milestones in space exploration. Arguably most importantly, it proved that powered flight was possible on another planet. However, it did have some limitations, such as being tied to the Perseverance rover and there only being one copy of the helicopter itself. AV Inc, one of the sub-contractors for Ingenuity, hopes to fix those problems with a proposed new mission called Skyfall that would involve six helicopters and no rover.

Technicians have successfully installed two sunshields onto NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope’s inner segment. Along with the observatory’s Solar Array Sun Shield and Deployable Aperture Cover, the panels (together called the Lower Instrument Sun Shade), will play a critical role in keeping Roman’s instruments cool and stable as the mission explores the infrared universe. […]

New research from the University of St Andrews has found that giant free floating planets have the potential to form their own miniature planetary systems without the need for a star.

Earth's history was shaped by the bombardment of icy and rocky bodies. These impacts delivered volatiles and organic compounds to the planet. They also brought water, helping Earth become the life-supporting planets it is today. Could the same thing happen on exoplanets?

Little Red Dots are thought to be young supermassive black holes at the center of early galaxies. That would make them young versions of Active Galactic Nuclei. But Little Red Dots don't emit much x-ray light, and we're starting to learn why.

In an unprecedentedly precise accelerator experiment, researchers directly observed how some of the heaviest known elements react and form molecules

In an unprecedentedly precise accelerator experiment, researchers directly observed how some of the heaviest known elements react and form molecules

NASA's Perseverance Mars rover captured a breathtaking panorama of the Red Planet surface depicted in false-color under a blue sky.

NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope and NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory have teamed up to identify a new possible example of a rare class of black holes. Called NGC 6099 HLX-1, this bright X-ray source seems to reside in a compact star cluster in a giant elliptical galaxy.

Ahead of Alien: Earth's two-episode premiere, we talked to series creator Noah Hawley and executive producer David W. Zucker.