Astronomy

Our quest for universal internet is stealing the stars. Thousands of satellites now travelling across the night sky are far brighter than international safety limits, turning what was once humanity's window to the cosmos into a highway of artificial lights. New research reveals that major constellations like Starlink and OneWeb are breaking the brightness rules designed to protect both cutting edge astronomy and the simple joy of stargazing potentially robbing future generations of the dark skies that have inspired wonder for centuries.

For over four centuries, the dark blemishes on our Sun's surface have puzzled astronomers. Now, German scientists have cracked the code behind sunspot stability, revealing how these Earth sized magnetic monsters, each powerful enough to rival an MRI machine yet spanning areas larger than our entire planet, maintain their grip on the solar surface for weeks or months at a time. This breakthrough not only solves one of astronomy's oldest mysteries but could revolutionize our ability to predict the explosive solar storms that threaten our satellite dependent world.

The source of Earth's water is one of the most compelling questions facing scientists. Earth's habitability depends on multiple factors, but water is the basis for life, and it had to come from somewhere. Did comets and meteorites deliver it after Earth formed? Or did water become part of our planet as it formed?

When astronauts live on the Moon permanently, they're going to need a safe habitat, ideally made out of local construction material. A new paper suggests that lunar astronauts could cover a 17-meter crater with a dome made from a lunar regolith-based geopolymer. A 3D printer would extrude a paste made of lunar regolith that would be sintered together into the shape of the dome. This would provide protection from radiation and could even maintain a pressurized habitat.

An international team of astronomers have discovered an Earth-size exoplanet on a very tight orbit around its star. It completes an orbit in only 5 hours and 22 minutes. Unfortunately, the planet will either be torn to pieces or crash into its star in about 31 million years.

The Milky Way is surrounded by about 60 satellite galaxies. The famous ones are the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds. But according to a new simulation, the Milky Way could have 80 and even 100 satellite galaxies that we haven't detected so far. These galaxies will be hard to find. They've had most of their mass stripped by the gravity of the Milky Way's halo. But new telescopes like Vera Rubin should be able to spot them.

Sometimes in order to support an idea, you first have to discredit alternative, competing ideas that could take resources away from the one you care about. In the scientific community, one of the most devastating ways you can do that is by making the other methods appear to be too expensive to be feasible, or, better yep, prove they wouldn’t work at all due to some fundamental limitation. That is what a recent paper by Dr. Slava Turyshev, the world’s most prominent proponent of a Solar Gravitational Lens (SGL) telescope mission, does. He examines how effective alternative telescope technologies would be at creating a 10x10 pixel map of an exoplanet about 32 light years away. Unsurprisingly, there’s only one that is able to do so without giant leaps and bounds in technology development - the SGL telescope.

Scientists have recreated the universe's first moments by smashing atomic nuclei together at near-light speeds, generating temperatures 1,000 times hotter than the Sun's core and briefly forming the same "soup" of fundamental particles that existed microseconds after the Big Bang. In this groundbreaking research, heavy particles act like tiny cosmic detectives, moving through this primordial matter and revealing how the chaotic early universe transformed into the structured reality we see today. By understanding how these massive particles behave under the most extreme conditions imaginable, researchers are essentially reading the universe's origin story written in the language of fundamental physics.

Eight children who were at risk of serious genetic conditions have hit all of their developmental milestones after donor mitochondria was used during their IVF conception

Observations of a pulsar, consisting of a dead star spinning 600 times a second, and feasting on a stellar companion reveal the source powering its emissions.

NASA will not host the U.S. government's primary climate assessment reports on its website after all, despite a White House claim that they would be available via the space agency.

These are the best cameras for children interested in photography, shooting videos and content creation, as tested and rated by our experts.

The fan favorite author of 'The Martian' admits, 'I'm really happy with how the film is turning out.'

Lightning-ignited Grand Canyon wildfires burn tens of thousands of acres, as NOAA’s GOES satellites continue to monitor the fires.

The high winds that birth dust devils can also revitalize robots by cleaning their solar cells.

The idea that we might attempt large-scale experiments to cool the planet is horrifying to some, but it looks increasingly likely that we will have to do so this century

The idea that we might attempt large-scale experiments to cool the planet is horrifying to some, but it looks increasingly likely that we will have to do so this century

Astronomers using the Subaru Telescope have discovered a strange new body in a weird orbit at the edge of the solar system, which could be bad news for Planet Nine theories.

Sotheby's in New York City auctioned off a giant chunk of Mars found in Africa. It sold for $4.3 million.

Snow leopard cubs have been photographed in Mongolia - the first time researchers have visited one of the animals' dens since 2019