Astronomy

A strange blue spiral lit up the sky over Europe on Monday night (March 24), with residents of the UK and other countries speculating on its true nature on social media.

Experts are already looking into the risks of piracy in space and solutions to this potentially devastating economic and legal problem.

When it comes to safe places for life, supermassive black holes are probably the last place you'd consider safe for nearby planets, let alone life-bearing ones. There are good reasons for this: those monsters at the hearts of galaxies suck down everything that comes into contact with them. When they do that, they blast out killer radiation. Neither activity is necessarily good for life. Or is it? As it turns out, radiation from these active galactic nuclei (AGN) can nurture life under the right circumstances.

There is no sea on Earth large enough to contain the Shark nebula.

Scientists have detected a fascinating spiral galaxy located about one billion light-years away. At the heart of this cosmic goliath, powerful radio jets are blasting out of its centre, stretching six million light years into space. A team of researchers have suggested that a smaller dwarf galaxy plunged into its centre, passing close to its supermassive black hole triggering immense flares, intense radiation and driving the colossal radio jets. Surprisingly however, despite the tremendous amounts of energy, the galaxy has kept its spiral structure.

China’s Chang’e-6 mission has been exploring the largest crater on the Moon. It’s known as Aitken Basin and is found at the South Pole of the Moon where craters are permanently shadowed. The crater is a whopping 2,500 km across and measures 10km deep and Chang’e-6 data has revealed that a giant asteroid smashed into the Moon about 4.25 billion years ago.

A cosmic coincidence has led to one of the most amazing images ever captured by NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope.

The detection of bird flu in a sheep is another sign that the H5N1 virus is adapting to hop to new hosts

Here's where to be to catch rare views of the cusps of the sun appearing in the east at sunrise during the partial solar eclipse on March 29, 2025.

NASA websites no longer state that the Artemis 3 mission will aim to land the first person of color and the first woman on the moon, but the agency says this does not reflect a change in crew.

We've learned that Interstellar Objects (ISOs) are not strangers to our Solar System. Many have visited, and many more will in the future. The Vera Rubin Observatory is expected to find hundreds each year. Scientists are keen to learn more about them, and a swarm of spacecraft on standby might be the way to do it.

From job interviews to dating, we subconsciously judge one another based on sound quality when we interact digitally

Earth to astronaut Barbie, we have a new space collectible, but probably not for all of the reasons Mattel intended. The toy company has released a Barbie Miss Astronaut 60th anniversary doll.

Shimmering ejections emitted by two actively forming stars make up Lynds 483 (L483). High-resolution near-infrared light captured by NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope shows incredible new detail and structure within these lobes, including asymmetrical lines that appear to run into one another. L483 is 650 light-years away in the constellation Serpens.

SpaceX launched its third mission of the year for the United States' spy satellite agency today (March 24), the 19th anniversary of the company's first-ever liftoff.

Floating platforms of wood could draw up seawater and help it to freeze, seeding the formation of new sea ice

Floating platforms of wood could draw up seawater and help it to freeze, seeding the formation of new sea ice

Telescope optics can be made of mirrors or lenses, but in both cases, they're bulky and need to follow a strict mathematical curve to focus light. Researchers have shown that it's possible to make a completely flat lens that focuses light. Traditionally, this has been done with Fresnel lenses, but they distort colors. Their new technique carves tiny concentric rings into a substrate that matches the wavelengths of different colors, allowing a full-color, in-focus image.

There's a small chance of very high warming even with moderate future emissions, according to a computer model exploring what could happen in the next thousand years

There's a small chance of very high warming even with moderate future emissions, according to a computer model exploring what could happen in the next thousand years