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Sun's largest sunspots may have potential to trigger superflares

The sun is capable of great things. In massive eruptions, it repeatedly hurls particles and radiation into space. This solar bombardment can be dangerous for technical infrastructure on Earth: For example, satellites and ...

Mercury is shrinking more than we thought

Mercury's surface is riddled with wrinkles, evidence of a once-larger planet that has shrunk over time. A new study finds that Mercury may have contracted 10% to 30% more than previously thought—a loss of nearly 12 miles ...

BepiColombo measures Mercury's particle bombardment up close

The joint BepiColombo mission of the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) is settling into orbit around Mercury after an eight-year journey. In early September, BepiColombo's two orbiters, ...

JWST discovers that Chariklo's invisible rings are changing

Until just over a decade ago, ring systems were thought to be exclusive to the giant planets of the solar system, such as Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. However, in 2013, a small body barely 250 kilometers (155 miles) ...

What to know about Europe's push to compete in space

Key figures from Europe's space industry and other international players have converged on Paris to discuss how to advance the continent's ambitions in a global market dominated by the United States.

A wandering black hole caught feeding on the run

Astronomers have found the first direct evidence that a wandering black hole can feed itself by dragging gas along in its wake as it moves through its galaxy. It's the first direct evidence of an accretion channel long predicted ...

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Astronomy
Big supernova dataset challenges dark energy theory
Astronomy
Do black holes grow along with the universe? A new study says yes
Astronomy
JWST finds extreme star-forming galaxies masquerading as faint quasars
Astronomy
Hubble and Webb find that far-out solar system objects 'remember' the past
Space Exploration
Eggshells-inspired aluminum material offers significant protection from space debris
Astronomy
Extremely massive galaxy proto-supercluster smashes distance record
Astronomy
Interstellar visitor 3I/ATLAS carries clues from the frozen outskirts of another star system
Astrobiology
Giant impacts may strip small icy moons of subsurface oceans
Space Exploration
Martian air could yield methane rocket fuel with fewer unwanted byproducts
Astronomy
Fast radio bursts could help disentangle galactic feedback from dark matter effects
Astronomy
ALMA watches a massive binary assemble in real time
Astronomy
Some black holes grow much faster than their galaxies
Space Exploration
A new mission could rendezvous with Halley's Comet in 2061
Space Exploration
How studying astronauts could help tackle aging on Earth
Astronomy
Quiet black holes with a stellar companion raise questions about how they form
Astronomy
Do black holes have hidden hair? Scientists find a new way to check
Astronomy
Rare pulsar unleashes 114 giant pulses in a single hour
Astrobiology
Early Earth's auroral belts may have formed a natural ion-beam reactor for prebiotic chemistry
Planetary Sciences
New model measures economic risks solar storms pose to US power grid
Astronomy
Pair of white dwarfs locked in 6-minute orbit might one day be observed by gravitational waves

Other news

Plants & Animals
Northern map turtles leave Lake Erie before algal blooms peak, tracking finds
Economics & Business
Interviewing with AI? Try not to let the robot affect your behavior
Optics & Photonics
Bringing hidden optical imperfections to light
Bio & Medicine
Injectable nanodevices could provide effective treatment for drug-resistant glioblastoma
Earth Sciences
Rewetting peatlands may curb warming-driven CO₂ emissions
Earth Sciences
How atmospheric events at the top of the world could have triggered two devastating California floods
Nanophysics
'White graphene' reshaped at the atomic scale with tailor-made nanopores
Evolution
Fossil flowers of ancient lianas preserved in amber reveal the evolution of tropical rainforests
Superconductivity
Spinons may help electrons pair along stripes in some superconductors
Evolution
A fossil feather preserved inside dinosaur poop could help explain why birds survived the mass extinction
Earth Sciences
Dangerous heat days are expanding beyond summer, with regional spring-fall shifts
Evolution
'Peculiar' new species of Jurassic squid found in Wyoming
Ecology
Scavenging linked to virus variety in wild birds
Archaeology
Chinese cave traces Denisovan hunting and adaptation across 120,000 years
Plants & Animals
A fake spider at the tip of this snake's tail helps it lure birds: Scientists get their first look inside it
Environment
Unaccounted climate feedback loops may amplify warming by 20–30% this century, but cutting emissions will reduce risks
Veterinary medicine
Hungry scent detection dogs more likely to 'cry wolf'
Plants & Animals
AI pinpoints when fish reach their thermal limit
Archaeology
Ice Age origins of one of humanity's oldest drug habits discovered
Plants & Animals
New insect genus and four species named for Taylor Swift and her albums

New study reveals how space rocks become meteorites

What happens to a space rock as it falls through Earth's atmosphere and becomes a meteorite? By studying 75 meteorite falls captured on video and in photographs, researchers identified seven distinct phases in the journey ...

JWST peeks at Callisto's ancient scars

Of Jupiter's four Galilean moons, Callisto is the one that gets the least attention. Io is constantly being resurfaced by volcanoes. Europa has a giant liquid water ocean. And Ganymede has its own magnetic field that interacts ...