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Astronomy & Space news
Gravitational-wave analysis narrows the search for black hole impostors
Black holes are regions of spacetime where gravity is so strong that nothing, not even light, can escape. When two black holes orbit each other and merge, they produce gravitational waves (i.e., ripples in spacetime) that ...
Researchers pinpoint key early-universe measurement with record precision
An international team, including researchers from the University of Minnesota Twin Cities, has reached a major milestone in "precision cosmology" by measuring the amount of helium created in the universe's first five minutes ...
Astronomy
14 hours ago
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Masked tectonic structures suggest Mercury contracted 40% more than its visible scars alone indicate
The surface of Mercury is filled with craters, ridges and steep cliffs. Over billions of years, as the planet's interior cooled, the planet also shrank. Just as the skin of a drying fruit wrinkles when what is inside it shrinks, ...
Planetary Sciences
7 hours ago
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Astronomers unmask a supernova impostor
A distant star has captured astronomers' attention over the past decade, teasing them with indications that it will soon explode as a supernova. But new research shows that something else entirely is behind the star's outbursts. ...
Astronomy
5 hours ago
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JWST ruled out finding tiny moons around an exoplanet—that's great news
The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has opened many wonders of the cosmos to scientists since it began science operations a few years ago. But one thing it hasn't done is find an "exomoon." These still-theoretical moons ...
Planetary Sciences
4 hours ago
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Cataract surgery will be needed in space, surgeon predicts
An eye surgeon with a passion for space since childhood predicts that as astronauts start to make journeys to the moon and Mars in the near future, eye surgery in space will eventually become a necessity.
Space Exploration
13 hours ago
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NASA's next great observatory could spot oceans on distant worlds
We've found more than 5,500 exoplanets so far. Dozens of them are in the habitable zones of their parent stars, where, at least in theory, they could host an ocean. But we've never definitively found a liquid ocean on another ...
Space Exploration
13 hours ago
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Why are the stars around our galaxy's black hole missing their companions?
A new study suggests that the young stars orbiting the Milky Way's central black hole may have a surprisingly ordinary origin. But the black hole's influence may be what makes their origin look more exotic than it really ...
Japan's Hayabusa2 achieves first-ever laser ranging experiment with an asteroid
The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's (JAXA) Hayabusa2 spacecraft reached another milestone this summer, a first for space agencies. On Sunday, July 5, the probe conducted the first successful laser-ranging experiment ...
Space Exploration
Sep 12, 2026
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Rubin observatory peers deep into the famous COSMOS field
The COSMOS field, or Cosmic Evolution Survey Deep Field, is one of the most famous patches of the universe observed by astronomers. Located in the constellation Sextans, this region was photographed by the Hubble Space Telescope ...
Astronomy
Sep 12, 2026
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Scientists discover a strange new form of ice that could help explain the interiors of Neptune and Uranus
Scientists have discovered that there is ice deep inside planets like Neptune and Uranus and want to find out what form it takes and how it behaves. They cannot dig for it and transport it all the way back to Earth, so they ...
What's carving active gullies on Mars? It's not water
Scientists were shocked when they received the first images of Martian gullies. They were even more shocked as those gullies appeared to change over time. Their similarities to gullies seen on Earth were uncanny, but all ...
Planetary Sciences
Sep 11, 2026
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How big can the universe's first starbursts get?
As our telescopes have improved and we've been able to peer farther back in time, we've begun finding more fascinating features of the universe. But one thing we haven't found for sure is Population III (Pop III) stars. These ...
Astronomy
Sep 11, 2026
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Release of open AI model trained on 17 years of lunar data maps ice, craters and volcanoes
NASA is bringing artificial intelligence to the study of the moon, helping researchers transform how they analyze its surface. In an ongoing collaboration with IBM Research and several academic institutions, NASA has launched ...
Planetary Sciences
Sep 11, 2026
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eROSITA's second data release catalog delivering most comprehensive high-energy census of the cosmos to date
The eROSITA (extended ROentgen Survey with an Imaging Telescope Array) telescope, the primary instrument aboard the Russian-German Spektr-RG space observatory, was developed by the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial ...
Astronomy
Sep 11, 2026
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A new surface atlas of Phobos will help MMX mission collect its samples
Thanks to JAXA, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, and its sample-return capabilities, we're on the cusp of receiving our first sample from the Martian system—not from Mars itself, but from its largest moon, Phobos. ...
Space Exploration
Sep 11, 2026
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Continuous video of black hole radio observations challenges shock wave theory
For years, scientists have relied primarily on radio imaging from techniques like very long baseline interferometry (VLBI) to study jets from the active galactic nuclei of supermassive black holes. This allows for the detection ...
A galaxy with almost no stars? New Cloud-9 observations strengthen the case
Astronomers have taken one of the deepest looks yet at Cloud-9, a candidate "dark galaxy," and found no trace of stars. The paper outlining this discovery was posted to the arXiv preprint server on Aug. 21.
Asteroid Ryugu's dust reveals nitrogen's slow concentration into complex molecules
Nitrogen is a key ingredient in the biomolecules that form the building blocks of life. Yet as an unbonded gas, it is far more likely to drift into space than to lock itself into solid compounds, making it difficult for astronomers ...
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 ...
Planetary Sciences
Sep 10, 2026
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More news
Sun's largest sunspots may have potential to trigger superflares
Scientists want to 3D print houses on Mars with the help of yeast
'Fingerprints' inside the sun could reveal if it once swallowed a planet
BepiColombo measures Mercury's particle bombardment up close
JWST discovers that Chariklo's invisible rings are changing
What to know about Europe's push to compete in space
As African space race heats up, Senegal pursues homemade satellites
Other news
AI automates 3D membrane mapping, matching manual results in a fraction of time
