Search
Astronomy
Single objects rarely change the course of an entire scientific field. Distant object GNz7q, a galaxy-quasar hybrid, might do exactly that.
We've fooled ourselves before with galaxies that look just like this one. The evidence we have simply isn't strong enough.
In the latest edition of the Starts With A Bang podcast, we talk with soon-to-be Dr. Arianna Long about galaxies, from birth to today.
An optical telescope with a massive 20-foot (6-meter) mirror has an eye-popping price tag of $11 billion.
Our Universe requires dark matter in order to make sense of things, astrophysically. Could massive photons do the trick?
Many people perceive the struggle to understand our Universe as a battle between science and God. But this is a false dichotomy.
The Hubble Space Telescope, 32 years after its launch, broke the all-time record for most distant star. It won't do better.
The story of how Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune were made isn't a universal one. Some gas giants were built different.
The light from Earendel took 12.9 billion years to reach Hubble. The star is millions of times brighter than our Sun and 50 times as massive.
Due to a crust of carbon, the absence of oxygen, and constant bombardment from meteorites, the planet Mercury may be littered with diamonds.
To study the origin of the Universe, we could build a constellation of six expensive spacecraft — or we could just use the Moon.
For some reason, when we talk about the age of stars, galaxies, and the Universe, we use "years" to measure time. Can we do better?
From life on Earth to the planet itself, there are four ways our planet will actually experience "the end," no matter how we define it.
From the tablets of the Babylonians to the telescopes of modern science, humans have always looked to the skies for fundamental answers.
Galactic archaeology has uncovered a spectacular find: the Milky Way already existed more than 13 billion years ago.
To answer any physical question, you must ask the Universe itself. But what happens when the answers aren't around anymore?
Even a tiny sliver of the Universe can reveal the cosmic story of what's out there and how it came to be the way it is today.
The closest star system to Earth, just over 4 light-years away, has three stars and at least one Earth-sized planet. Is it time to go there?
In 1990, we only knew of the planets in our own Solar System. Today, the exoplanet count is more than 5000. Here's what we've learned.
When we started imaging the Universe with Hubble, every star had four "spikes" coming from it. Here's why Webb will have more.
Aerial drone footage was sent to an AI trained to track down space rocks.
The far infrared reveals both the coldest and hottest gas in the Universe, and can teach us what no other wavelength range can.
60% of all potentially dangerous asteroids remain undetected.
In the night sky for March of 2022, only stars and the Moon, not planets, will greet you. The real show, however, arrives just before dawn.
Despite all that we've learned about the Universe, there remain unanswered, and possibly unanswerable, questions. Could "God" be the answer?
Astronomers used supercomputers and an international network of antennas to create the stunning map.
Shortly after planet Earth formed, life took a permanent hold on our surface. But just how common is such an outcome?
When we look out at the Universe, even with Hubble, we're only seeing the closest, biggest, brightest galaxies. Here's where the rest are.
There's a limit to how large planets can be, and it's only about double the radius of Jupiter. At least, so far.
Despite being the closest planet to the Sun, Mercury "only" reaches 800 °F at its hottest. Venus is always hotter, even at night.