Astronomy

Astronomy

Nasa's JWST captures spiral galaxies in a series of photos.
Stars are born, live, and die within the spiral arms of galaxies like the Milky Way. These 19 JWST spirals deliver unprecedented riches.
An image of a galaxy cluster.
If our Milky Way were located in the Virgo cluster instead of the Local Group, chances are we'd already be a "red and dead" galaxy.
An image of an egg with a blue and white pattern on it.
If there’s life lurking on the moons of Saturn and Jupiter, could our instruments even detect it?
An image of the surface of Mars, showcasing its captivating and unique geological formations resembling a grand canyon.
Valles Marineris is the Solar System's grandest canyon, many times longer, wider, and deeper than the Grand Canyon. What scarred Mars so?
A giant, colorful ring of glowing lines suspended in space
Astronomers claim to have found structures so large, they shouldn't exist. With such biased, incomplete observations, perhaps they don't.
A map of a cluster of stars illustrating star birth.
Here in our Solar System, we only have one star: a singlet. For many systems, including the highest-mass ones, that's anything but the norm.
An image of a spiral galaxy with stars in the background, showcasing the mesmerizing beauty of cosmic formations.
The pattern 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, etc., is the Fibonacci sequence. It shows up all over nature. But what's the full explanation behind it?
A black background with the earth in the foreground.
Two scientists recently wagered a bottle of whiskey. The bet? Whether we'll find evidence of advanced extraterrestrial life in the next 15 years.
An image of a planet with a moon, highlighting one of the first living worlds discovered.
Life became a possibility in the Universe as soon as the raw ingredients were present. But living, inhabited worlds required a bit more.
primordial black holes
Today, supermassive black holes and their host galaxies tell a specific story in terms of mass. But JWST reveals a different story early on.
An image of a purple galaxy in space.
Observations of an enormous cosmic structure, dubbed the "Big Ring," seem to violate the Copernican principle.
An image of a planet in space.
Fire was crucial to the evolution of human technology. That's why alien species stuck in the "oxygen bottleneck" may be forever primitive.
supernova remnant star formation spitzer
One newly discovered, ancient star has a composition unlike any other. Explaining its existence is already blowing astronomers' minds.
An artist's rendering of an evaporating exoplanet in the night sky.
Planets can be Earth-like or Neptune-like, but only rarely are in between. This hot, Saturn-like planet hints at a solution to this puzzle.
An image of a colorful object resembling a dark primordial galaxy in the sky.
Finding it at all was a happy accident. Examining it further may help unlock the secrets hiding within the earliest galaxies of all.
An image of a star nebula in space.
A new measurement offers insights on the density of the mysterious force driving the Universe's expansion.
A diagram showing the earth and tpaper folding to the moon.
Each time you fold a piece of paper, you double the paper's thickness. It doesn't take all that long to even reach the Moon.
A cat is sitting on a couch in front of a computer screen.
The record-breaking transmission could revolutionize deep space communication.
Sunlit pebbles on a black background.
The cosmic scales governing the Universe are almost unbelievably large. What if we shrunk the Sun down to be just a grain of sand?
overview effect
Figuring out the answer involved a prism, a pail of water, and a 50 year effort by the most famous father-son astronomer duo ever.
Earth sun space debris
With the invention of the leap year, the Julian calendar was used worldwide for over 1500 years. Over time, it led only to catastrophe.
Abstract representation of the first possible molecules in a cosmic setting with a celestial body.
Earth wasn't created until more than 9 billion years after the Big Bang. In some lucky places, life could have arisen almost right away.
A vibrant image of a galaxy with clusters of population II stars, showing second-generation stars in various colors against the backdrop of space.
The first stars in the Universe were made of pristine material: hydrogen and helium alone. Once they die, nothing escapes their pollution.
An image of colorful lights in the dark.
The first tests of optical communications far from Earth will take place aboard the asteroid-bound Psyche spacecraft
The ring nebula in space.
The Universe is an amazing place. Under the incredible, infrared gaze of JWST, it's coming into focus better than ever before.
An image of a spiral galaxy in the night sky.
Physicists have yet to pinpoint the hypothetical matter that keeps galaxies from flying apart. Now they have a new focus.
Saturn is shown in one image, while Neptune is shown in a different image.
As Uranus approaches its solstice, its polar caps, rings, and moons come into their best focus ever under JWST's watchful eye. See it now!
Thanks to observations of gravitational waves, scientists were able to settle a longstanding debate over the speed of gravity.
This description features an image of a black hole and an image of a spiral galaxy, breaking the barriers of 10 biggest physics astronomy lies.
Misinformation was extremely popular in 2023, as bad science often made global headlines. Learn the truth behind these 10 dubious stories.