Even the youngest galaxies are often dust-rich, even with very low levels of heavy elements. Nearby dwarf galaxy Sextans A explains why.

Astronomers have found starless gas clouds before, but Cloud 9 might be the most pristine one of all, with big lessons for cosmic history.

In a galaxy less than 300 million years after the Big Bang, oxygen's presence abounds. That's expected; its absence would truly be profound.

In general relativity, matter and energy curve spacetime, which we experience as gravity. Why can't there be an "antigravity" force?

There will always be "wolf-criers" whose claims wither under scrutiny. But aliens are certainly out there, if science dares to find them.

Particles are everywhere, including particles from space that stream through the human body. Here's how they prove Einstein's relativity.

If you can identify a foreground star, the spike patterns are a dead giveaway as to whether it's a JWST image or any other observatory.

Perhaps the most remarkable fact about the Universe is simply that it, and everything in it, exists. But what's the reason why?

We think of physical reality as what objectively exists, independent of any observer. But relativity and quantum physics say otherwise.

The highest-energy particles could be a sign of new, unexpected physics. But the simplest, most mundane explanation is particularly iron-ic.

While humanity has been skywatching since ancient times, much of our cosmic understanding has come about only recently. Very recently.

Our Universe doesn't just expand and cool, but the expansion itself is accelerating. Can stars form under such structure-erasing conditions?

Earth orbits the Sun while spinning on its tilted axis, with two annual occasions marking that maximal tilt. That's where solstices arise.

Our Standard Model of the Universe, for both particle physics and cosmology, remains intact for now. When will its foundations crack?

With the observation of SN 2025wny, a lensed superluminous supernova, astronomy's future comes into sharp, exciting focus.

It takes a wide variety of processes in the Universe to make all the elements that populate space today. We're still discovering new ones!

Science isn't absolute. Its truths and discoveries enable us to approximate reality, but we must always remain open-minded to revisions.

The method you use to measure the expanding Universe determines which of two answers you'll get. Lensed supernovae can't resolve that issue.

Scientific truths remain true regardless of belief. These 10, despite contrary claims, remain vitally important as 2025 draws to a close.

Some vital, key ingredients must be in place for the Universe to make more matter than antimatter. The LHC took us one step closer in 2025.

As the lightest baryon in the Universe, the proton is thought by many to be eternally stable. But if it isn't, can we observe it decaying?

Finding alien Earths requires seeing Earth-sized planets at Earth-like distances from Sun-like stars. A new discovery completes the roadmap.

With a waning Moon and a denser-than-ever debris trail, 2025's Geminids might be the year's best meteor shower, and 2026's could be amazing.

We have a picture of how and when it will all come to an end. These three big ideas could still profoundly change how our cosmos evolves.

Science has assembled an incredible story outlining our Universe's whole history. Despite its unrivaled success, 9 profound gaps remain.

There are so many problems, all across planet Earth, that harm and threaten humanity. Why invest in researching the Universe?

Although American Thanksgiving only comes once a year, the scientific rules that make our Universe possible are always worth appreciating.

The far side of the Moon is incredibly different from the Earth-facing side. 66 years later, we know why the Moon's faces are not alike.

Everything ever seen — every star, mountain, and face — makes up less than 5 percent of the universe. Astrophysicist Janna Levin reminds us that the rest — dark matter and dark energy — is invisible, mysterious, and everywhere. We are the luminous exception in a universe of darkness.

Such massive, early supermassive black holes have puzzled astronomers for decades. At last, we've finally figured out how they form.