Field: Astronomy

NASA’s Perseverance rover has begun its Delta Front Campaign, the part of its mission most likely to produce evidence of past life on Mars.

Data from China’s Zhurong rover suggests there was substantial liquid water on Mars far more recently than we thought.

Stanford scientists have designed a gravity telescope concept that could take stunningly clear images of exoplanets.

The sheer amount of stuff already floating in space makes the domino effect of explosions a likely possibility.

The Event Horizon Telescope team has finally revealed what the supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way looks like.

NASA recently tested a liquid lens technology that could make a space telescope so large it would dwarf all that have come before.

A new black widow pulsar has been discovered eating its companion star while a third star circles the binary system.

The astronomy community is divided on whether a meteor detected in 2014 is the first interstellar object spotted in our solar system.

A new study suggests we use the orbit of the Moon to find gravitational waves we can’t currently detect in other ways.

Comet Bernardinelli-Bernstein is the largest comet ever observed, according to a new study based on Hubble Space Telescope data.

NASA's moon-bound SLS rocket is at Kennedy Space Center and ready for its wet dress rehearsal — the last major test before launch.

Astronomers have discovered a new farthest galaxy from Earth, and it could change what we thought we knew about the early universe.

Without driving anywhere, the rover was able to solve one of the big unknowns, which was that this crater once held water.

NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has smashed its own record for farthest star ever seen with the detection of “Earendel.”

ESA’s Gaia observatory has snapped a photo of NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope, its new neighbor at Earth’s second Lagrange point.

The unconventional method could help astronomers better track meteorites that fall during the daytime.

A star image taken by NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope suggests the first-of-its-kind spacecraft is going to work even better than expected.

NASA successfully pinpointed almost exactly where and when a new asteroid would hit Earth’s atmosphere, before it made contact.

Australian researchers have trained an AI to locate fallen space rocks using footage from autonomous drone surveys.

NASA is opening a vacuum-sealed sample of moon rock and gas to help astronauts prepare for the next mission to the moon.

Cosmic bodies, like asteroids and comets, are constantly zooming through space and often crash into our planet.

The winged drone is designed to ride 200-mph Venusian winds.

The first detailed look at the dark side of a hot Jupiter exoplanet reveals conditions that could create metal clouds and liquid gem rain.

Earlier in the Space Age, little thought was given to leaving what many call “trash” on the lunar surface.

“When I saw the data, I didn’t believe the analysis...This is the brightest Cow supernova seen to date."

A third exoplanet has been discovered orbiting Proxima Centauri, and it’s one of the lightest astronomers have ever detected.

NASA has shared the James Webb Space Telescope’s first images, and so far, it looks like the epic spacecraft is working exactly as hoped.

Using ground telescopes and satellite observations taken over decades, researchers have identified the largest number of wandering rogue planets yet.

2022 will be a big year for space missions, with huge rocket launches, several rover rollouts, and a first-of-its-kind asteroid collision.

Scientists have discovered a huge store of hidden water on Mars, and it’s just below the surface of the Valles Marineris canyon system.

With Hubble living on borrowed time, NASA and its partners prepare to launch the satellite's successor: the James Webb Space Telescope.

A near-Earth asteroid discovered in 2016 may have once been part of the moon — making it unlike any space rock we’ve ever discovered.

A stunning time lapse of the surface of the sun created using NASA images shows the activity that occurs over the course of just one month.

A new study explains where the mysterious “Chinese supernova” went after disappearing from the night sky more than 800 years ago.

A new study predicts that space radiation alone wouldn’t make missions to Mars too risky for astronauts — as long as we timed them right.

Astronomers have discovered an asteroid that orbits the sun in just 113 days, making it the fastest-orbiting asteroid in our solar system.

Two tiny Mars satellites will head to the Red Planet in 2024 as part of a NASA program testing smaller spacecraft on planetary missions.

Astronomers with the EMU Project have released a spooky image of “dancing ghosts” emanating from a pair of distant radio galaxies.

The first high-res heat emissions map of the Psyche asteroid suggests the hunk of metal might not be the core of a developing planet.

A metallic star is hurtling out of the Milky Way, propelled by a supernova explosion triggered after it ate its partner star as a white dwarf.

Astronomers have detected the first evidence of water vapor in the atmosphere of Jupiter’s massive moon Ganymede.

The first direct observation of light from behind a supermassive black hole confirms a prediction in Einstein’s theory of general relativity.

Harvard astrophysicist Avi Loeb’s new Galileo Project will hunt for alien technology using proven scientific methods and equipment.

A unique baby exoplanet surrounded by a disc of gas and dust could unravel some of the mystery surrounding planet and moon formation.

An amateur astronomer has spotted an unknown moon of Jupiter, marking the first discovery of a planetary moon by a non-professional.

Johns Hopkins researchers are using image analysis developed for astronomy to study cancer immunotherapy.

Either underground water on Mars is far more prevalent than previously thought or something we can explain is going on beneath the Red Planet’s surface.

Using gravitational waves, astronomers have observed collisions between black holes and neutron stars for the first time.

New evidence of tectonic activity on Venus expands our understanding of the hellish planet and offers a window into Earth’s own geological past.

Astronomers have created the first ever 3D map of the heliosphere, using satellite data to reveal the part of the universe influenced by our sun’s solar wind.

China's new space station will get a boost from an ion propulsion system, making it the first crewed spacecraft to feature the sci-fi-sounding engines.

The biggest survey of stellar nurseries to date, PHANGS-ALMA, charts more than 100,000 star formation regions across our corner of the universe.

NASA has shared new photos of Ganymede taken by the Juno probe when it was just 645 miles away from Jupiter’s icy moon.

NASA has just approved two missions to Venus that will provide the scientific community with a wealth of new data on Earth’s closest planetary neighbor.

NASA’s Curiosity rover has captured images of colorful clouds on Mars, forming at higher altitudes and earlier in the Martian year than expected.

A new simulation of star formation is the most realistic ever created, giving scientists an unprecedented opportunity to study the birth of a star.

A rare form of plutonium has been discovered on Earth for the first time — and an exploding star appears to have helped it get here.

New evidence suggests that volcanoes on Mars may have erupted just 50,000 years ago, far more recently than previously thought.

A new algorithm lets astrophysicists produce high-res cosmological simulations of large parts of the universe far more quickly than was previously possible.

A new black hole image depicts one of the supermassive objects in polarized light, making it possible to see its magnetic field lines.

A distant exoplanet, GJ 1132 b, appears to have created a second atmosphere for itself after being stripped of its first.

The world’s second-largest neutrino detector is now observing “ghost particles” from below the ice of Siberia’s Lake Baikal.

A new model explains how an ancient computer known as the Antikythera Mechanism could have made complex astronomical predictions.

A space hurricane formed above the North Pole in 2014, marking the first discovery of the theorized — but never proven — extreme space weather event.

The Parker Solar Probe has taken an image of the surface of Venus that may change what we thought we knew about the planet — or possibly the probe itself.

Astronomers used supercomputers and an international network of antennas to create a map of 25,000 supermassive black holes.

A planetoid nicknamed Farfarout is officially the most distant known object in our solar system — but its reign might not last for long.

Astronomers have discovered a first-of-its-kind cloudless hot Jupiter — and it could expand our understanding of exoplanet formation.

An AI trained to spot signs of fresh craters on Mars in photos of the Martian surface has already discovered dozens of new impacts.

Scientists may have recorded the "hum" of the universe for the first time by measuring irregularities in gravitational waves.

Using data from the Gaia spacecraft, ESA scientists predict where 40,000 stars in the Milky Way will be 1.6 million years from now.

Saturn’s moon Enceladus is already suspected of hosting extraterrestrial life, and new Cassini data suggests where that life might exist.

Scientists found the gas, phosphine, in Venus’ atmosphere. So far, the only explanation is alien life.

Bacteria that survived on the outside of the ISS for three years suggests that panspermia is still a viable theory for the origin of life on Earth.

The largest body in the asteroid belt, the dwarf planet Ceres may hide a salty subterranean sea.

The Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) has released the largest 3D map of the universe ever created, detailing 11 billion years that were previously uncharted.

Using images collected by the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO), NASA has created a stunning time lapse of the sun’s solar cycle.

The space architects of Saga have developed a habitat for people on the moon. Now they want to put it to the test in the endless arctic sun of Greenland.

Getting bored during the coronavirus quarantine? Researchers are looking for volunteer citizen scientists to help analyze distant galaxies from home.

A newly funded satellite mission could help us keep a watchful eye on the sun’s activity, buying us more time to prepare for a potential solar storm.

NASA has announced plans to begin accepting applications for its next class of Astronaut Candidates, some of whom may go on to visit the moon or even Mars.

This stellar engine could harness the power of the sun to drag our solar system throughout the galaxy, preventing a catastrophic collision.

NASA is getting closer to the sun than ever before with the Parker Solar Probe, leaving researchers excited and bewildered by the data they saw.

New breakthroughs in the technology used for exoplanet discovery mean we could find proof for the existence of extraterrestrials in our lifetime.

With a keen curiosity to learn more about how life formed on Earth, NASA has plans to send a spacecraft called the Dragonfly to Saturn’s largest moon, and they’re using augmented reality to make it happen.

Rendering the first black hole image was an important milestone. But in many ways, the true value of the project lies in how it created an opportunity for researchers to change the way they explore the world.