Space
These tiny swirls on the sun could trigger solar flares
Scientists have finally seen a long-predicted motion on the sun, and it may help explain explosive solar activity.
By Fechi Inyama
Space
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
More Stories in Space
- Planetary Science
Different moon rocks tell different tales about a long-ago bombardment
Prior moon rock samples, including from Apollo, seem heavily influenced by one impact. The farside samples tweak the story.
- Astronomy
A newly found world blurs the boundary between planet and moon
The object orbits a brown dwarf that orbits a star, and astronomers aren’t sure if it’s a planet, a moon — or something else entirely.
- Astronomy
This “exotic weirdo” exoplanet has a rocky surface and an atmosphere
Astronomers found a helium atmosphere around a rocky exoplanet — a good sign for the search for life outside the solar system.
- Space
The 2024 New Jersey meteorite contains amino acids
The brine-formed meteorite that crashed into a New Jersey roof in 2024 could teach us about how life first arrived on Earth.
- Artificial Intelligence
AI is not ready to fly solo in space
In sci-fi, AI can navigate the unknowns and — ideally — keep human travelers safe. But it’s not intelligent enough to do that yet.
- Astronomy
A quasar breaks the record for most distant supermassive black hole
The Euclid space telescope discovery could help researchers understand how black holes grew so massive so quickly in the early universe.
- Planetary Science
Meet the Milky Way’s puffiest planets
Two “superpuff” planets orbiting a sunlike star over 1,000 light-years from Earth are as big as Jupiter and as dense as cotton candy.
- Space
Pluto has landslides
New Horizons data reveal Pluto’s first six confirmed landslides along steep crater rims.
- Space
A shoebox-sized satellite could expose hidden nuclear weapons in space
There’s never been a good method to check for violations of the Outer Space Treaty’s prohibition of nuclear weapons in space.
