Space
- Space
Here’s how citizen scientists can help during the 2024 solar eclipse
The sun will be near the peak of its activity cycle during the eclipse on April 8, 2024, making it a great time to crowdsource solar research.
- Planetary Science
Here’s another strike against Venus having copious lightning
Past data and the Parker Solar Probe’s new discovery of weird whistler waves overturn the idea that Venus’ hellish atmosphere has a lot of lightning.
- Astronomy
The black hole–powered jet in galaxy M87 is making stars explode
Hubble Space Telescope data show a surprising number of nova blasts along the jet of high-speed gas coming from the galaxy M87.
- Space
NASA’s first look at a sample from asteroid Bennu reveals life’s building blocks
Scientists have begun to analyze roughly 250 grams of Bennu, which could offer insight into solar system formation and life’s origins on Earth.
- Planetary Science
In a first, astronomers spot the afterglow of an exoplanet collision
A surge of infrared light from a remote star might have been a glow cast by the vaporized leftovers of an impact between Neptune-sized worlds.
- Physics
Vela’s exploded star is the highest-energy pulsar ever seen
A spinning dead star about 1,000 light-years away, in the constellation Vela, raises questions about how pulsars can emit such extreme radiation.
- Cosmology
New JWST images suggest our understanding of the cosmos is flawed
JWST data don’t resolve a disagreement over how fast the universe is expanding, suggesting we might need strange new physics to fix the tension.
- Astronomy
This ‘polar ring’ galaxy looks like an eye. Others might be hiding in plain sight
New images of two galaxies reveal what look like rarely seen rings of hydrogen gas nearly perpendicular to the galaxies’ starry disks.
- Astronomy
Astronomers call for renaming the Magellanic Clouds
Explorer Ferdinand Magellan is not a fitting namesake for the pair of satellite galaxies of the Milky Way, a group of scientists argues.
- Space
NASA’s OSIRIS-REx has returned bits of the asteroid Bennu to Earth
Asteroid dirt from Bennu could help reveal clues about the material that came together to make the solar system — and possibly where life comes from.
- Planetary Science
How drones are helping scientists find meteorites
Searching for fallen space rocks is labor intensive. A team of researchers in Australia is speeding things up with drones and machine learning.
- Space
Clara Sousa-Silva seeks molecular signatures of life in alien atmospheres
Quantum astrochemist Clara Sousa-Silva studies how molecules in space interact with light, offering clues to what distant objects are made of.
