Space

Astronomy

How James Webb Space Telescope data have already revealed surprises

A distant galaxy cluster’s violent past and the onset of star formation in the more remote universe lie buried in the observatory’s first image.

Astronomy

Clouds in the Milky Way’s plasma bubbles came from the starry disk — and far beyond

Gas clouds in the Fermi bubbles have a wide range of chemical compositions, suggesting some may have been ripped from other galaxies.

Astronomy

A fast radio burst’s rapid, steady beat offers a clue to its cosmic origin

Amped-up neutron stars, pairs of magnetically entangled neutron stars or magnetar quakes could explain a three-second-long train of radio blips.

Astronomy

The most distant rotating galaxy hails from 13.3 billion years ago

Astronomers have spotted a rotating galaxy whose light comes from just 500 million years after the Big Bang.

Astronomy

Here are the James Webb Space Telescope’s stunning first pictures

President Biden revealed the NASA telescope's image of ancient galaxies whose light has been traveling 13 billion years to reach us.

Astronomy

Sand clouds are common in atmospheres of brown dwarfs

Dozens of newly examined brown dwarfs have clouds of silicates, confirming an old theory and revealing how these failed stars live.

Quantum Physics

Aliens could send quantum messages to Earth, calculations suggest

Scientists are developing quantum communications networks on Earth. Aliens, if they exist, could be going further.

Planetary Science

A new look at the ‘mineral kingdom’ may transform how we search for life

A new census of Earth’s crystal past hints that life may have begun earlier than expected, and could be a tool to look for water and life elsewhere.

Earth

50 years ago, a new theory of Earth’s core began solidifying

In 1972, scientists proposed that Earth’s core formed as the planet came together. Fifty years later, that theory is generally accepted, though many mysteries about the core remain.

Space

Six months in space leads to a decade’s worth of long-term bone loss

Even after a year of recovery in Earth’s gravity, astronauts who’d been in space six months or more still had bone loss equal to a decade of aging.

Astronomy

An otherwise quiet galaxy in the early universe is spewing star stuff

Seen as it was 700 million years after the Big Bang, the galaxy churns out a relatively paltry number of stars. And yet it’s heaving gas into space.

Astronomy

Gravitational wave ‘radar’ could help map the invisible universe

Gravity ripples scattering off warped spacetime near massive objects might help astronomers peer inside stars and find globs of dark matter.