Space
- Planetary Science
For the first time, an asteroid has been found nearer to the sun than Venus
A space rock dubbed 2020 AV2, found in close orbit around the sun, probably got there after a series of close encounters with rocky planets.
- Space
The sterile moon may still hold hints of how life began on Earth
50 years ago, scientists found no signs of life on the moon. Today, lunar mission regulations may be relaxed in light of that fact.
- Space
A second planet may orbit Proxima Centauri
The star closest to the sun may harbor another planet, this one much more massive and colder than Earth.
- Space
This ancient stardust is the oldest ever to be examined in a lab
Tiny grains of stardust that formed long before our solar system are giving new insight into star formation in the Milky Way.
- Space
Dark matter pioneer Vera Rubin gets a new observatory named after her
A new effort to study the cosmos is named after Vera Rubin, an astronomer who searched out dark matter and battled sexism.
- Space
A giant wave of gas lurks near our solar system
The Earth and sun are relatively near a newfound, wavy rope of star-forming gas, named the Radcliffe Wave.
- Space
Young stars have been found in an old part of our galaxy
A newly discovered star cluster in the Milky Way’s halo seems to have been deposited there by gas torn off of two satellite galaxies.
- Space
Bubble-blowing galaxies could help solve a cosmic mystery
Three galaxies ionizing hydrogen 680 million years after the Big Bang show a potential step in the ionization of nearly all hydrogen in the cosmos.
- Space
The home galaxy of a second repeating fast radio burst is a puzzle
The second galaxy known to host brief, brilliant flashes of radio waves known as a recurrent fast radio burst looks nothing like the first.
- Astronomy
LIGO detects its second neutron star collision, but gains few clues
Gravitational waves have once again heralded a smashup between neutron stars, but this time with no flash of light to help guide understanding.
- Space
The first glimpses of a pulsar’s surface hint at complex magnetism
Maps of a rapidly spinning neutron star could eventually help researchers figure out how matter behaves at extraordinarily high densities.
- Space
A new map reveals radio waves from tens of thousands of galaxies
Radio waves from about 17,000 galaxies show that the peak of star formation, about 10 billion years ago, might have been more productive than predicted.
