Scott Johnston

Recent Articles

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  Rubin Observatory Spots Fastest Spinning Asteroid Ever

  January 12, 2026

  The Vera C. Rubin Observatory has discovered the fastest-spinning asteroid ever over 500 meters in size.

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  The Solar System Loses an Ocean World

  December 22, 2025

  Saturn’s largest moon, Titan, may not have a subsurface ocean after all. That’s according to a re-examination of data captured by NASA’s Cassini mission, which flew by Titan dozens of times starting in 2004. By 2008, all the evidence suggested a subsurface ocean of liquid water waited beneath Titan’s geologically complex crust. But the latest analysis says the interior is more likely to be made of ice and slush, albeit with pockets of warm water that cycle from core to surface.

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  Did Astronomers Just Find a ‘Superkilonova’ Double Explosion? Maybe.

  December 19, 2025

  Astronomers may have just seen the first ever ‘superkilonova,’ a combination of a supernova and a kilonova. These are two very different kinds of stellar explosions, and if this discovery stands, it could change the way scientists understand stellar birth and death.

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  The life-giving secret of protoplanetary disks? Dust.

  December 01, 2025

  The complex molecules required for life on Earth might never have formed if it wasn’t for cosmic dust.

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  The Oldest Stars are Planet Killers

  November 11, 2025

  As stars age, they expand. That’s bad news for planets orbiting close to their stars, according to a new study published in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society this month. The study suggests that planets closest to their stars, especially those that orbit their stars in just 12 days or less, are at a higher risk of being sent to their doom by their aging suns.