Universe Today
The Galactic Habitable Zone
Nancy Grace Roman Could Find the First Stars in the Universe
The first stars in the Universe were made out of the primordial hydrogen and helium left over from the Big Bang. They were probably monsterous, with dozens or even hundreds of times the mass of the Sun. They lived short lives and then detonated as supernovae. Current telescopes will have a tough time spotting these stars, but a new paper suggests that the upcoming Nancy Grace Roman Telescope might have a clever trick to spot them.
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Watch a House-Sized Space Habitat (Intentionally) Burst
The Moon is Still Shrinking, Explaining Why it Still Has Landslides
How Rare Are Total Solar Eclipses... Really?
As April's 'Great North American Eclipse' nears, here's a look at eclipses in time and space.
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Early Life Was Radically Different Than Today
Ingenuity Suffers Rotor Damage, Ending the Mission
Another Asteroid Discovered Hours Before it Impacts the Earth
Japan's Moon Lander Is Lying On Its Side After Hitting Its Target
NASA 2024 NIAC Program Selects Deep-Space Hibernation Technology for Development
The World's Largest Iceberg Sets Sail for Adventure Beyond Antarctic Waters
China Reveals How it's Planning to Search for Water Ice at the Moon's South Pole
Why Venus Died
Exoplanets: Why study them? What are the challenges? What can they teach us about finding life beyond Earth?
Exploring the Solar System with Swarms of Microprobes
Webb Sees Dozens Of Young Quasars in the First Billion Years of the Universe
One of JWST's big tasks is to help astronomers understand how the early Universe came together, with dwarf galaxies merging into larger, more mature galaxies. Supermassive black holes at these galaxies' hearts also grew, shining as quasars within the first billion years. A new paper uses several extragalactic surveys by JWST to find dozens of compact galaxies that seem to host faint quasars as young as 650 million years after the Big Bang.
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Chinese Firm Successfully Tests a New Reusable Booster
Why Mars Died
It's Time to Go Back to Uranus. What Questions do Scientists Have About the Ice Giants?
NASA Invests in New Nuclear Rocket Concept for the Future of Space Exploration and Astrophysics
This Galaxy Hosted One of the Most Powerful Supernovae Ever Seen
NASA Lost Contact With its Ingenuity Helicopter Briefly, but it's Back
What Could the Extremely Large Telescope See at Proxima Centauri's Planet?
Astronomers discovered a rocky exoplanet in the habitable zone of Proxima Centauri, the closest star to the Sun. Could there be life there? The European Southern Observatory's 39-meter Extremely Large Telescope is under construction and expected to be completed in the next few years. Could this mighty observatory see evidence of biosignatures in the reflected light from the planet?
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Thirsty? Water is More Common than you Think
Venus' Clouds Contain Sulfuric Acid. That's Not a Problem for Life.
Finally, Let's Look at the Asteroid Treasure Returned to Earth by OSIRIS-REx
This is the Oldest Black Hole Ever Seen
Private Axiom Mission 3 is Off to the Space Station
Now We Know Why Starship's Second Flight Test Failed
The Next Generation LIFE Telescope Could Detect Some Intriguing Biosignatures
JWST has shown that it can detect various chemicals in the atmospheres of other worlds, from water vapor to carbon dioxide. Although it's an incredible demonstration of the telescope's power, it wasn't designed for only this job. The Large Interferometer for Exoplanets (LIFE) is a next-generation space telescope under consideration by ESA. According to a new paper, this telescope could detect rare biosignatures like laughing gas within a few days of study.
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Life on Earth Uses Water as a Solvent. What are Some Other Options for Life as We Don't Know it?
Your body's cells use water to dissolve chemicals. It's the same with all life on Earth. But could other fluids work as a solvent? A new paper reviews the potential for different liquid solvents to support life and proposes some surprising candidates, like liquid carbon dioxide, ammonia, and even concentrated sulfuric acid. Each of these solvents is liquid in dramatically different conditions, helping expand the possibilities for life as we don't know it.
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Future Mars Helicopters Could Explore Lava Tubes
Japan's Moon Lander Touches Down, But Power Problem Mars Its Mission
What Future Propulsion Technologies Should NASA Invest In?
Diamond Rain on Ice Giants Could Influence Their Magnetic Fields
Is this the Lightest Black Hole or Heaviest Neutron Star?
Astronomers See Massive Stars Forming Together in Multiple Star Systems
Early Galaxies Looked Nothing Like What We See Today
M87*'s Event Horizon Image. One Year Later
In 2017, a worldwide collection of radio telescopes gathered data about the event horizon around the supermassive black hole at the heart of M87. This was the first time we saw the shadow of a black hole. One year later, the Event Horizon Telescope, including the new Greenland Telescope, came together again. Today, we got the updated 2018 image showing that a bright spot in the ring has shifted by 30 degrees compared to the 2017 image.
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This Strange-Looking Galaxy is Actually Two. And They're Merging
The Ice Sheet on Mars is Even Thicker Than Previously Believed
A Biocatalytic Reactor for Detoxifying Water on Mars!
The JWST Solves the Mystery of Ancient Light
Planetary Surfaces: Why study them? Can they help us find life elsewhere?
Early Mars Climate was Complex, with Streams Flowing Intermittently for Millions of Years
NASA Selects a Sample Return Mission to Venus
Astronomers Have Mapped the Milky Way's Magnetic Fields in 3D
Researchers have developed the first 3D maps of magnetic field structures within a spiral arm of the Milky Way. While we've seen smaller-scale magnetic fields before, this is much larger, showing the overall magnetic pattern in our galaxy. These fields are incredibly weak, about 100,000 times weaker than the Earth's magnetic field, but they impact the galaxy, strongly influencing star-forming regions.
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Reflectors in Space Could Make Solar Power More Effective
NASA Confirms that 2023 was the Hottest Year on Record
Engineers Finally Open OSIRIS-REx's Sample Container
