This quasar may have helped turn the lights on for the universe
Astronomers have detected an intensely brightening and dimming quasar that may help explain how some objects in the early universe grew at a highly accelerated rate. The discovery is the most distant...
View ArticleNASA celebrates Edwin Hubble's discovery of a new universe
For humans, the most important star in the universe is our Sun. The second-most important star is nestled inside the Andromeda galaxy. Don't go looking for it -- the flickering star is 2.2 million...
View ArticleAstronomers observe real-time formation of black hole jets for the first time
In 2018, a galaxy about 270 million light-years away from Earth exhibited a major increase in activity. It quieted down again by 2020 -- only to dramatically increase its output again in 2023. At that...
View ArticleNASA's Pandora mission one step closer to probing alien atmospheres
Pandora, a small satellite mission poised to provide in-depth study of at least 20 known planets orbiting distant stars to determine the composition of their atmospheres cleared an important milestone...
View ArticleThis tiny galaxy is answering some big questions
Leo P, a small galaxy and a distant neighbor of the Milky Way, is lighting the way for astronomers to better understand star formation and how a galaxy grows. Scientists have reported finding that Leo...
View ArticleNASA's Hubble traces hidden history of Andromeda galaxy
In the years following the launch of NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, astronomers have tallied over 1 trillion galaxies in the universe. But only one galaxy stands out as the most important nearby...
View ArticleFirst fast radio burst traced to old, dead, elliptical galaxy
Astronomers previously thought all FRBs were generated by magnetars formed through the explosions of very young, massive stars. But new FRB is pinpointed to the outskirts of 11.3-billion-year-old...
View ArticleExtreme supersonic winds measured on planet outside our Solar System
Astronomers have discovered extremely powerful winds pummeling the equator of WASP-127b, a giant exoplanet. Reaching speeds up to 33,000 km/h, the winds make up the fastest jet-stream of its kind ever...
View ArticleAstronomers thought they understood fast radio bursts: A recent one calls...
Fast radio bursts are mysterious and brief flashes of radio emissions that were thought to be produced by magnetars, highly magnetized rotating neutron stars. Yet magnetars appear primarily in young...
View ArticleApproaching the red planet from the kitchen
Using syrup and baking soda, research has demonstrated the formation mechanism of rootless cones, small volcanic landforms commonly found on Earth and Mars. The study clarified, through an experimental...
View ArticleHow Titan maintains its atmosphere
Scientists have performed laboratory experiments to better understand how Saturn's moon Titan can maintain its unique nitrogen-rich atmosphere. Titan is the second largest moon in our solar system and...
View ArticleDwarf planet Ceres: Building blocks of life delivered from space
The dwarf planet is a bizarre, cryovolcanic world. However, the organic deposits discovered on its surface so far are unlikely to originate from its interior. The organic material found in a few areas...
View ArticleInnovation 'sifts' space for mysteries
Astronomers and engineers have developed a specialized system for their radio telescope to rapidly detect mysterious fast radio bursts and other space phenomena.
View ArticleExplaining persistent hydrogen in Mars' atmosphere
The fact that the cold, dry Mars of today had flowing rivers and lakes several billion years ago has puzzled scientists for decades. Now, researchers think they have a good explanation for a warmer,...
View ArticleA super-Earth laboratory for searching life elsewhere in the Universe
Thirty years after the discovery of the first exoplanet, we detected more than 7000 of them in our Galaxy. But there are still billions more to be discovered! At the same time, exoplanetologists have...
View ArticleFollow the water: Searching for a lunar oasis
As humankind imagines living off-planet -- on the moon, Mars and beyond -- the question of how to sustain life revolves around the physical necessities of oxygen, food and water. We know there is water...
View ArticleMoon is not as 'geologically dead' as previously thought
Scientists developed advanced dating methods to track geological changes on the far side of the moon and found evidence of relatively recent activity.
View ArticleExploring mysteries of Asteroid Bennu
Scientists found that asteroid Bennu contained a set of salty mineral deposits that formed in an exact sequence when a brine evaporated, leaving clues about the type of water that flowed billions of...
View ArticleLife's building blocks in Asteroid Bennu samples
Scientists detected all five nucleobases -- building blocks of DNA and RNA -- in samples returned from asteroid Bennu by NASA's OSIRIS-REx mission.
View ArticleThe hidden power of the smallest microquasars
Researchers found for the first time evidence that even microquasars containing a low-mass star are efficient particle accelerators, which leads to a significant impact on the interpretation of the...
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