ASTRONOMY

What would happen if Earth became tidally locked to the Moon?

Gravity is the force behind tidal locking, but the Moon's unique case is rooted in a cataclysmic event.
Sep 18, 2025

Take a tour through Milky Way's star-forming regions with Gaia's first 3D fly through map

For decades, thick clouds of gas and dust have obscured the true three-dimensional shapes of these stellar nurseries, making them notoriously difficult for scientists to study.
Sep 17, 2025

New tool helps scientists predict dazzling auroras lighting up the Martian sky

After capturing a second visible-light aurora from the planet's surface, NASA's Perseverance rover confirmed the breakthrough.
Sep 16, 2025

Life on Mars? Astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson and astrobiologist David Grinspoon break down NASA's latest discovery

NASA has discovered a Martian rock sample containing mineral and organic signatures that, on Earth, are found almost exclusively with biological activity.
Sep 16, 2025

Scientists finally uncover the mysterious solar feature controlling the Sun's magnetic power

UC scientists have finally created a model of the tachocline, a mysterious, thin layer inside the sun that generates its magnetic field.
Sep 16, 2025

Astronomers in search of habitable worlds rule out atmospheric scenarios on exoplanet TRAPPIST-1e

A new study using the Webb Space Telescope has found that the exoplanet TRAPPIST-1e is unlikely to possess an atmosphere similar to that of Venus or Mars.
Sep 15, 2025

New research reveals how volcanic gases may have made early Mars a cradle for life

The study challenges previous climate models of the Red Planet that had focused on sulfur dioxide.
Sep 14, 2025

'Loudest ever' gravitational wave provides strong confirmation of Hawking and Kerr's black hole theories

The signal, named GW250114, provides the strongest validation yet for the long-held theories of black hole mechanics proposed by Stephen Hawking and Roy Kerr.
Sep 13, 2025

A 'quasi-moon' asteroid has been orbiting Earth for 60 years—and scientists are just finding out

Pan-STARRS observatory astronomers in Hawaii detected the asteroid, designated 2025 PN7, on August 2, 2025.
Sep 13, 2025

Researchers accidentally discover a giant stellar 'blowtorch' at the Milky Way's border

The JWST captured a rare event, a colossal stellar jet erupting from a developing star in the distant Sharpless 2-284 nebula, located on the outer fringes of the Milky Way.
Sep 13, 2025

Astronomers discover supermassive black holes hiding behind cosmic dust for billions of years—until now

These black holes were found to be hosted by candidate galaxies and formed less than one billion years after the Big Bang.
Sep 12, 2025

Butterfly-shaped hole in the Sun's atmosphere stuns scientists—potential effects on Earth on September 14

The 'coronal hole' is roughly 310,680 miles wide in the sun's atmosphere.
Sep 12, 2025

NASA finds signs of ancient microbial life on Mars in 'groundbreaking discovery'—what it means for humanity

The 'Sapphire Canyon' sample, collected by the Perseverance rover, is being hailed as the strongest evidence yet found for ancient life on Mars.
Sep 11, 2025

First-ever full measurement of black hole's three-dimensional recoil confirms Einstein's theory

The groundbreaking research focused on a specific gravitational wave signal, GW190412, which was originally detected in 2019.
Sep 11, 2025

Astrophysicists reveal 'Earth-sized' exoplanet TRAPPIST-1e may have atmosphere and liquid water to support life

Of all the exoplanets, TRAPPIST-1e is particularly fascinating to astronomers because its orbit within the habitable zone makes it a prime candidate for having liquid water on its surface.
Sep 9, 2025

Astronomers detect star-forming jets in Milky Way’s outer region, proving star formation follows universal process

Using the powerful ALMA observatory, researchers pinpointed a protostar named Sh 2-283-1a SMM1, located over 51,000 light-years from the galactic center.
Sep 9, 2025

Mars has one more thing in common with Earth—scientists finally resolve a longstanding mystery

Using data from NASA's now-retired InSight lander, a research team is challenging long-held assumptions about what's inside the red planet.
Sep 8, 2025

In a breakthrough, scientists successfully predicted a solar storm just 15 hours before it struck Earth

Using data from the European Space Agency's Solar Orbiter, a team of scientists successfully predicted the magnetic structure of a coronal mass ejection (CME) in March 2024.
Sep 8, 2025

Millions of light years old 'warm' interstellar dust found in Makani galaxy's hot halo

Using the JWST, a team investigated the Makani galaxy, a distant celestial body whose Hawaiian name appropriately means 'wind'.
Sep 7, 2025

Scientists solve 50-year-old mystery, discover solar flares 6.5 times hotter than expected

The energy released from the outer atmosphere of the sun spreads across our system, and its temperature is much higher than previously believed.
Sep 7, 2025