Latest articles by Keith Cooper
SETI tests new alien-hunting strategy, but TRAPPIST-1 planets remain silent
A new search for extraterrestrial radio signals during planetary occultations in the TRAPPIST-1 system provides a promising new strategy for hunting for extraterrestrial life.
Europa Clipper: A complete guide to NASA's astrobiology mission
Reference The Europa Clipper is NASA's mission to explore Jupiter's icy moon Europa. Explore the mission in more detail with our ultimate guide.
Jupiter's Great Red Spot is being squeezed, Hubble Telescope finds — and nobody knows why (video)
The Hubble Space Telescope has seen Jupiter's Great Red Spot oscillating in width as it drifts around the planet. Could this be related to its overall shrinking?
Phew! No 'doomsday' asteroids hide in famous broken comet's debris stream
The Taurid Meteoroid Stream, responsible for two November meteor showers and possibly the Tunguska and Chelyabinsk impacts, probably doesn't hide a civilization-killing asteroid, a new study finds.
James Webb Space Telescope watches a frozen, comet-like object shooting jets of gas
Jets of carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide gas were seen coming from a centaur, but what drives them is a big mystery.
Can Rocket Lab come to NASA's rescue with new Mars sample-return plan?
In response to NASA's plea for help bringing the cost and complexity of its Mars sample-return program, Rocket Lab has won a contract to study a potential solution.
4 futuristic space technologies — and when they might happen
All four technologies are grounded in reality, but some are more feasible than others.
Dwarf planet Ceres once had a muddy ocean, study suggests
New computer simulations show how a now-frozen ocean of water mixed with dirt and rock could explain geological features on Ceres' surface.
Earth is a spaceship like the ISS — let me explain
From water recycling to carbon capture, there are a myriad ways in which space technologies can be applied to help us live in a more environmentally friendly way on Earth.
A star-studded Rosette nebula brings gorgeous color to the cosmos
The Rosette Nebula in Monoceros is captured in all its glory, revealing the sites of star formation and the feedback effects of stars that have already coalesced out of the nebula's molecular gases.
The Milky Way's 2 biggest satellite galaxies are oddly lonely, study finds
The Milky Way's system of small, orbiting satellite galaxies is quite unusual, a new 12-year study of other galaxies in the local universe has found.
Hubble Space Telescope suggests our ancient universe was surprisingly crowded with supermassive black holes
A 14-year Hubble Space Telescope study suggests the universe was teeming with supermassive black holes. But how could that be?
The W boson caused a particle mystery — but scientists have cracked the case
A puzzling discrepancy in measurements of the mass of the W+ and W– bosons, which are fundamental particles that carry the weak force, has been resolved by the Large Hadron Collider.
Weird striped rock 'unlike any seen on Mars' found by Perseverance rover. Here's why NASA's excited
While climbing a crater rim, NASA's Perseverance Mars rover spotted a curious striped rock that may have rolled from farther uphill, hinting at treasures the robotic explorer has yet to find.
Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) radio telescope: How it works and top discoveries
Learn all about the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter (ALMA) radio telescope, including what it does, how it works and its top discoveries.
The largest volcano on Mars may sit above a 1,000-mile magma pool. Could Olympus Mons erupt again?
A low-density, weak-gravity region has been found below Olympus Mons and the Tharsis volcanoes, while Mars' northern hemisphere is littered with puzzling high-gravity structures beneath the surface.
2nd Kuiper Belt? Our solar system may be much larger than thought
Eleven objects found at the extremities of the solar system could mark the location of a 'Kuiper Belt 2.'
AI is on the hunt for dark matter
The secrets of dark matter might be hiding in the immense cosmic crashes that are colliding galaxy clusters.
The moon might still have active volcanoes, China's Chang'e 5 sample-return probe reveals
The moon could still be volcanically active today, according to samples brought to Earth by China's Chang'e 5 mission in December 2020.
Mars leaks faster when closer to the sun
NASA's MAVEN mission and the Hubble Space Telescope have teamed up to reveal new insights into how Mars' water is leaking into space.
The 1st Milky Way black hole image was groundbreaking — the next could be even better
By demonstrating the ability for joint observations at the short radio wavelength of 0.87mm, the Event Horizon Telescope has improved its observational acuity by half.
Scientists make lab-grown black hole jets
By using protons to probe how a magnetic field responds to an expanding plasma, experimenters have replicated the particle jets spewed out by active black holes.
Very Large Telescope: Everything you need to know
Reference Here's a detailed look at the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope in Chile, including its design and some of its major discoveries.
