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An artist's depiction of mismatched black holes colliding.

Scientists detect rare crash of two mismatched black holes for the first time ever

By Meghan Bartels

Colliding black holes aren't always as evenly matched as scientists expected, according to a cosmic chirp astronomers have puzzled over for a year.

The Event Horizon Telescope, a planet-scale array of eight ground-based radio telescopes forged through international collaboration, captured this image of the supermassive black hole and its shadow that's in the center of the galaxy M87.

1 year after epic black hole photo, Event Horizon Telescope team is dreaming very big

By Mike Wall

One year after its epic announcement, the Event Horizon Telescope project isn't resting on its laurels.

A view of the Hubble Space Telescope through the window of the shuttle Atlantis, which brought astronauts on a repair mission in 2009.

Happy 30th, Hubble! Science Channel celebrates space telescope icon with special tonight.

By Mike Wall

If you're looking to inject a little space science into your pandemic-induced TV binge, Science Channel has a treat for you.

The moon, as seen by the United States' Clementine spacecraft in 1994.

China wants a piece of the moon. Here's how it plans to handle lunar samples.

By Leonard David

A glimpse into China's readiness to handle samples from the moon reveals steps to be taken for storage, processing and preparation of the specimens.

Light curves around a black hole's event horizon

Live Science podcast 'Life's Little Mysteries' 20: Mysterious black holes

By Live Science Staff

In this episode of Life's Little Mysteries, we'll take a closer look at black holes, the mysterious cosmic objects that have a gravitational pull so strong that not even light can escape.

An artist's depiction of a quasar and its surrounding galaxy as seen with optical light.

Astronomers spot quasar with the most powerful winds ever seen

By Meghan Bartels

Scientists took a second look at a strange object and spotted the most powerful winds ever seen gusting off of a special flavor of black hole called a quasar.

The NASA-USGS satellite Landsat 8 captured this photo of Anak Krakatau erupting on April 13, 2020.

Anak Krakatau volcano eruption spotted from space (photo)

By Mike Wall

The Landsat 8 satellite captured a striking photo Monday (April 13) of Anak Krakatau's latest eruption.

Europe's air pollution drop continues amid coronavirus closures

By Meghan Bartels

Countries have enacted strong measures to curtail the coronavirus pandemic's spread, and the effects on emissions remain visible from space.

Observations made with the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope in Chile have revealed for the first time that a star orbiting the supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way moves just as predicted by Einstein's theory of general relativity. Its orbit is shaped like a rosette and not like an ellipse as predicted by Newton's theory of gravity. This effect, known as Schwarzschild precession, had never before been measured for a star around a supermassive black hole. This artist's impression illustrates the precession of the star's orbit, with the effect exaggerated for easier visualization.

Star's motion around Milky Way's monster black hole proves Einstein right yet again

By Mike Wall

Einstein's theory of general relativity just passed a dramatic black-hole test with flying colors.

This NASA satellite image shows dust over the Sahara Desert.

Earth is way dustier than we thought. That may be a problem for climate forecasts.

By Chelsea Gohd

Earth's atmosphere, it turns out, is dustier than scientists previously thought.

An artist's illustration of Kepler-1649c orbiting around its host red dwarf star. This newly discovered exoplanet is in its star’s habitable zone and is the closest to Earth in size and temperature found yet in Kepler's data.

Newfound alien planet may be most Earth-like yet

By Mike Wall

Scientists analyzing archival data gathered by NASA's defunct Kepler spacecraft just found a hidden gem: an Earth-size world that may be capable of supporting life as we know it.

One of the big questions remaining about our universe is why there is more matter than antimatter.

Weird neutrino behavior could explain longstanding antimatter mystery

By Mike Wall

We may be a big step closer to cracking one of the universe's biggest and most fundamental mysteries.

An artist's illustration of water plumes erupting from the icy ocean of Jupiter's moon Europa.

Weird mystery of watery plumes on Europa may hint at 'stealth particles'

By Nola Taylor Redd

Plumes from Jupiter’s moon Europa could provide insights about the interior of the moon, but their deposits remain hidden.

The proposed telescope would be a 1km-diameter wire-mesh that can gaze out into the cosmos without being hindered by the Earth's atmosphere.

NASA funds proposal to build a telescope on the far side of the moon

By Yasemin Saplakoglu

This proposed mesh telescope would let us gaze out into the dark cosmos, unhindered by our planet's atmosphere and radio interferences.

This NASA graphic depicts the orbits of the Earth, the moon and the asteroid 2020 GH2 during its Earth flyby on April 15, 2020.

Newfound asteroid the size of a house will fly safely by Earth Wednesday

By Tariq Malik

A newly discovered asteroid about the size of a house will zip safely by Earth on Wednesday (April 15), passing just inside the orbit of the moon.

A Hubble Space Telescope image shows the Lagoon Nebula, part of the small portion of matter in the Milky Way that isn't made of dark matter.

A huge cloud of invisible particles seems to be missing from the Milky Way

By Rafi Letzter

A key signal for a certain kind of dark matter failed to turn up in a search throughout the Milky Way. Now scientists are disagreeing about what that means.

This simulation depicts the interstellar object 'Oumuamua as a mass of fragments forced into an elongated shape by stellar tidal forces.

'Oumuamua origin story: How our mysterious interstellar visitor may have been born

By Mike Wall

The mysterious interstellar object 'Oumuamua is probably a fragment of a larger body that was torn apart by gravitational forces during a close flyby of its native star, a new study suggests.

An artist's illustration of a brilliant supernova, the explosive death of a star.

Boom! Distant star explosion is brightest ever seen

By Mike Wall

A mammoth star explosion known as SN2016aps, which occurred in a galaxy about 3.6 billion light-years from Earth, is the brightest supernova ever seen, a new study reports.

An artist's depiction of the exoplanet NGTS-4b, one of the few known Neptune-sized worlds that orbit very close to their stars. The odd newfound planet TOI-849b also resides in this “hot Neptunian desert.”

Weird alien planet may be core of stripped-down gas giant

By Charles Q. Choi

A distant world about 40 times more massive than Earth may be the remnant core of a giant planet, or a giant planet in the making whose growth stalled, a new study reports.

The historic first image of a supermassive black hole ever recorded shows the shadow of the monster black hole inside the distant galaxy M87.

1 year ago, the world saw a black hole for the first time. Here's how it got a Hawaiian name.

By Meghan Bartels

A year ago, scientists captured the unphotographable when the Event Horizon Telescope published a fiery orange ring on a black background that became instantly recognizable.