Science & Astronomy

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Meltwater lakes on a Greenland ice sheet.

Sea levels might rise much faster than thought, data from Greenland suggest

By Tereza Pultarova published

Greenland's largest ice sheet is thawing at a much higher rate than expected, a new study has revealed, suggesting it will add six times more water to rising sea levels than previously thought.

Through a phenomenon called gravitational lensing, three different moments in a far-off supernova explosion were captured in a single snapshot by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope.

Right place, right time: Hubble telescope captured a supernova as it exploded

By Stefanie Waldek published

Archival images from the Hubble Space Telescope have revealed an infant supernova photographed just hours after the star's explosion 11.5 billion years ago.

satellite image at night showing the east side of continent of north america at left and a storm with white clouds in the atlantic ocean

Satellites watch Tropical Storm Nicole approach Florida ahead of Artemis 1 moon launch (photos)

By Elizabeth Howell published

Artemis 1 will remain at the launch pad to ride Tropical Storm Nicole out when it hits Florida.

a starry sky over a radio dish suspended by towers

Arecibo Observatory: Watching for asteroids, waiting for E.T.

By Elizabeth Howell published

Reference The legacy of Arecibo's nearly 60 years of astronomy research is strong, even after its loss in a dramatic 2020 collapse.

Reference
Ancient water trapped deep within an Alpine mountain range harbors microbial life that might look quite like that on other planets.

Ancient underground water could unlock secrets of alien life

By Tereza Pultarova published

In the depths of an Alpine mountain range, a researcher is searching for life that might look just like that on other planets.

This artist's concept illustrates a young, red dwarf star surrounded by three planets.

What's that smell? Broccoli emits gas that could signal presence of alien life

By Elizabeth Rayne published

Broccoli, algae and many other plants and microbes on Earth purge toxins by morphing them into gases that might be present in exoplanet atmospheres, signaling life.

An artist's impression of a stellar core once part of a massive star as its outer layers are stripped away.

Astronomers spot the exposed inner core of an 'oddball' star by accident

By Robert Lea published

By sheer chance, astronomers have spotted the stripped core of a star that was once 12 times the mass of the sun during a stage of stellar evolution that lasts the blink of a cosmic eye.

If life exists on one of the worlds of TRAPPIST-1, could nitrous oxide be detectable in its atmosphere?

James Webb Space Telescope could search for 'laughing gas' to find alien life

By Keith Cooper published

An alternative biosignature on alien planets could be the same chemical that makes laughing gas.

The James Webb Space Telescope is protect from the sun's and Earth's heat by a giant shield.

James Webb Space Telescope's supercold camera bounces back from glitch

By Tereza Pultarova published

The James Webb Space Telescope's supercold camera MIRI is back in full science mode after a technical problem on its grating wheel forced scientists to halt some observations.

Plants flown in space can develop new traits that help them better cope with climate change.

Scientists launched seeds into space to create climate-resistant super varieties

By Tereza Pultarova published

Scientists have sent a batch of seeds to the International Space Station to create new strains of agricultural plants resistant to climate change.

A scan of a color copy of the original computer printout, taken several years after the 1977 arrival of the Wow! signal.

No signs of alien life found near source of famous 'Wow!' signal

By Elizabeth Howell last updated

Two SETI telescopes came together for an evening in May to scan a zone where a purported alien signal emerged in 1977. They saw no sign of life, but will likely return for more searches.

curve of moon seen above the planet earth

The moon's crown peeks above Earth a day before total lunar eclipse (satellite photo)

By Elizabeth Howell last updated

A wisp of light reflecting off the moon got caught in Earth's atmosphere, making our neighbor look like a white crown in orbit.

An artist's impression of planetary rubble with the two white dwarfs, the blue WDJ1922+0233 and the red WDJ2147-4035.

Remnants of oldest known solar system discovered just 90 light-years from Earth

By Keith Cooper published

The oldest dead star found to have a planetary system, dating back 10.7 billion years, has been discovered covered in the rubble of destroyed worlds.

Two blasts (Herbig-Haro objects) appear in blue and orange colors, and seem to emanate from a dark region at the center of the image. The Hubble Space Telescope captured this scene, located 1,250 light-years away in the constellation Orion, using its Wide Field Camera 3.

Newborn twin stars blast out jets of rainbow-colored gas in new Hubble image

By Doris Elin Urrutia last updated

Two puffs of star-making material exude mystical glows in a recently-published Hubble Space Telescope image.

Voyager 2 snapped this close up shot of a blue windy Neptune back in 1989

Neptune: The windy eighth planet from the sun

By Charles Q. Choi last updated

Reference Neptune is the farthest planet from the sun and was the first to be predicted before it was discovered.

Reference
A Northrop Grumman Antares rocket carrying the Cygnus NG-18 cargo ship for NASA launches to the International Space Station as a bright light before dawn.

Antares rocket launches ovarian cells and other wild experiments to space station for NASA

By Elizabeth Howell published

Fertility treatments and a bioprinter that can manufacture knee cartilage flew to the International Space Station Monday (Nov. 7) aboard a Cygnus cargo spacecraft.

An artist’s illustration shows a gas giant planet (lower right) closely orbiting its host star (left), with another star in the distance (upper right). The two stars are themselves in orbit with each other.

Alien planets keep their parent stars young by forcing them to 'exercise'

By Tereza Pultarova published

Planets and stars are almost like parents and children, a new study suggests: The smaller bodies keep the larger ones active, helping them stay young for longer.

An illustration of the Trappist-1 system.

James Webb Space Telescope could help hunt for habitable alien worlds

By Robert Lea published

A computer simulation of TRAPPIST-1e shows how the James Webb Space Telescope could help the search for habitable alien worlds.

Over tens of thousands of years, a massive ice sheet covered and then exposed land masses in northwestern Europe.

Watch an ancient ice sheet cover the British Isles then vanish, in eerie time-lapse animation

By Joshua A. Krisch published

The rapid decline of the British-Irish Ice Sheet thousands of years ago may hold lessons for how melting ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica will influence sea-level rise in the future.

Artist’s impression of the asteroid discovered toward the Sun.

Astronomers have detected another 'planet killer' asteroid. Could we miss one coming our way?

By Steven Tingay published

If you surfed the web this morning, you may have seen news of the latest existential threat to humanity: a “planet killer” asteroid named 2022 AP7.