Why Is Uranus on Its Side? Incredible Simulations Could Solve the Mystery. By Meghan Bartels Solar systems are messy places, but the tools astronomers use to understand these systems can re-create that chaos with surprising beauty.
Chelyabinsk Meteor: A Wake-Up Call for Earth By Elizabeth Howell The small asteroid that broke up over the city of Chelyabinsk, Russia, on Feb. 15, 2013, was a reminder about the importance of monitoring small bodies in space that could pose a threat to Earth.
What Are Elliptical Galaxies? By Elizabeth Howell Elliptical galaxies are dim collections of older stars, so they don't shine as brightly as spiral galaxies but they're the most common type of galaxies in the universe.
Spinning Black Holes Could Open Up Gentle Portals for Hypersonic Spacecraft By Gaurav Khanna Feel like visiting another star system or dimension? You can do this by traveling through a spacetime portal of a black hole. But you better choose carefully. All black holes are not created equal.
Scientists Find 13 Mysterious Deep-Space Flashes, Including 2nd Known 'Repeater' By Mike Wall Astronomers have spotted 13 more mysterious fast radio bursts, including the second repeating source of these extragalactic light flashes ever discovered.
'Light Echoes' of Black Hole Reveal Clues Behind Dazzling X-Ray Flares By Charles Q. Choi An instrument aboard the International Space Station has helped reveal how black holes release brilliant flares of X-rays, a new study finds.
The Sun Will Turn Into a Giant Crystal Ball After It Dies By Mike Wall The superdense stellar corpses known as white dwarfs solidify into crystal spheres over time, a new study suggests.
Hubble Space Telescope's Camera Eye Suffers Malfunction By Meghan Bartels A hardware problem has put the main camera onboard the Hubble Space Telescope out of operation, according to a brief statement released by NASA today (Jan. 9).
Distant, Possibly Habitable Planet Spotted by Citizen Scientists By Samantha Mathewson Citizen scientists unveiled a distant exoplanet that is believed to be roughly twice the size of Earth and located within its star's habitable zone.
If Aliens Are Causing Weird Dimming of 'Tabby' Star,' They Aren't Using Lasers to Do It By Mara Johnson-Groh The evidence for aliens around one of the weirdest stars in our galaxy — Boyajian's star — is not looking promising.
No, Bacteria Aren't Mutating into Superbugs on the International Space Station By Rafi Letzter Bacteria on the International Space Station are evolving and changing in the strange orbital environment. But they don't seem to be any more dangerous to humans.
How to Tune a Star System: Alien World Complicates Harmony of Multiplanet System By Sarah Lewin Researchers have identified a sixth planet orbiting the first star system discovered by the crowdsourcing project Exoplanet Explorers, a system with a unique resonance.
Dinosaur-Killing Asteroid Triggered Mile-High Tsunami That Spread Through Earth's Oceans By Laura Geggel
Zoom! Asteroid Bennu Slips Past in OSIRIS-REx Flyby View By Elizabeth Howell A spooky new series of shots shows asteroid Bennu approaching the camera and receding into the distance during a spacecraft flyby.
NASA's Apollo Moon Rocks Still Thrill Scientists 50 Years Later By Meghan Bartels When Neil Armstrong was preparing to leave the moon nearly 50 years ago, he allegedly thought the box holding the team's rock samples looked a little empty. So he shoveled in some soil to top it off.
Weird 'Sub-Neptune' Exoplanet Discovered by NASA (And It May Not Be Alone) By Mike Wall NASA's Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) has discovered a 'sub-Neptune' planet orbiting the star HD 21749, which lies about 53 light-years from Earth.
This 'Fossil' Cloud of Pure Hydrogen Gas Could Be a Time Capsule of the Big Bang By Brandon Specktor The emptiest space in the universe is full of gas.
Our Universe Could Be An Expanding Bubble in an Extra Dimension By Adam Mann Is our universe sitting on the edge of an expanding bubble?
Scientists Find the 'Missing' Dark Matter from the Early Universe By Mara Johnson-Groh Past studies suggested there was less dark matter earlier on in the universe’s history.
We Just Flew Past a Kuiper Belt Object. Here's Why We Should Do It Again. By Meghan Bartels Kuiper Belt objects like the one New Horizons just flew past are a dime a dozen, but scientists have detailed spacecraft observations of just three such distant, frozen worlds.
