Space

More Stories in Space

  1. An image of the inner Fomalhaut disk.
    Astronomy

    The James Webb telescope revealed surprise asteroids in the Fomalhaut star system

    New images of Fomalhaut confirm that an alleged planet is probably just dust while also revealing a new asteroid belt and a “Great Dust Cloud.”

    By James R. Riordon
  2. An image of dunes on Mars.
    Space

    Salty water may have flowed near Mars’ equator as recently as 400,000 years ago

    Crusts and cracks on Martian sand dunes are a sign salty water flowed near the equator thousands, not billions, of years ago — and may still exist.

    By Allison Gasparini
  3. A photo of stars with Galaxy IC 5249 in the center with a green oval around it.
    Astronomy

    A streak of light may not be a black hole fleeing its galaxy after all

    A suspicious trail of starlight may just be a spiral galaxy seen edge on, not stars that formed in the wake of a runaway supermassive black hole.

    By Liz Kruesi
  4. An illustration of a giant orange star eating a much smaller red planet and a giant burst of bright white dust expanding outward from the tiny planet.
    Astronomy

    For the first time, astrophysicists have caught a star eating a planet

    A burst of light and a cloud of dust are signs that a star 12,000 light-years away swallowed a planet up to 10 times the mass of Jupiter.

    By James R. Riordon
  5. An illustration of Mars cut in half to see the inner workings of the planet and its core.
    Planetary Science

    Seismic waves crossing Mars’ core reveal details of the Red Planet’s heart

    NASA’s InSight lander observed a quake and an impact on the farside of Mars, allowing researchers to measure physical properties of the planet’s core.

    By Nikk Ogasa
  6. The young star cluster NGC 346, shown as wispy clouds of dust and gas amidst a brilliant starry landscape
    Space

    Rocky planets might have been able to form in the early universe

    The James Webb telescope spied planet-building material around young stars in a nearby galaxy whose chemical makeup matches that of the early cosmos.

    By Allison Gasparini
  7. An illustration of the Milky Way with two bubbles shown in blue and purple coming from the center of the galaxy.
    Astronomy

    Cosmic antimatter hints at origins of huge bubbles in our galaxy’s center

    An excess of positrons in Earth’s vicinity supports the idea that the Fermi bubbles were burped by the Milky Way’s supermassive black hole long ago.

    By Lisa Grossman
  8. An ultraviolet composite image of Saturn. The planet is seen in shades of blue with a white band towards the center at at the top.
    Planetary Science

    Saturn’s icy rings are probably heating its atmosphere, giving it an ultraviolet glow

    Detecting similar emission from a distant world could help astronomers find other planets that boast bright and beautiful rings.

    By Ken Croswell
  9. Two photos of the same black hole in M87 side by side. The image on the left is the original and appears to be a fuzzy black center with a ring of orange around it. The image on the right is similar but clearly a dark circle in the middle with an orange ring around it.
    Astronomy

    The first black hole portrait got sharper thanks to machine learning

    A machine learning technique filled in data gaps in the image of M87’s black hole, resulting in a thinner ring.

    By Emily Conover