The Mysterious Inner Workings of Io, Jupiter’s Volcanic Moon
Recent flybys of the fiery world refute a leading theory of its inner structure—and reveal how little is understood about geologically active moons.
This Chinese Spacecraft Is Traveling to One of Earth’s Quasi-Moons
The Tianwen-2 probe has sent a self-portrait as it heads toward one of the most enigmatic objects in our space neighborhood: the quasi-moon Kamo’oalewa.
Astronomers Are Using Artificial Intelligence to Unlock the Secrets of Black Holes
Using a neural network trained with simulations of supermassive black holes, astronomers have found that the one at the center of the Milky Way, Sagittarius A*, likely rotates at maximum speed.
Astronomers Have Detected a Galaxy Millions of Years Older Than Any Previously Observed
Researchers estimate that MoM z14 was created 280 million years after the Big Bang, 10 million years earlier than the previous most primitive galaxy recorded.
A New Study Reveals the Makeup of Uranus’s Atmosphere
Based on 20 years of observations by NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope, new research sheds light on one of the solar system’s most mysterious planets.
The Milky Way Has a Mysterious ‘Broken Bone’
Galactic bones, filaments of radio-wave-emitting particles, run through our galaxy, and one of them has a fracture. New analysis suggests collision with a neutron star may have caused it.
Scientists Are Mapping the Bizarre, Chaotic Spacetime Inside Black Holes
By understanding the churning region near singularities, physicists hope they might be able to reconcile gravity and quantum mechanics.
Scientists Observe Carbon Dioxide on Planets Outside the Solar System for the First Time
The findings provide strong evidence that four giant exoplanets 130 light-years from Earth formed much like Jupiter and Saturn.
Scientists Scan Mysterious Planet as It Drifts Through Space
A team of researchers used the James Webb Space Telescope to uncover new details about SIMP 0136, a free-floating planet in the Milky Way that does not orbit a star.
The Universe Is Teeming With Complex Organic Molecules
Wherever astronomers look, they see life’s raw materials—and hints at answers to one of the great mysteries of science.