Exoplanet KELT-9b orbits its local sun once every day and a half. This close proximity makes KELT-9b the hottest exoplanet ever detected. When planning your next interstellar vacation, avoid planet KELT-9b. This hot Jupiter (so named because it is roughly…
An illustration shows a comet passing in front of a star. A pair of Harvard astrophysicists have proposed a wild theory of how life might have spread through the universe. Imagine this: Millions or billions of years ago, back when…
Black holes are infinitely dense objects surrounded by smooth event horizons. When two neutron stars slammed together far off in space, they created a powerful shaking in the universe — gravitational waves that scientists detected on Earth in 2017. Now,…
A Boeing satellite orbits the Earth. In February, a similar satellite named Spaceway-1 will likely explode as soon as its batteries kick on. Following an unexplained accident, a satellite built by Boeing and operated by DirecTV is at risk of…
Scientists tested Galileo and Einstein’s theories by dropping two objects inside this satellite named MICROSCOPE (artist’s impression). In the 17th century, famed astronomer and physicist Galileo Galilei is said to have climbed to the top of the Tower of Pisa…
Researchers prepare to launch the Antarctic Impulsive Transient Antenna (ANITA) experiment, which picked up signals of impossible-seeming particles as it dangled from its balloon over Antarctica. Our best model of particle physics is bursting at the seams as it struggles…
A bright supernova flares across the sky in this illustration. In 2006, researchers detected one of the brightest supernova explosions ever — and they may finally be able to explain it. In September 2006, an exploding star 50 billion times…
If extraterrestrials are living on alien worlds, what types of signals would they send us? Our human biases might limit what we can imagine. HONOLULU — Our hunt for aliens has a potentially fatal flaw — we’re the ones searching…
A mysterious cosmic event might have ever-so-slightly stretched and squeezed our planet last week. On Jan. 14, astronomers detected a split-second burst of gravitational waves, distortions in space-time … but researchers don’t know where this burst came from. The gravitational…
Close encounters with our future selves? Unidentified flying objects (UFOs) have captured the public’s attention over the decades. As exoplanet detection is on the rise, why not consider that star-hopping visitors from afar might be buzzing through our friendly skies…
This illustration shows the six strange objects (dubbed G1 through G6) that astronomers detected swirling around our galaxy’s central black hole. The mysterious blobs orbit the hole every 100 to 1,000 years, stretching out as they approach. Like most large…
A planetary system hiding out in the constellation Dorado, some 100 light-years from Earth, hosts an Earth-size planet orbiting within its star’s habitable zone. A few months ago, a group of NASA exoplanet astronomers, who are in the business of…