An animation illustrates the process that might have formed the hole at the galaxy’s center. Eleven billion years ago, a hot, active, galaxy that looked like an eye glared across space. Now, using data from the W.M. Keck Observatory in…
A mysterious blast in 1908, thought to have been caused by a meteor, flattened a Siberian taiga forest. This photo was taken in 1938, during an expedition by Russian mineralogist Leonid Kulik, investigating the event. A new explanation for a…
If Earth started over, would intelligent life evolve again? If we all got together and started Earth over, winding time back to the moment right after the land cooled from hot magma and giant meteor showers stopped devastating the planet,…
Information about the laws of physics is effectively baked into gravitational waves, the ripples in spacetime created when massive objects such as black holes spiral into one another. At least 3,700 years ago, Babylonian mathematicians approximated the ratio of a…
As seen in this angiogram, blood flow to a yo-yo performer’s index finger was severely constricted, causing the finger to feel cold and turn purple. A striking X-ray image shows the dark threads of arteries and veins carrying blood from…
Most star systems that we know of support gas giant planets with atmospheres full of hydrogen and some helium. Could aliens that breathe helium and hydrogen live on exoplanets throughout the cosmos? A new study of life on Earth suggests…
This Hubble Space Telescope image of comet C/2019 Y4 (ATLAS) was taken on April 23, 2020. Last month, Comet ATLAS shattered skywatchers’ hopes of a brilliant display when it began crumbling — but scientists have spotted a new opportunity to…
A Boeing image shows the X-37B in its capsule before launch. Editor’s note: The U.S. Space Force’s next secret mission of a robotic X-37B space plane was delayed by bad weather. Another launch attempt will be made Sunday morning (May 17). A…
Private industries have helped drop the cost of launching rockets, satellites and other equipment into space to historic lows. That has boosted interest in developing space – both for mining raw materials such as silicon for solar panels and oxygen for rocket fuel, as well…
An artist’s depiction of a super-Earth exoplanet. Scientists suspect they have identified an intriguing new alien planet in a particularly roundabout way. The planet is eye-catching because it bears some eerie similarities to Earth, but also some stark differences. In…
Curiosity can handle the harsh radiation on the Martian surface. But people can’t. There’s no safe place to camp out on Mars. But a team of researchers has identified what could be future Martian explorers’ best possible hideout: a string…
An artist’s depiction of a lunar lander in Russia’s second-generation Luna program. Russia hasn’t been to the moon since 1976, but the country hopes to soon pick up where it left off. The nation has a suite of three moon…