The discovery of exoplanet GJ 3512b - a planet "too big for its star" - adds fuel to the competition between 2 theoretical models of how planets form. It suggests many more Jupiter-like planets are waiting to be found, orbiting nearby sunlike stars.
Researchers have found evidence of a cataclysmic flare that punched outward in both directions from our galaxy's center, reaching so far into intergalactic space that its impact was felt 200,000 light-years away.
"The Milky Way is on a collision course with Andromeda in about 4 billion years. So knowing what kind of a monster our galaxy is up against is useful in finding out the Milky Way's ultimate fate."
Astronomers probed the cosmic web, a large-scale structure composed of massive filaments of galaxies separated by giant voids. They found the filaments also contained significant amounts of gas, believed to help fuel the galaxies' growth.
NASA's Juno mission to Jupiter has now successfully executed a 10.5-hour propulsive maneuver. It'll keep Juno - a solar-powered spacecraft - out of a mission-ending shadow due to have been cast by Jupiter onto the craft in November.
Professional astronomers and citizen scientists have been combing through a region of our galaxy where cosmic bubbles are being inflated by wind and radiation from young, massive stars. Hundreds to thousands of stars may emerge from each bubble, in time.
NASA is testing a 3D-printed prototype of unusual mini robots that can roll, fly, float and swim, then morph into a single machine. They're called Shapeshifters. The team envisions them as a way to explore Saturn's moons.
As the number of newly discovered exoplanets - planets orbiting distant suns - continues to rise, so do unexpected surprises. Scientists say that giant exoplanet GJ 3512b shouldn't even exist around its tiny star, but it does.