Astronomers detect biggest explosion in history of universe

Scientists studying a distant galaxy cluster have discovered the biggest explosion seen in the universe since the Big Bang.

New image of Earth’s new mini-moon

Late in the day on Thursday, astronomers released this new image of 2020 CD3, a small object now confirmed to be orbiting Earth temporarily. It was apparently captured into Earth orbit 3 years ago. Its fate, here.

InSight Lander reveals 1st marsquakes on Mars

The results from NASA's Mars InSight lander's first 10 months on the Martian surface have been published in a series of papers.

Cosmic rays and Titan’s organic molecules

A new study from researchers in Tokyo helps explain how cosmic rays affect prebiotic organic chemistry in the atmosphere of Saturn's moon Titan.

Using radio waves to discover and study exoplanets

A new study from researchers in the Netherlands shows how scientists can detect exoplanets orbiting red dwarf stars, and learn about their environments, from the radio waves generated by auroras on those worlds.

Why does Arrokoth look like a snowman?

Meet Arrokoth - the most distant object yet visited by earthlings - seen by the New Horizons spacecraft in early 2019. It's very old, one of the first generation of objects in our solar system. Here's why it looks like a snowman.

Why did this galaxy blaze with stars, then become inactive?

Astronomers report on the very distant galaxy XMM-2599. It existed when the universe was very young, yet contains some 300 billion stars. It must have formed stars at a very rapid rate and then stopped. Why?

Moon found orbiting near-Earth asteroid

Isn't this cool? Scientists at the famous Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico made this rare find just days after resuming post-earthquake operations. It's a moon orbiting the near-Earth asteroid 2020 BX12.

Water in the shadows of boulders on Mars?

A new study from the Planetary Research Institute suggests that briny water could temporarily form on Mars' surface in the shadows of boulders for just a few days each Martian year.

VLT sees surface of dim Betelgeuse

The European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope is in northern Chile. Astronomers used it to capture the unprecedented dimming of Betelgeuse, a red supergiant star in the constellation of Orion. The new images show how the apparent shape of this star is changing.