Our Milky Way as a “melting pot”

Where do stars we see at night come from? Newly confirmed streams of stars - thought to be coming to our Milky Way from other galaxies - suggest not all Milky Way stars were born here.

Astronomers detect whirlpool movement in earliest galaxies

Astronomers looked back to a time only 800 million years after the Big Bang and found whirlpool shapes in small, very young galaxies.

A 3D journey through the Orion Nebula

Astronomers and visualization specialists at NASA have just released this unprecedented, 3-dimensional, fly-through view of the Orion Nebula, a nearby star-forming region.

Mars life clues from methane and ‘sticks’

The Curiosity rover has made 2 new and interesting discoveries - the first about methane in Mars' air and the other about stick-rock formations - both related the possibility of life.

Sun in zodiac constellations, 2018

Sun entry dates into zodiac constellations, using boundaries for constellations set by the International Astronomical Union in the 1930s.

Fast radio bursts: A mystery unfolds

Repeating, short, unpredictable radio bursts left astronomers perplexed. Now they think the bursts were twisted by the extreme environment around a supernova or supermassive black hole.

New year’s comets

Will 2018 give us a bright comet? There are a couple of possibilities. In the meantime, here are some photos of comets, visible through telescopes, as 2018 begins.

10 places to find snow beyond Earth

On Earth, you can find snow from the poles to mountaintops in the tropics. There are plenty of other places in the universe that are home to snow as well.

No alien megastructure for Tabby’s Star

This star’s odd, sporadic dimmings and brightenings caused speculation about vast structures built by alien civilizations. But a crowd-funded observing campaign led to a different conclusion.

Did our solar system form in a bubble around a giant star?

And now ... a big bubble theory. Scientists are discussing the possibility that our solar system formed in wind-blown bubbles around a giant, long-dead star.

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