Mysterious dust ring beyond Jupiter formed many of our Solar System’s earliest worlds
In the young Solar System, a dust trap beyond Jupiter may have built wildly different meteorite parent bodies…
Faint black hole ‘ringing’ provides a sharper test of Einstein’s gravity
When two black holes crash together, the violence does not end at impact. The newly formed black hole…
The universe is significantly older than previously thought, astronomers find
Galaxies spotted by the James Webb Space Telescope have been causing trouble for the standard story of cosmic…
The Universe may have begun inside a black hole, not a Big Bang
For nearly a century, modern cosmology has treated the Big Bang as the opening moment of everything, the…
With a power of 10,000 suns, jets emitted by a black hole were measured for the first time
The universe contains many mysterious and powerful objects. This is the case for black holes, which are celestial…
Researchers find no significant joint damage in astronauts after short spaceflights
Eighteen days in orbit did not appear to leave a measurable mark on the hips, knees, or ankles…
Dante’s Inferno suggests Hell and Purgatory mirror the physics of a massive asteroid impact
For centuries, Dante Alighieri’s Inferno has been read as a moral and spiritual descent, a journey into sin,…
Massive black hole from the early universe has astronomers looking back to the Big Bang
Far back in cosmic time, one small red object is refusing to behave. Abell 2744–QSO1 appears just 700…
Mercury has a 10-mile-thick layer of diamonds under its surface
Mercury does not look like a world built for extravagance. It is small, battered, sun-scorched and gray. Yet…
A dead galaxy from the early universe is forcing astronomers to rethink galactic evolution
Space tends to reward expectations. Young galaxies should spin. Gas falls in, gravity takes hold, angular momentum builds,…
NASA’s first nuclear-powered spacecraft is heading to Mars, and its bringing helicopters
For years, nuclear propulsion sat in the same category as so many ambitious space ideas, impressive on paper,…
Ancient impact with Theia may have brought water and life to Earth
Earth’s story may have hardened into place almost as soon as the Solar System began. That is the…