How to understand exoplanets — space scientists call on lab-based chemists to help
In the 30 years since exoplanets were first reported1, telescopes have revealed thousands of them. One of the…
Why we still don’t understand the Universe — even after a century of dispute
Discordance: The Troubled History of the Hubble Constant Jim Baggott Oxford Univ. Press (2025) Ever since the publication…
Mysterious ‘little red dots’ are baffling astronomers. What are they?
An artist’s impression of a black hole star, the explanation favoured by many astronomers for the little red…
These alien planets are astronomers’ favourites: here’s why
Thirty years ago this week, two Swiss astronomers announced that they had spotted the first known planet orbiting…
The Moon is rusting — thanks to ‘wind’ blown all the way from Earth
A stream of charged particles that blows from Earth (foreground) to the Moon could account for the rust…
black-hole breakthroughs will ‘only get better’
The Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (LIGO) facility, in Hanford, Washington.Credit: IMAGO/Xinhua via Alamy Ten years after the historic…
Clearest gravitational wave detection yet confirms Hawking’s black hole theory
The merger of one black hole (artist’s illustration) with another created gravitational waves detected in January by the…