The local universe may be expanding more slowly than previously thought, a discovery that could relieve a pesky discrepancy known as the Hubble tension.
The Milky Way could host billions of free-floating planets (FFP) according to some research estimates. Also called rogue planets, these worlds drift through interstellar space on their own trajectories, unbound to any star. Many of these worlds form around stars like other planets do, and so it's reasonable to think that they also have moons.
The Small Magellanic Cloud, a dwarf galaxy near the Milky Way, is undergoing a complete galactic transformation after a recent collision with its nearest neighbor.
Every ounce counts when launching a rocket, which is why considerations for the Size, Weight, and Power (SWaP) of every component matters so much. For decades, one of the heaviest and most power-hungry components on a spacecraft has been its optical and communications hardware - specifically the bulky mechanical mirror used for LiDAR and free-space laser communications. But a new paper, published in Nature by researchers at MIT, MITRE, and Sandia National Laboratories, might have just fundamentally changed the SWaP considerations of LiDAR systems. Their technology, which they’re called a “photonic ski-jump” could one day revolutionize how spacecraft communicate.
100 years after Robert Goddard launched the first liquid-fueled rocket, NASA is preparing a return to the moon with the Artemis program to extend humanity's reach into deep space.
The Earth's core is the innermost layer, a region of immense heat and pressure that remains largely inaccessible to direct study. Our understanding of the core comes primarily from seismic wave analysis, which allows geophysicists to infer its composition and physical properties.
Using the James Webb Space Telescope, astronomers have discovered an example of a new class of exoplanet, and it smells like rotten eggs.
'It promises that this is just the beginning of the story for these characters. There's so much more to tell.'
One particularly well known fact about the Moon is that it doesn’t have much of a magnetosphere to speak of. There’s no blanket to protect it from the solar wind ravaging its surface, blowing away its atmosphere and charging the notoriously dangerous dust particles that make up its regolith. However, scientists have also known for around 60 years that some parts of the moon do experience sudden spikes in a magnetic field - some of which are up to 10 times stronger than the background magnetization. Since their discovery, these “lunar external magnetic enhancements” (LEMEs) have puzzled researchers - what was causing them, and why did they reach so high above the lunar surface that spacecraft could see them? A new paper published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters by Shu-Hua Lai and her colleagues at the National Central University in Taiwan explains for the first time what is likely causing these LEMEs - a novel type of the Kelvin-Helmholtz instability.
Scientists are searching for evidence of microbial life left behind in these mineral deposits.
Siril stands out as one of the best pieces of open-source software available for astrophotographers.
'That truth will upend all established order across the entire world.'
With more than 400 positions to be published in 2026, the European Space Agency has launched a recruitment drive to support ESA’s programmes, missions and strategic initiatives following the 2025 Ministerial Council in Bremen. To help make these projects a reality, we will be recruiting many new colleagues in engineering and science, as well as support services! Your next big opportunity could be here, so read on to find out more. You can also set up a job alert to be the first one to know when opportunities are published.
Exomoons orbiting rogue planets could host liquid water for billions of years, offering potential habitats for life deep in interstellar space.
Just 35 light-years away, in the southern constellation Volans, the Flying Fish, is a world unlike any other. The weird, low-density planet, known as L98-59 d, appears tohave a deep […]
Robert Goddard's innovations in liquid-fueled rockets — assisted by his wife, Esther — still resonate 100 years after his pioneering flight.
It seems improbable that a satellite designed to monitor polar ice sheets and floating sea ice could accurately measure a disturbance in Earth’s magnetic field. But that is just what ESA’s CryoSat mission did earlier this year.
Europa is not supposed to look the way it does. Jupiter's icy moon is scarred by a chaotic patchwork of fractured terrain, criss crossed ridges, and disrupted surface regions that suggest something dynamic is happening beneath its frozen shell. Scientists have long suspected that a vast liquid ocean, kept warm by the gravitational kneading of Jupiter's enormous gravity, lies hidden beneath that ice. Now, a new study using the James Webb Space Telescope is adding a crucial piece to the puzzle, and the implications reach right to the heart of astrobiology.
Here is a problem that has been quietly gnawing at astronomers for decades. The standard approach to detecting life on other worlds involves scanning exoplanet atmospheres for oxygen, methane and ozone, whose presence is difficult to explain without biology. It's a clever idea, but it carries a hidden flaw. That entire shopping list was written by studying Earth. It is, inevitably, a search for life like us.
Our Sun is a middle aged, average star sitting in an unremarkable corner of the Milky Way. It fuses hydrogen into helium at its core, bathes its planets in light and heat, and has been doing so for around 4.6 billion years. Nothing about it immediately suggests a dramatic past. But look closer, and the questions start to stack up.
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