Astronomy

Habitable worlds may be far more common than thought, Israeli study says

Published in the peer-reviewed The Astrophysical Journal, the research focuses on tidally locked planets, worlds that always show the same face to their star.

 Life beyond Earth may exist in far stranger places than scientists once thought, a new study suggests. January, 22.
The central square image, taken with the MUSE instrument on ESO's Very Large Telescope, shows shock waves around the dead star RXJ0528+2838.

Astronomers spot white dwarf star creating a colorful shockwave

 New information regarded as strong evidence Mars had ‘vacation beaches’. Illustration.

NASA rover detects electrical discharges - 'mini-lightning' - on Mars

This image of interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS was captured by the Hubble Space Telescope’s Wide Field Camera, July 21, 2025.

NASA releases images of comet 3I/ATLAS, rejects alien spacecraft 'rumors'


Detailed dark matter map provides further support for Einstein's theory of general relativity

Astronomers have created the most detailed map of dark matter distribution.

 One of the Unit Telescopes of ESO's Very Large Telescope (VLT) is producing artificial stars in the skies above the Atacama Desert, above the Milky Way.

What are mysterious cosmic objects shining brighter than the sun?

They produce way more energy than the sun and appear to break a physical boundary called the Eddington limit - now scientist found a possible explanation.

 Swift X-ray observations of galaxy NGC 5408 indicate its ultraluminous X-ray source undergoes periodic changes every 115.5 days. This cycle, astronomers suspect, is linked to the orbit of a donor star around a middleweight black hole, as shown in this artist's view.

Scientists finish 200-year decryption of ancient Greek-Egyptian treatise - study

The manuscript is believed to be a lost treatise by Ptolemy on his Meteoroscope. It was hidden within a copy of Etymologiae. Deciphering it has taken over 200 years.

 Depictions of Euclid and Ptolemy with a cosmological diagram between them. Engraving. (Illustrative).

Scientists found planet in distant solar system, similar magnetic field to Earth - study

The planet, named YZ Ceti b, is roughly the same size as our planet and is located approximately 12 light-years away.

Bright nebula gas cloud in deep outer space

Study explains how primordial life survived on 'Snowball Earth'

"Compared to the most recent Ice Age, glacier coverage was much more extensive and, more importantly, much of the ocean was frozen," Xiao said.

Planet Earth globe

Saturn’s rings heat up the surrounding atmosphere – study

The researchers discovered this by looking at the excess ultraviolet radiation, which is seen as a line of hydrogen in Saturn’s atmosphere.

An image of Saturn taken by NASA's shuttle Cassini.

Get your telescopes ready: Five planets to align on Monday

Scientists recommend finding a clear view of the western horizon and using binoculars to view the planets.

 This artist's impression shows two Earth-sized worlds passing in front of their parent red dwarf star, which is much smaller and cooler than our Sun. The star and its orbiting planets TRAPPIST-1b and TRAPPIST-1c reside 40 light-years away.

SpaceX launches international crew to orbit ISS for NASA

The flight came 72 hours after an initial launch attempt was scrubbed in the final minutes of countdown early on Monday.

 NASA's SpaceX Crew-6 mission, that includes NASA astronauts Stephen Bowen and Woody Hoburg, the United Arab Emirates Sultan Al-Neyadi and Russian cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev, launches to the International Space Station from the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, US, March 2, 2023

Astrobiologist narrows search for alien life to five planets

The new theory has saved countless hours of research and significant material resources.

 The solar system (Illustrative).

NASA's James Webb finds 6 huge galaxies that shouldn't exist - study

This discovery could completely upend our understanding of space, with the paper's co-author describing the entire situation as "bananas."

 This illustration shows a stage in the predicted merger between our Milky Way galaxy and the neighboring Andromeda galaxy, as it will unfold over the next several billion years. In this image, representing Earth's night sky in 3.75 billion years, Andromeda (left) fills the field of view