Astrophysics

In 1986, Voyager 2 took this image of Uranus during its flyby.

Voyager 2 Measured a Rare Anomaly When It Flew Past Uranus, Skewing Our Knowledge of the Planet for 40 Years, Study Suggests

The roughly six-hour flyby in 1986 revealed Uranus' protective magnetic field was strangely empty. Now, researchers say that the data could have been affected by a solar wind event

Analysis of the Bullet Cluster, which was formed after two large clusters of galaxies collided, supports the existence of dark matter.

After Decades of Searching, Are Physicists Closing In on Dark Matter?

With no conclusive laboratory results, researchers are turning to other methods to find the elusive substance

An illustration of a nova similar to T Coronae Borealis shows a binary system of a white dwarf and a red giant orbiting each other.

Astronomers Are Watching for a Once-in-a-Lifetime Nova Explosion. When Will We See It?

A recurrent nova, known as the Blaze Star or T Coronae Borealis, is predicted to soon appear in the night sky. But the exact timing of the rare eruption remains unknown

An artist's rendering of gamma-ray glows observed during the research, with gamma rays colored purple for emphasis

Scientists Use Cold War-Era Spy Plane to Find Unexpected Gamma Rays in Thunderstorms

The new findings bring storm researchers one step closer to solving the mystery of how lightning forms

Gears turn inside an antique watch.

World's First Ultra-Precise Nuclear Clock Is Within Reach After Major Breakthrough, Researchers Say

The technology, enabled by thorium atoms, could keep time more accurately than atomic clocks and enable new discoveries about gravity, gravitational waves and dark matter

An artist’s illustration of the Porphyrion jet pair escaping a black hole and passing through voids in the cosmic web.

Astronomers Discover Record-Breaking Jets Escaping a Black Hole, the Longest Ever Seen

The energetic streams are together 23 million light-years in length—roughly as long as 140 Milky Way galaxies lined end to end

A scan of a color copy of the original computer printout bearing the Wow! signal, taken several years after the signal's 1977 arrival.

Mysterious 'Wow!' Radio Signal Might Finally Have an Explanation—and No, It's Not Aliens

The infamous signal recorded in 1977 might have been a laser-like beam of radiation from a hydrogen cloud energized by a powerful, magnetic star, preliminary research suggests

The Penguin and the Egg are about 100,000 light-years apart.

James Webb's Newest Image Shows a Giant Penguin and an Egg

NASA released the dazzling portrait to help celebrate the two-year anniversary of the release of Webb's first images

During a major lunar standstill, the northernmost and southernmost moonrise and moonset are at their farthest apart.

A 'Major Lunar Standstill' Is Happening This Year—and Friday's Full Moon Offers 'Dramatic' View

From now through much of next year, the moon will periodically rise and set at its most extreme points, thanks to a rare celestial phenomenon that only occurs every 18.6 years

The planet-forming disk is made of gas and dust.

This Giant Cosmic 'Butterfly' Is a Planet-Forming Disk

New research has confirmed that the celestial object may be the biggest of its kind ever found

Euclid’s new image of star-forming region Messier 78, a nebula that lies in the constellation Orion.

See Five Dazzling New Images of the Cosmos, Captured by Europe's Space Telescope

With its visible and infrared photography, Euclid—known as the "dark universe detective"—is helping astronomers better understand dark matter and dark energy

The environment surrounding the galaxy system where the two black holes are merging. The event is occurring in the distant universe, around 13 billion years ago.

James Webb Telescope Detects Earliest Known Black Hole Merger, Just 740 Million Years After the Big Bang

The new observations could help explain how black holes became so massive in the early universe

Where do we get the seeds for seedless fruit?

Where Do We Get Seeds for Seedless Fruit? And More Questions From Our Readers

You’ve got questions. We’ve got experts

An artist's concept of 55 Cancri e and its sun. The star is much closer to its sun than any planet in our solar system, so it is too hot to support life.

Astronomers Discover an Atmosphere on a Hot, Rocky Exoplanet With an Ocean of Magma

It's the best evidence yet of an atmosphere on a rocky planet outside our solar system, researchers say, and studying the distant world could provide insight into Earth’s early days

In an artist's rendering, a red giant star and white dwarf star circle each other. Material ejected from the red giant gathers and heats in the white dwarf, catalyzing a bright explosion.

A Rare Nova Explosion Will Soon Bring a 'New Star' to the Night Sky—How to Catch a Glimpse

In an event that occurs only once every 80 years, a distant remnant of a star will grow much brighter, briefly becoming visible to Earth

A slice of the largest 3D map of the universe ever made, depicting 600,000 galaxies across the cosmos—less than 0.1 percent of the map's total. Earth is at the tip in the lower center, and the most distant galaxies represented are 11 billion light-years away.

Dark Energy Could Be Evolving Over Time, Raising Questions About the Nature of the Cosmos

The largest 3D map of the universe ever made hints that dark energy might not be a constant, though the findings must be backed up with more data

Texas Motor Speedway staff watch the August 21, 2017, total solar eclipse through special eclipse glasses.

This Is the Gear You Need to View the 2024 Total Solar Eclipse

Protect your eyesight with eclipse glasses, binoculars, telescopes or lens filters

The new image of the Milky Way's black hole, seen in polarized light. It shows the organized magnetic fields that surround the black hole itself, from which no light can escape.

Astronomers Capture Dazzling New Image of the Black Hole at the Milky Way's Center

The first image of the black hole taken in polarized light, the new view shows the supermassive structure's magnetic fields and hints that it could be hiding an enormous jet

A drawing of the aurora observed from Nagoya, Japan, on September 17, 1770. The written description also notes its intensity: “as bright as a night with a full moon.”

How Ancient Texts Can Shed Light on Auroras

Documenting episodes of the phenomenon thousands of years ago may help us predict damaging solar storms in the future

An artist's rendering of the quasar that set the record for the universe's brightest object, with its black hole at its center.

Astronomers Discover the Brightest Known Object in the Universe, Shining 500 Trillion Times as Bright as the Sun

The quasar—a glowing, active core of a galaxy—has a black hole at its center that consumes more than a sun’s-worth of mass each day

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