Special Report

Life in the Cosmos

Exploring the mysteries of the universe

Chandra image of the Antenna Galaxy. X-ray: NASA/CXC/SAO/J.DePasquale; IR: NASA/JPL-Caltech; Optical: NASA/STScI

Life in the Cosmos

An infrared image of 47 Tucanae, a dense globular cluster of stars located roughly 16,000 light years from Earth. A new study has predicted that a black hole lies at its center.

How Astrophysicists Found a Black Hole Where No One Else Could

Astrolabes were astronomical calculating devices that did everything from tell the time to map the stars. This 16th century planispherical astrolabe stems from Morocco.

The Story of the Astrolabe, the Original Smartphone

CAMS results for November 28 to December 14 from 2010 to 2016. Each point is direction from which a meteor was measured to approach, with red showing faster meteors and blue slower ones.

Introducing the Global Effort to Map the Night Sky

Besides exceptional facial hair, what could these two gentlemen have in common?

The Hidden Connections Between Darwin and the Physicist Who Championed Entropy

The Search for Life

Computer simulated global view of Venus' northern hemisphere.

Did Venus Have Oceans? This Surprising New Study Suggests Not, a Theory That Could Upend the Search for Extraterrestrial Life

Margherita Bassi

An artist’s depiction of NASA’s Europa Clipper spacecraft

NASA Launches Europa Clipper to Search for Signs of Life on Jupiter’s Moon

Mars might host an ocean of water within porous rocks miles beneath its surface, according to a new study.

Mars Hosts a Giant Reservoir of Water Underground, We Just Can't Easily Reach It, Study Finds

Elizabeth Gamillo

The tinfoil-covered vial at right holds about four grams of an asteroid brought to Earth from deep space. It may also hold the key to how life began here. The vial at left holds ground-up quartz that will act as a control in chemical investigations.

Inside Scientists’ Quest to Find the Secrets of Life in Four Grams of Asteroid Dust

NASA's Perseverance rover took this selfie next to "Cheyava Falls," the rock in the center of the photo that might hold evidence of ancient life on Mars.

Mars Rover Finds Three Possible Signs of Ancient Life on a Single Rock

Past, Present, Future

Astrolabes were astronomical calculating devices that did everything from tell the time to map the stars. This 16th century planispherical astrolabe stems from Morocco.

The Story of the Astrolabe, the Original Smartphone

Besides exceptional facial hair, what could these two gentlemen have in common?

The Hidden Connections Between Darwin and the Physicist Who Championed Entropy

Matthew R. Francis

An illustration shows the record-breaking supernova ASASSN-15lh as it would appear from an exoplanet about 10,000 light-years away.

Astronomers Have Found the Brightest Supernova Yet

Watch the Universe Evolve Over 13 Billion Years

The Andromeda Galaxy

What Does the Future of the Universe Hold?

Lawrence Krauss

How We Explore

People in New Delhi celebrate India's successful landing of a spacecraft near the moon's south pole on Wednesday.

India Lands a Spacecraft Near the Moon's South Pole, a First in Lunar Exploration

The James Webb Space Telescope's first Deep Field image

NASA Releases First Breathtaking Images Taken by James Webb Space Telescope

By Brian Handwerk

CAMS results for November 28 to December 14 from 2010 to 2016. Each point is direction from which a meteor was measured to approach, with red showing faster meteors and blue slower ones.

Introducing the Global Effort to Map the Night Sky

Sedeer el-Showk

Telescope array

The Hunt for High-Energy Photons Takes Place From a Mountaintop in Mexico

Adam Mann

Astrophysicist Kip Thorne dared to dream of a machine to find gravitational waves.

The Detection of Gravitational Waves Was a Scientific Breakthrough, but What’s Next?

Galaxies, Quasars, Clusters

NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope recently imaged the Sombrero Galaxy with MIRI (its Mid-Infrared Instrument).

See the Sombrero Galaxy Like Never Before, as the James Webb Telescope Captures It in Unprecedented Detail

Margherita Bassi

Stephan's Quintet includes four distant galaxies that are connected through gravity and one galaxy that is much closer to us but just happens to lie in the same direction in the sky.

Astronomers Spot a Galaxy Smashing Into Its Neighbors at 800 Times the Speed of a Fighter Jet

Margherita Bassi

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?

Understanding the Cosmos

A representation of the evolution of the universe over 13.77 billion years.

James Webb Telescope Confirms the Universe Is Expanding Faster Than We Thought—and Scientists Still Don’t Know Why

Margherita Bassi

A picture taken by the Hubble Space Telescope that contains GN-z11, the galaxy with the newly discovered black hole at its center. When GN-z11 was first imaged, it was the farthest galaxy ever seen in the universe.

Astronomers Discover the Oldest Known Black Hole, Breaking a Record Set Last Year

An infrared image of 47 Tucanae, a dense globular cluster of stars located roughly 16,000 light years from Earth. A new study has predicted that a black hole lies at its center.

How Astrophysicists Found a Black Hole Where No One Else Could