Asteroid Samples Reveal Origins of Organic Molecules in the Early Solar System

Carbon is the building block of biological life on Earth. The element is present in many compounds, such as sugars, proteins, and carbohydrate molecules, that comprise everything from animals to…

The Goldmine of a Neutron Star Collision

International research team models the different signatures of a kilonova explosion simultaneously for the first time. Neutron stars are the end products of massive stars and gather together a large…

Webb Rings in the Holidays With the Ringed Planet Uranus

The NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope recently trained its sights on weird and enigmatic Uranus, an ice giant that orbits on its side. Webb found a dynamic world with rings,…

Innovative X-ray Lobster-Eye Mission Set to Launch

In return for contributing to the development of this mission and the definition of its scientific goals, ESA will get access to 10% of the data generated by Einstein Probe’s…

NASA’s Fermi Mission Creates 14-Year Time-Lapse of the Gamma-Ray Sky

The cosmos comes alive in an all-sky time-lapse movie made from 14 years of data acquired by NASA’s Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope. Our Sun, occasionally flaring into prominence, serenely traces a…

Virtual Observatory Provides First “Look” at the Solar Poles

Scientists are turning to artificial intelligence (AI) to view the Sun’s poles — or at least produce an educated guess of what the solar poles might look like, since they’ve…

History of universe can be determined using radio telescopes on the moon

A new study from Tel Aviv University (TAU) has predicted for the first time the groundbreaking results that can be obtained from a lunar-based detection of radio waves. The study’s findings show…

CSO Telescope Dismantled and Heading to New Mission in Chile

At nearly 14,000 feet, Maunakea is the tallest mountain in Hawaiʻi and the second tallest on any island on Earth. Clouds often settle below the mountain’s barren, dark-brown summit, making…

When Is an Aurora Not an Aurora?

The shimmering green, red and purple curtains of the northern and southern lights — the auroras — may be the best-known phenomena lighting up the nighttime sky, but the most…

NASA’s IXPE Marks Two Years of Groundbreaking X-ray Astronomy

On Dec. 9, astronomers and physicists commemorated two years of landmark X-ray science by NASA’s IXPE (Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer) mission. A gif of IXPE deploying in space before starting…