Water Discovered in Rocky Planet-Forming Zone Offers Clues on Habitability

James Webb Space Telescope observations find water for the first time in the inner disk around a young star with giant planets. Using the James Webb Space Telescope, the MPIA-led…

Webb Snaps Highly Detailed Infrared Image of Actively Forming Stars

Young stars are rambunctious! NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has captured the “antics” of a pair of actively forming young stars, known as Herbig-Haro 46/47, in high-resolution near-infrared light. To…

Why Does Matter Exist? Roundness of Electrons May Hold Clues

JILA physicists make record-breaking measurement of a key electron property, related to the possible existence of all matter. In the first moments of our universe, countless numbers of protons, neutrons…

In Search of Other Worlds: How Exoplanets Form and Evolve

Assistant Professor Marta Bryan is studying the properties of exoplanets to better understand how our planet and species fit into the larger universe. It wasn’t that long ago that astronomers…

Webb Detects Water Vapor in Rocky Planet-Forming Zone

Water is essential for life as we know it. However, scientists debate how it reached the Earth and whether the same processes could seed rocky exoplanets orbiting distant stars. New…

Novel Algorithm Improves Understanding of Plasma Shock Waves in Space

Frontera and Stampede2 supercomputers help scientists resolve and analyze challenging plasma shock wave structures. Imagine the explosive disturbance caused by a jet going supersonic. A similar shock wave occurs when…

Stellar Demolition Derby Generates a Powerful Gamma-Ray Burst

While searching for the origins of a powerful stellar gamma-ray burst (GRB), an international team of astrophysicists may have stumbled upon a new way stars might be destroyed. Astronomers studying…

Future Ultra-Precise Timing Links to Geosynchronous Satellites

Between mountains in Hawai‘i, innovative scientists show precision timing at the quantum limit. Last year, scientists drove up Mauna Loa volcano on Hawai‘i, aimed a laser at a reflector positioned…

What Keeps Venus Looking so Young? A Powerful Jolt Early on, Perhaps

A new study suggests that higher-energy bolide impacts created a superheated core and extended volcanism on Venus — leading to its younger surface appearance. Researchers at Yale and the Southwest…

What Spinning, Flashing Stars Reveal About Gravitational Waves and Galaxies?

The Stanford physicist and astrophysicist Roger Blandford discusses new findings related to gravitational waves observed with the help of spinning, flashing stars – and what it could reveal about how…