Space
Pluto has landslides
New Horizons data reveal Pluto’s first six confirmed landslides along steep crater rims.
Astronomy
More Stories in Astronomy
- Astronomy
The earliest evidence of the first stars may lie in a distant gas clump
James Webb data reveal pristine gas irradiated by energetic light some 450 million years after the Big Bang — a sign it may house primordial stars.
- Astronomy
Clouds of water ice thread stellar nurseries in the Milky Way
NASA’s SPHEREx mapped water ice across vast regions of the galaxy, confirming that an essential molecule for life on Earth abounds in space.
- Astronomy
A rare star in a tiny galaxy preserves a record of the early universe
Found in an ultrafaint dwarf galaxy, the ancient star’s unusual chemistry indicates it formed from gas enriched by a single early supernova.
- Astronomy
A strange ‘chirp’ in a brilliant stellar blast points to a magnetar
Superluminous supernovas are the brightest stellar explosions in the universe. Astronomers may have found a mechanism that can trigger these events.
- Planetary Science
Venus has a massive lava tube
A collapsed lava tube detected in 30-year-old radar data from Venus may be part of a much wider network of underground caves.
- Astronomy
This inside-out planetary system has astronomers scratching their heads
A rocky exoplanet in the LHS 1903 system defies planet formation models, hinting that gravitational upheaval reshaped the red dwarf’s four worlds.
- Physics
A massive clump of dark matter may lurk in the Milky Way
Pulsating remnants of stars hint at a clump of invisible matter thought to be about 10 million times the sun’s mass.
- Astronomy
A double cosmic explosion could be the first known ‘superkilonova’
The blast may have been a kilonova — a type of neutron star merger — in the wake of a more traditional supernova.
- Space
Betelgeuse’s buddy leaves a wake in the giant star’s atmosphere
The wake left by Betelgeuse’s companion could solve a decades-old mystery of its strange brightness cycles.
