In milliseconds, Google can serve up a fact that long eluded many of humanity’s deepest thinkers: The universe is nearly 14 billion years old. And many cosmologists continue to grow more confident in that number. In December of 2020, a ...

Few scientific tools get introduced in a press conference by the commander-in-chief. But NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope is no ordinary instrument. President Biden unveiled the first image from JWST in July 2022, revealing the sharpest, deepest infrared view of ...

Astronomers from the European Space Agency (ESA) have discovered the shiniest known exoplanet in our universe to date. Named LTT9779 b, this ultra hot exoplanet revolves around its host star every 19 hours and is 262 light-years away from Earth. ...

Everyone loves a good Uranus crack—the mere mention of its name can draw snickers in a serious science class. But the sideways planet has a surprisingly respectable backstory that few people know.  How did Uranus get its name? Uranus (officially ...

It’s been almost one year since NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) released its first finds to the public. Now the JWST has its sights set on the ringed planet Saturn. On June 25, JWST used its hard working Near-Infrared ...

It’s an exhilarating and sobering thought: All the planets, galaxies, starlight, and other objects that we can see and measure in the universe make up just 5 percent of existence. The other 95 percent are eaten up by two enigmas, ...

Today, a humongous team of astronomers called the NANOGrav Collaboration announced something remarkable: the first evidence for a background hum of gravitational waves that permeates our universe. The research group, based in the US and Canada, used dead stars across ...

Astronomers using the Gemini South telescope in Chile spotted an enormous energetic explosion coming from an ancient galaxy. This blow-up was likely triggered by a “demolition derby” type of star death that scientists have long hypothesized, but never observed. This ...

Scientists have translated data from cosmic bodies and events into spectacular audio renditions for years, but NASA’s latest releases may be the first to feature accompanying real-time visual aides. Unveiled on Tuesday, a trio of brief “sonifications” derived from information ...

Earth’s atmosphere is absolutely crucial for life on our blue marble, so it’s no wonder astronomers are eager to peer into the clouds of exoplanets around other stars. One popular far-flung world—TRAPPIST-1c—was so appealing to researchers because it was previously ...