Neutrinos: They have no electric charge, pass through matter like a ghost and are so light they were initially thought to have zero mass. These are just some of the traits that make them so difficult to detect. Research on neutrinos requires massive underground observatories far from potential confounders that drown out their weak signals. […]

The moon is not the only natural object traveling through space alongside Earth. Several small asteroids travel around the sun in near lockstep with our planet. And just like Earth, these space rocks also take a year to complete a full orbit. Today, we know of eight such “quasi-moons” or quasi-satellites.

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Of the known things in the universe, black holes are among the most extreme. They pack huge amounts of mass densely into a small area, producing gravity that is so strong that even light cannot escape. To describe their properties, physicists have relied on complex equations from Einstein’s theory of general relativity and quantum mechanics. […]

A rush rescue mission to save a NASA space telescope remains grounded, this time because of a last-minute launch problem.

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Astrophysicists working to tackle the growing impact of satellite constellations have pioneered a new ultra-black coating as one possible way to mitigate the problem.

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Searching for habitable worlds beyond our solar system involves more than having a planet orbit within its star’s habitable zone, the region where temperatures could be just right for liquid water to exist on the surface. On Earth, where water comprises approximately 75% of the planet’s surface, life is abundant. But what about the exoplanet’s […]

Exoplanet atmospheres have become prime targets for astrobiologists in the search for life beyond Earth. This is because exoplanet surfaces can’t be directly imaged yet, so astronomers must get creative in how they search for signs of life, also called biosignatures. Presently, powerful ground- and space-based telescopes like the Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA) and […]

Imagine a piece of space debris the size of a hockey puck slams into a Starlink satellite at about 10 kilometers per second. The kinetic energy is equivalent to 2 kilograms of TNT, or a fully loaded semitruck traveling at 100 kilometers an hour.

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