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ALMA observations reveal multiscale fragmentation in massive star formation

Researchers from Yunnan University, the Shanghai Astronomical Observatory (SHAO) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan have unveiled new insights into the fragmentation mechanisms of high-mass star-forming regions.

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What’s powering these mysterious, bright blue cosmic flashes? Astronomers find a clue

Among the more puzzling cosmic phenomena discovered over the past few decades are brief and very bright flashes of blue and ultraviolet light that gradually fade away, leaving behind faint X-ray and radio emissions. With slightly more than a dozen discovered so far, astronomers have debated whether they are produced by an unusual type of […]

Possible ‘superkilonova’ exploded not once but twice

When the most massive stars reach the ends of their lives, they blow up in spectacular supernova explosions, which seed the universe with heavy elements such as carbon and iron. Another type of explosion—the kilonova—occurs when a pair of dense dead stars, called neutron stars, smash together, forging even heavier elements such as gold and […]

PUNCH mission spacecraft producing unprecedented images of Sun

After less than a year in orbit, the Southwest Research Institute-built PUNCH spacecraft have made major accomplishments, imaging the sun in context while tracking comets and enormous space weather events as they traveled through the inner solar system. SwRI’s Dr. Craig DeForest discussed the achievements of NASA’s PUNCH (Polarimeter to Unify the Corona and Heliosphere) […]

The next frontier in space is closer than you think: Welcome to the world of very low Earth orbit satellites

There are about 15,000 satellites orbiting Earth. Most of them, like the International Space Station and the Hubble Telescope, reside in low Earth orbit, or LEO, which tops out at about 1,200 miles (2,000 kilometers) above Earth’s surface.

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Webb observes pulsar-orbiting planet whose composition defies explanation

Scientists using NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope have observed a rare type of exoplanet, or planet outside our solar system, whose atmospheric composition challenges our understanding of how it formed.

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Dazzling cosmic jet reveals time-stamped history of star birth

An international team of astronomers has uncovered the most unmistakable evidence yet that the powerful jets launched by newborn stars reliably record a star’s most violent growth episodes, confirming a long-standing model of how these jets propagate through their surroundings.

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A subtle return of La Niña

A weak La Niña emerged in the equatorial Pacific in late 2025, and scientists are watching how it may help shape weather and climate in the months ahead.

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SpaceX squeezes in 100th Space Coast launch, but weather delays ULA, 2nd SpaceX mission

SpaceX managed to find a lull in the winds early Monday, but a second SpaceX launch as well as one from United Launch Alliance opted to wait at least a day before trying to add to the Space Coast’s rocket mission total.

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Rare brown dwarf discovered orbiting ancient star

Astronomers from the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA) and elsewhere report the discovery of a new brown dwarf about 60 times more massive than Jupiter. The newfound substellar object, designated TOI-7019 b, is a brown dwarf known to orbit a star that is part of the Milky Way’s ancient thick disk. The finding is detailed […]

Forget stardust—it was star ice all along

Carl Sagan famously said that “We’re all made of star stuff.” But he didn’t elaborate on how that actually happened. Yes, many of the molecules in our bodies could only have been created in massive supernovae explosions—hence the saying—and scientists have long thought they had the mechanism for how settled: the isotopes created in the […]

NASA’s Roman telescope will observe thousands of newfound cosmic voids

Our universe is filled with galaxies, in all directions as far as our instruments can see. Some researchers estimate that there are as many as 2 trillion galaxies in the observable universe. At first glance, these galaxies might appear to be randomly scattered across space, but they’re not. Careful mapping has shown that they are […]

Massive stars make their mark in Hubble image

This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image features a glittering blue dwarf galaxy called Markarian 178 (Mrk 178). The galaxy, which is substantially smaller than our own Milky Way, lies 13 million light-years away in the constellation Ursa Major (the Great Bear).

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2.8 days to disaster: Why we are running out of time in low earth orbit

A “House of Cards” is a wonderful English phrase that it seems is now primarily associated with a Netflix political drama. However, its original meaning is of a system that is fundamentally unstable. It’s also the term Sarah Thiele, originally a Ph.D. student at the University of British Columbia, and now at Princeton, and her […]

Can scientists detect life without knowing what it looks like? Research using machine learning offers a new way

When NASA scientists opened the sample return canister from the OSIRIS-REx asteroid sample mission in late 2023, they found something astonishing.

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