Why look for life on other worlds based on life on Earth?
Cole Mathis, Arizona State University Have you ever played hide-and-seek in a new place? It’s much harder than playing at home. You only know the obvious hiding spots: under the bed, in the…
A radical new theory challenges the existence of dark matter
For decades, the existence of dark matter has been one of the most widely accepted theories in astrophysics and cosmology. This hypothetical, invisible substance is thought to make up around 85% of the…
Anomaly in Earth’s magnetic field tail
The magnetic field that protects us from solar storms and creates dazzling auroras is exhibiting strange behavior in its tail. Scientists are working to solve this mystery. Magnetic reconnection is a process where…
James Webb spots most distant black hole merger yet
In a groundbreaking discovery, astronomers have used NASA’s powerful James Webb Space Telescope to detect the most distant merger of two massive black holes ever observed. This remarkable event, which occurred when the…
Astronomers are searching for Dyson spheres
A study, published in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, titled “Project Hephaistos—II. Dyson sphere candidates from Gaia DR3, 2MASS, and WISE”, presents a novel way of searching for technosignatures from…
NASA plans to build a rail system on the Moon
As NASA sets its sights on establishing a permanent human presence on the Moon in the coming decades, the space agency is exploring innovative ways to transport materials and cargo across the lunar…
Companies seek profits in the race for space metals
By Sarah Scoles In April 2023, a satellite the size of a microwave launched to space. Its goal: to get ready to mine asteroids. While the mission, courtesy of a company called AstroForge,…
Exoplanet WASP-69b has a cometlike tail
Dakotah Tyler, University of California, Los Angeles Located 163 light-years from Earth, a Jupiter-sized exoplanet named WASP-69b offers astrophysicists a window into the dynamic processes that shape planets across the galaxy. The star…
Elon Musk raises the possibility of finding alien ruins
During a recent interview at the Milken Institute’s global conference in Los Angeles, billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk made some thought-provoking comments about humanity’s potential to one day discover traces of long-extinct alien societies….
Oxygen-rich rocks suggest similarities between Mars and Earth
Rocks strewn across an ancient Martian shoreline could suggest that the Red Planet was more reminiscent of Earth in its past, according to recent findings. These rocks, uncovered by NASA’s Curiosity rover, contain…