Beneath the ice of Saturn’s moon Enceladus lies an ocean that seems an unlikely home for life. Its water is highly alkaline, and one ingredient microbes need is extremely scarce. Yet a laboratory experiment suggests that the chemistry of this hidden ocean could help certain microorganisms keep growing.
Scientists Discover Something Unexpected Behind Mars’s Mysterious 1800 Kilometre Cloud
Every morning, a gigantic cloud stretches across the Martian sky, reaching up to 1,800 kilometres before vanishing just hours later. For years, scientists struggled to explain how this mysterious cloud forms beside one of Mars’s tallest volcanoes. Now, a surprising discovery suggests that the answer lies in an atmospheric process so unusual that it has never been observed on another planet.
Scientists Have a New Way to Search for Alien Life, One Molecule at a Time
The Sun May Be Capable of Something Far More Powerful Than We’ve Ever Seen
The Sun has produced powerful storms before, but scientists are still trying to understand just how extreme its eruptions can become. New research suggests our star may be capable of producing a superflare, a burst of radiation far more energetic than anything observed during the space age. The evidence comes from a mix of modern solar observations, centuries of sunspot records, and clues from similar stars, but one key question remains: has the Sun ever actually unleashed one?
This Strange Red Dot May Be the First Known “Black Hole Star”
This Bright Interstellar Comet Is Carrying a Message From an Ancient Star System
Is There Life Out There? Number of Exoplanets With Liquid Water Vastly Underestimated
A Planet With Strange Clouds Is Helping Astronomers See More Clearly
What Caused ʻOumuamua's Mysterious Non-Gravitational Acceleration? - We may finally have the answer
Amazing Discovery: A Small World Beyond Neptune Seems to Have an Atmosphere, Puzzling Astronomers
How water ended up on the moon, and why only some craters kept it
How this robot could accelerate the search for life
Planetary rovers may seem like bold explorers, but in reality they work under tight limits. On Mars, even simple instructions take minutes to arrive, so every move must be planned carefully. That keeps missions safe, but it also raises a question: if robots move slowly and stop often, how much of another world can we really study?
A star vanished in Andromeda, astronomers found signs of a black hole forming
Mysterious discovery: new instrument uncovers a huge bar-shaped iron feature in the Ring Nebula
The cosmos is filled with invisible dark matter and scientists may finally be on the verge of detecting it
When darkness shines: How dark stars could illuminate the early universe
A nearby supernova could help explain why Earth-like planets may be more common than we thought
A young solar system does not just build planets from dust and gas. It can also be shaped by what happens nearby, including the death of a massive star. New research suggests that a supernova at the right distance could quietly change a planet’s ingredients from the start, and that this setup may be more common than scientists once assumed.