The Earliest Merging Quasars Ever Seen
Studying the history of science shows how often serendipity plays a role in some of the most important discoveries. Sometimes,…
Hubble's Back, but Only Using One Gyro
The Hubble Space Telescope has experienced ongoing problems with one of its three remaining gyroscopes, so NASA has decided to…
Earth’s Atmosphere is Our Best Defence Against Nearby Supernovae
Earth's protective atmosphere has sheltered life for billions of years, creating a haven where evolution produced complex lifeforms like us.…
There’s Chang’e-6 on the Far Side of the Moon
The newest phase of China's lunar exploration project is soon coming to an end. On June 20th, the Chang'e 6…
A New Way to Survive the Harsh Lunar Night
The Moon is a tough place to survive, and not just for humans. The wild temperature extremes between day and…
The Great Red Spot Probably Formed in the Early 1800s
Jupiter's Great Red Spot (GRS) is one of the Solar System's defining features. It's a massive storm that astronomers have…
A New Way to Prove if Primordial Black Holes Contribute to Dark Matter
The early Universe was a strange place. Early in its history—in the first quintillionth of a second—the entire cosmos was…
Baby Stars are Swarming Around the Galactic Center
The vicinity of Sagittarius A* (Sgr A*), the supermassive black hole at the Milky Way's center, is hyperactive. Stars, gas,…
Rotation Curves of Galaxies Stay Flat Indefinitely
In his classic book On the Structure of Scientific Revolutions, the philosopher Thomas Kuhn posited that, for a new scientific…
Almost a Third of Early Galaxies Were Already Spirals
In the years before the JWST's launch, astronomers' efforts to understand the early Universe were stymied by a stubborn obstacle:…