Did you know that sunsets on Mars are blue? It sounds backwards for a planet named for its rusty red color, but it comes down to how sunlight scatters through Mars’ thin, dusty atmosphere: fine dust particles scatter red light... Continue Reading →
The Moon is practically on our doorstep, and yet, after decades of orbital missions and Apollo sample returns, we still don't have a complete chemical map of its surface. A new study published in Earth, Planets and Space proposes an... Continue Reading →
Today's NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day features the Vela Supernova Remnant — a vast tangle of glowing filaments left by a star that exploded 12,000 years ago, just 800 light-years from Earth. At its heart, a pulsar spins ten times per second.
More than two miles below the surface of the Mediterranean Sea off the coast of Sicily, an extraordinary observatory called KM3NeT sits in total darkness and it has been quietly rewriting the record books. In February 2023, it recorded the... Continue Reading →
Astronomers have just given us the sharpest picture yet of the universe's vast, invisible architecture and it's breathtaking. Using NASA's James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), researchers at the University of California, Riverside have produced the most detailed map ever made... Continue Reading →
For nearly a century, the Big Bang has been the leading explanation for how our universe began: a hot, dense state that rapidly expanded into everything we see today. But there’s a problem. When physicists try to rewind the universe... Continue Reading →
On September 14, 2015, a signal arrived on Earth, carrying information about a pair of remote black holes that had spiraled together and merged. The signal had traveled about 1.3 billion years to reach us at the speed of light—but... Continue Reading →
The NASA New Horizons spacecraft’s extensive observations of Lyman-alpha emissions have resulted in the first-ever map from the galaxy at this important ultraviolet wavelength, providing a new look at the galactic region surrounding our solar system. The findings are described... Continue Reading →
A new study in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society by researchers including István Szapudi of the University of Hawaiʻi Institute for Astronomy suggests the universe may rotate—just extremely slowly. The finding could help solve one of astronomy’s biggest puzzles. “To paraphrase the... Continue Reading →