Astronomers Measure Remarkable Flares from the Galactic Center
Sagittarius A* (Sgr A*), the supermassive black hole at the center of our Milky Way Galaxy, is 100 times closer to us than any other…
Scientists Find Evidence of ‘Orphan’ Gamma-Ray Bursts
Astronomers typically study objects that are visible night after night or explode suddenly, like supernovas, but Casey Law is scouring vast amounts of data in…
NASA Satellite Captures 360-View of Hurricane Maria
Two days before Hurricane Maria devastated Puerto Rico, the NASA/JAXA Global Precipitation Measurement Core Observatory satellite captured a 3D view of the 2017 storm. At…
Final Cassini Orbits Provide Huge Leap Forward in Our Understanding of the Saturn System
New research emerging from the final orbits of NASA’s Cassini spacecraft represents a huge leap forward in our understanding of the Saturn system — especially…
Hubble and Kepler Reveal First Evidence of a Moon Outside Our Solar System
Using NASA’s Hubble and Kepler space telescopes, astronomers have uncovered tantalizing evidence of what could be the first discovery of a moon orbiting a planet…
Scientists Develop New Way to Measure Earth’s Magnetic Field
Researchers in Canada, the United States and Europe have developed a new way to remotely measure Earth’s magnetic field—by zapping a layer of sodium atoms…
ISS Image Captures the Creativity of Mother Nature
International Space Station Commander Alexander Gerst has a better view of our home planet than most. From aboard the orbital laboratory he sees Earth in…
Astronomers Discover a Distant Solar System Object – 2015 TG387
Astronomers have discovered a new object at the edge of our solar system. The new extremely distant object far beyond Pluto has an orbit that…
MIT Chemists Discover Unexpected Enzyme Structure
Many microbes have an enzyme that can convert carbon dioxide to carbon monoxide. This reaction is critical for building carbon compounds and generating energy, particularly…
OSIRIS-REx Spacecraft Executes First Asteroid Approach Maneuver
NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft executed its first Asteroid Approach Maneuver (AAM-1) today putting it on course for its scheduled arrival at the asteroid Bennu in December….
New Model Sheds Light on Spiraling Supermassive Black Holes
A new model is bringing scientists a step closer to understanding the kinds of light signals produced when two supermassive black holes, which are millions…
Black Holes Only Contain Small Percentage of the Universe’s Dark Matter
For one brief shining moment after the 2015 detection of gravitational waves from colliding black holes, astronomers held out hope that the universe’s mysterious dark…
Scientists Use Gene Therapy to Successfully Treat Mitochondrial Diseases
Mitochondrial disease is now thought to be the second most commonly diagnosed genetic disease worldwide, and, unfortunately, there are still no proven treatment strategies for…
Astronomers Identify Possible Places of Origin of ‘Oumuamua
Using data from ESA’s Gaia stellar surveyor, astronomers have identified four stars that are possible places of origin of ‘Oumuamua, an interstellar object spotted during…
‘Fingerprints’ of Ancient Weather Conditions
When a coastal tide rolls out, it can reveal beautiful ripples in the temporarily exposed sand. These same undulating patterns can also be seen in…
Hubble Telescope Views a Glittering Ball of Stars
This glittering ball of stars is the globular cluster NGC 1898, which lies towards the center of the Large Magellanic Cloud — one of our…
New Identity for the World’s Largest Bird – Vorombe Titan
After decades of conflicting evidence and numerous publications, scientists at international conservation charity ZSL’s Institute of Zoology, have finally put the ‘world’s largest bird’ debate…
Astronomers Probe Four Newly Discovered Milky Way Neighbors
Ultra-faint, dwarf galaxies are the smallest, most dark matter dominated, and least chemically enriched stellar systems in the universe and are important targets for understanding…