Science

This summer NASA‘s two car-sized labs exploring Mars each discovered rocks that neither mission had seen before, revealing a more diverse history for the planet than previously thought.  Three major findings happened within the span of seven weeks. The Curiosity rover, which has been climbing a mountain of layered rock, literally stumbled upon pure sulfur,...

A NASA probe, the length of a basketball court, is headed to the tantalizing world Europa. Planetary scientists are confident this moon of Jupiter harbors a deep ocean. A looming question is whether it hosts the ingredients and conditions to support life. With around 50 close flybys of the planet, the sizable craft — the...

Imposing bears teem in Alaska’s Katmai National Park and Preserve. But few dare enter its Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes. In 1912, a volcano was born here. It erupted for nearly three days. Its ominous ash clouds left the town of Kodiak, 100 miles away, in profound darkness, nearly obscuring lanterns held at arms’ length....

Two galaxies are merging in the deep cosmos. And the James Webb Space Telescope just captured a vivid view of the scene. The interacting galaxies, called Arp 107, collided hundreds of millions of years ago, and a bridge of stars has formed between them as they undergo the long, gradual process of merging into one....

There are funhouse mirrors in space. Objects in the universe can be so massive — often clusters of galaxies — that they warp the cosmos, like a bowling ball sitting on a mattress. This creates a curved cosmic lens, bending and distorting light, while also magnifying and brightening the light. It’s an invaluable natural telescope...

Robotic Martians can see blue Earth in Mars‘ sky. The Curiosity rover, a car-sized NASA robot looking to find evidence of past habitability on the Red Planet, recently snapped an image of Mars’ misshapen moon, Phobos, and Earth next to each other. “It’s the first time an image of the two celestial bodies have been...

Crew onboard the Russian Soyuz capsule, a flight to the International Space Station (ISS) that took place on Sept. 11, became record-breaking space residents this week, as humanity waves up to the now 19 humans living and working in space. It’s the largest group living in space concurrently in history. Tweet may have been deleted...

The far outskirts of our galaxy are teeming with activity. Astronomers pointed the powerful James Webb Space Telescope at a distant zone dubbed the “Extreme Outer Galaxy,” and zoomed in on dense cosmic clouds containing clusters of stars. In unprecedented resolution of this region, they spotted vibrant star formation, and potent jets of material ejecting...

The most volcanic world in our solar system has sprouted a new volcano. And its lava flows are enormous. Jupiter’s molten moon Io has been surveyed by a number of passing spacecraft, allowing planetary scientists to see changes on the surface. Recently, NASA‘s Juno mission made the closest swings by Io in two decades. The...