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Before there were planets, stars, and galaxies, before even neutral atoms or stable protons, there was the Big Bang. How did we prove it?

We confidently state that the Universe is known to be 13.8 billion years old, with an uncertainty of just 1%. Here’s how we know.

A new artificial intelligence method removes the effect of gravity on cosmic images, showing the real shapes of distant galaxies.

Finding out how the Universe grew up was the biggest science goal of JWST. This ultra-early proto-galaxy cluster is one amazing discovery.

Not only does this give us a look at the scaffolding of the universe, we found some new galaxies too!

When you measure not just light, but light’s polarization, you learn so much more. It’s been over 100 years since the first solution for a black hole was discovered in General […]

If we were born trillions of years in the future, could we even figure out our cosmic history?

Researchers discovered a galactic wind from a supermassive black hole that sheds light on the evolution of galaxies.

The secret ingredient is violence, and it just might indicate that “moonmoons” aren’t as uncommon as most astronomers think.

And a combination of all three might take us farther than ever. If you want to see the farthest objects in the Universe, you have to know not only where to […]

Hubble’s deepest views of space revealed fewer than 10% of the Universe’s galaxies. James Webb will change that forever.

Speeding through the Universe and leaving a wake of new stars, this runaway supermassive black hole is likely the first among thousands.

Researchers hypothesize that these exoplanets could support the development of alien life.

The zero-point energy of empty space is not zero. Even with all the physics we know, we have no idea how to calculate what it ought to be.

Even if you or I will never actually visit these distant worlds, we now know they exist. They should fill us with wonder.

Every observation out into deep space is also a look back in time. Whenever you observe an object, you aren’t viewing it in its present state. When one of Jupiter’s moons […]

If stars don’t go supernova at first, they can get a second chance after becoming a white dwarf. But can their companions survive?

In the night sky for March of 2022, only stars and the Moon, not planets, will greet you. The real show, however, arrives just before dawn.

Infrared, visible, and ultraviolet combine to show us Jupiter’s features as never before. The largest planet in our Solar System, Jupiter, is our own ‘failed star.’ The best evidence-based classification scheme […]

Dark energy is one of the biggest mysteries in all the Universe. Is there some way to avoid “having to live with it?”

65 million years ago, a massive asteroid struck Earth. Not only did Jupiter not stop it, but it probably caused the impact itself.

The successor to Hubble is almost ready for launch. It’s really coming this year, too! NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope, originally proposed in the 1990s, is finally slated to launch later […]

The closest star system to Earth, just over 4 light-years away, has three stars and at least one Earth-sized planet. Is it time to go there?

Both views are equally spectacular, but unequally informative. Every so often, a creative amateur project highlights our professional achievements. This mosaic shows the region between the constellations of Cygnus and […]

Scientists find an exoplanet whose strange behavior may lead to the Solar’s System hidden ninth planet.

Gamma-ray bursts are among the most energetic cosmic events of all. On October 9, 2022, a remarkable one occurred: the brightest ever seen.

All across the Universe, planets come in a wide variety of sizes, masses, compositions, and temperatures. And most have rain and snow.

Galaxies can have regions both hotter and colder than the background radiation of the Universe. When we talk about the depths of space, we get this picture in our heads […]

If it weren’t for the intricate rules of quantum physics, we wouldn’t have formed neutral atoms “only” ~380,000 years after the Big Bang.

We’ve almost got the entire story. James Webb will put the last piece into place. In all of science, there are really only two ways that something can be “known” to […]