Triton Massacred Neptune's Moons. The Outlier Survived.
Nereid was filed under "captured outsider" for decades. JWST says it's the only original moon that survived Triton's arrival. The orbit we called wrong is why it's still there.
Astronomy
Rocky, Gaseous, Gaseous, Rocky. The Universe Skipped Astronomy 101.
A star 116 light-years away built its planets in an order that shouldn't exist. What happened out there at the edge?
The End of the Universe
Astronomers say we've been misreading dark energy; the cosmological constant is negative. Not good news for the universe.
Fight Clubs of the Cosmos
Too massive to originate from a single collapsing star, the biggest black holes form from a series of clashes of smaller black holes.
Glowing Galaxy So Primitive, It's Still Big Bang Gas
LAP1-B glows with radiation no known star produces. Powerful evidence points to first generation Population III stars.
Dead Stars Have Been Snowing on Antarctica for 80,000 Years
Iron-60 doesn't form on Earth. So why is it showing up in 80,000-year-old Antarctic ice — and what dead star left it there?
A Ghost Galaxy Called Loki Is Lurking in the Milky Way
Ancient stars hiding in the galactic plane share identical chemistry but opposite orbits. Remnants of a galaxy the Milky Way devoured at the dawn of time.
The Big Bang Made Two Universes. We Got the One Going Forward.
A math-supported theory proposes that matter exists because the Big Bang created a mirror twin running in reverse. That twin may also explain dark energy.
Hellish Sulfur World Is Off the Charts
A planet 35 light-years away has a sulfur atmosphere that should have burned off billions of years ago. Astronomers had to create a new category to describe it.
No Spin, No Explanation: A Massive Ancient Galaxy Sits Still
A rare non-rotating galaxy spotted by the James Webb telescope. One dramatic collision might explain it.
A World Beyond Pluto Burped Up an Atmosphere
An icy rock out past Neptune is holding onto gas it has no right to hold.
An Unknown Object Has Been Keeping a 44-Minute Clock. Astronomers Just Found Out It Has Two Hands.
It has pulsed every 44 minutes for longer than anyone has been watching. Astronomers just found a second signal running in perfect sync — and the physics for it doesn't exist yet.
A Planet 140 Light-Years Away Is Shedding Itself Into Space, One Mountain at a Time
A world is disintegrating as it orbits too close to its star. Each lost fragment speeds up the collapse.
A Vampire Star Exploded Twice. The Wreckage Shows Both Blasts.
The wreckage of a double-detonation supernova 60,000 light-years away just gave astronomers the first image of a stellar death that happened twice.
A Planet Had a Growth Spurt to the Tune of Six Billion Tonnes Per Second
A rogue planet with no star just consumed gas and dust at six billion tonnes per second, the highest accretion rate ever recorded for any planetary object.
A Star in Andromeda Skipped the Explosion
One of the most luminous stars in Andromeda quietly collapsed and became a black hole — no explosion, no warning.
The Dark Matter Answer May Have Arrived From Before Time Began
The invisible glue holding galaxies together may be wreckage from a universe that died before ours began. Could dark matter predate the Big Bang itself?
Space Sent Bigger Fireballs in March. People Noticed.
Double the fireballs. Rocks through roofs. Sonic booms every three days. Scientists have ruled out meteor showers, camera effects and AI. What's left?