Astronomy

Astronomy

A vivid cosmic scene reveals colorful nebulae and stardust in vibrant shades of blue, purple, and orange, set against a backdrop of space. NASA observatories capture this celestial beauty, unveiling hidden holes in the vast tapestry of the universe.
NASA's space telescopes and observatories bring humanity unrivaled science images and scientific discoveries. Here's what should be next.
A vibrant cosmic explosion with bright colors radiating outward, set against a starry space background, captures the mystery of a bizarre supernova.
In the year 1181, a "guest star" was recorded in the constellation of Cassiopeia. Its modern supernova remnant is weirder than we imagined.
A panoramic image of the Milky Way galaxy, with an inset showing a zoomed view of distant galaxies, tells a cosmic story. This region, highlighted in textured detail, echoes the exploration themes of the Euclid mission.
What are dark matter and dark energy? The large-scale structure of the cosmos encodes them both, with ESA's Euclid mission leading the way.
Friedmann equation
The most common visual depictions of the history of the Universe show the Big Bang as a growing tube with an "ignition" point. Why is that?
Silhouette of NASA's Europa Clipper spacecraft with antennas poised against a colorful planetary surface, sparking dreams of alien life.
Could life be widespread throughout the cosmos, in the subsurface oceans of ice-covered worlds? NASA's Europa Clipper mission investigates.
Rocky, reddish Martian landscape with scattered boulders and a hazy sky.
Caption:“At this time in Mars’ history, we think CO2 is everywhere, in every nook and cranny, and water percolating through the rocks is full of CO2 too,” Joshua Murray says.
An image of a cluster of galaxies, meaning science.
An in-depth interview with astronomer Kelsey Johnson, whose new book, Into the Unknown, explores what remains unknown about the Universe.
A starry night sky over a snow-capped mountain, known as one of Earth's best astronomy locations, with bright city lights shimmering in the distance on the horizon.
There are a number of factors to consider when choosing where to build a telescope. These 3 locations, on their merits, surpass all others.
Book cover titled "Infinite Cosmos" with a vibrant galaxy and stars. Includes "National Geographic" logo and the text "Visions from the James Webb Space Telescope." Introduction by Brian Greene.
National Geographic's first James Webb Space Telescope book shows us the cosmos like never before.
A starry sky with a magnified view highlights an orange, cloud-like structure representing one of the youngest astronomical objects in the Milky Way, shimmering as it subtly rotates.
The earliest Milky Way-like galaxy, REBELS-25, was spotted rotating about its axis. It's only 700 million years old: 5% of our present age.
Two observatory domes under a starry night sky, with the Milky Way visible, form a stunning backdrop as an optical interferometer captures the universe's secrets.
Interferometry gave us a black hole's event horizon, but that was in the radio. What can we accomplish with a new optical interferometer?
Planck CMB
Today, the deepest depths of intergalactic space aren't at absolute zero, but at a chill 2.73 K. How does that temperature change over time?
A clock face with moon phases as numbers, set against a blue sky with scattered clouds, creates a whimsical portrayal of lunar time.
Physicists recently created Coordinated Lunar Time, a time zone for our Moon.
A vibrant, high-resolution image of a spiral galaxy with rich clusters of stars and interstellar dust, where most stars formed.
The Universe has been creating stars for nearly all 13.8 billion years of its history. But those photons can't match the Big Bang's light.
A large telescope observatory under construction at dusk with a visible moon and stars in the sky. Cranes and construction equipment are present around the structure.
Comet A3, also known as Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS, has sprung to life since 2024's last equinox. Here's how to catch the show for yourself.
Aerial image of a Martian landscape with rough, textured surface featuring blue and reddish-brown hues marked by undulating ridges and valleys.
Scientists might be looking for Martian life in the wrong place.
A spacecraft travels at the fastest spacecraft speed record through bright, yellow-orange streaks of plasma and solar wind near the Sun.
The Parker Solar Probe is about to undergo its seventh encounter with Venus on its journey toward the Sun. Here's how fast it'll go.
A deep-space image captured by the JWST showcases numerous galaxies of various shapes, sizes, and colors scattered across a dark background, potentially setting a new cosmic distance record.
Despite many ultra-distant galaxy candidates found with JWST, we still haven't seen anything from the Universe's first 250 million years.
Two views of the same celestial object: the fiery orange-blue image on the left and a cooler blue-pink image on the right, showcasing an hourglass-shaped cloud of gas and dust in space.
Just 460 light-years away, the closest newborn protostars are forming in the Taurus molecular cloud. Here are JWST's astonishing insights.
A dense cluster of young stars and bright blue-white spots set against a dark reddish-brown background, with scattered sparkles of light from numerous stars in the outer Milky Way, captured stunningly by JWST.
Almost all of the stars, planets, and interesting physics happens in the inner portions of galaxies. Is that conventional wisdom all wrong?
A technician in a cleanroom suit works by a large cylindrical piece of equipment in a high-tech laboratory setting with industrial tools and machinery.
A recent experiment challenges the leading dark matter theory and hints at new directions for uncovering one of the Universe's biggest mysteries.
atom illustration
Most fundamental constants could be a little larger or smaller, and our Universe would still be similar. But not the mass of the electron.
Image of Mimas, one of Saturn's moons, partially illuminated. The large Herschel crater is prominently visible on the right side of the moon's surface.
The existence of another watery world in the outer solar system may offer clues to how such seas form — and hope for another spot to search for life.
Two breathtaking pictures of a galaxy and a star taken by the Hubble telescope, highlighting the beauty and cosmic magnitude that fuels the Hubble tension.
In the expanding Universe, different ways of measuring its rate give incompatible answers. Nobel Laureate Adam Riess explains what it means.
The image shows a bright spot labeled "JADES-GS-z13-1-LA," seemingly an impossible light captured by the JWST, surrounded by measurement markers, including a scale bar for 1 kpc and 0.28 arcsec. Filters and colors are listed at the bottom.
The Lyman-α emission line has never been seen earlier than 550 million years after the Big Bang. So why does JADES-GS-z13-1-LA have one?
A detailed image of two galaxies in space, one with spiral arms on the left and the other, more elliptical, on the right, surrounded by distant stars.
Galactic activity doesn't just arrive when supermassive black holes feast on matter. Before, during, and after all create fascinating signs.
uap ufo UAPs UFOs
Although a great many unidentified sights have been seen in the skies, none have conclusively demonstrated the presence of aliens. So far.
JWST deep field vs hubble
The "little red dots" were touted as being too massive, too early, for cosmology to explain. With new knowledge, everything adds up.
Comparison of weight on Earth and Mars for a 1 kg mass. On Earth: gravity = 9.81 m/s², weight = 9.81 N. On Mars: gravity = 3.72 m/s², weight = 3.72 N; demonstrating that weight and mass are not the same across different planets due to varying gravitational forces.
Here on Earth, we commonly use terms like weight (in pounds) and mass (in kilograms) as though they're interchangeable. They're not.
So far, Earth is the only planet that we're certain possesses active life processes. Here's what we shouldn't assume about life elsewhere.