Astronomy, features and articles | Educational Science

Mar 31, 2022

Sudden eruption from 'dead' sunspot could bring auroras as far south as New York

Skywatchers, get set for a storm from the sun — and hopefully an ensuing display of the northern lights. After a dead sunspot hurled a ball of plasma, or superheated gas, toward Earth earlier this week, medium-sized auroras may stretch farther south than usual as Earth's atmosphere absorbs the material....

Feb 28, 2022

Are there any moons that are made of gas?

The planets in our solar system come in two forms: Some are rocky, and some are gaseous. But all of the moons in our solar system are rocky, even the ones that orbit gas giants. So why aren't some moons in the solar system made of gas? And are there...

Feb 28, 2022

Northern Lights: What are the aurorae borealis?

The northern lights are a phenomenon that appear in the sky when charged particles coming from the sun slam into oxygen and nitrogen molecules in the atmosphere, ionizing those molecules and causing them to glow. These lights can only typically be seen at high northern latitudes, and they can vary...

Jan 31, 2022

Could the moon ever be pushed from orbit, like in 'Moonfall'?

The moon has been Earth's close companion for billions of years, and while our view of its shape and size varies somewhat as it orbits our planet, it remains a constant presence in the sky. But could that change? In the 2022 movie Moonfall (Lionsgate, released on Feb. 4), a...

Jan 31, 2022

Here's what will happen when SpaceX rocket crashes into the moon

It's not often that the sudden appearance of a new impact crater on the Moon can be predicted, but it’s going to happen on March 4, when a derelict SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket will crash into it. The rocket launched in 2015, carrying Nasa’s Deep Space Climate Observatory (DSCOVR) probe...

Jan 31, 2022

The solar system: Facts about our cosmic neighborhood

The solar system is a collection of planets, moons, asteroids, comets, dust and gas that orbit our local star, the sun. It includes the rocky inner planets Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars; the gas giants Jupiter and Saturn; and the ice giants Uranus and Neptune. Between Mars and Jupiter is...

Dec 31, 2021

We may finally be able to test one of Stephen Hawking's most far-out ideas

We may soon be able to test one of Stephen Hawking's most controversial theories, new research suggests. In the 1970s, Hawking proposed that dark matter, the invisible substance that makes up most matter in the cosmos, may be made of black holes formed in the earliest moments of the Big...

Dec 31, 2021

Mystery 'moon hut' is actually an adorable rabbit-shaped rock

A mysterious moon hut spotted by China's lunar Yutu 2 rover is actually … an adorable rabbit-shaped rock. The rock has been nicknamed jade rabbit by the Yutu 2 team, which announced its rover's closer inspection of the object on Friday (Jan. 7). The nickname is apt, as the rover's...

Nov 30, 2023

James Webb telescope finds water in roiling disk of gas around ultra-hot star for 1st time ever

In a first-of-its-kind discovery, the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has detected water in the inner region of a disk of planet-forming gas and dust surrounding an infant star. The detection is significant because the water, along with other molecules needed to form worlds like Earth, were found close to...

Sep 30, 2023

'Significant and unexpected': Dying star spits out a sun's worth of mass just before going supernova

A massive star that exploded in the Pinwheel Galaxy in May appears to have unexpectedly lost approximately one sun's worth of ejected mass during the final years of its life before going supernova, new observations have shown. This discovery reveals more about the enigmatic end days of massive stars. On...

Sep 30, 2023

The best photos of the Oct. 14 'ring of fire' eclipse over North America

On Saturday (Oct. 14), 2023, a rare annular solar eclipse was visible throughout almost all of North, Central and South America, with lucky viewers in nine states getting treated to a spectacular ring of fire when the moon blocked all but the blazing outline of the sun. If you couldn't...

Sep 30, 2023

Scientists detect fastest-ever fast radio bursts, lasting just 10 millionths of a second

Astronomers just found the fastest known radio pulses from outside our galaxy hiding in 30 minutes' worth of radio telescope data. The findings, published Oct. 19 in the journal Nature Astronomy, could help researchers uncover where these mysterious blips come from. Fast radio bursts (FRBs) are extremely short, high-energy pulses...

Aug 31, 2023

Space photo of the week: James Webb sees the Whirlpool Galaxy in a new light

What it is: The Whirlpool Galaxy (also known as M51 and NGC 5194), a classic grand design spiral galaxy that measures 77,000 light-years from one side to the other. Where it is: 27 million light-years from the solar system in the constellation Canes Venatici, just below Ursa Major. Why it's...

Aug 31, 2023

Astronomers discover new class of cosmic explosion brighter than 100 billion suns

Astronomers have discovered a mysterious new type of cosmic explosion that outshines nearly every supernova ever detected. Within 10 days, the peculiar blast grew brighter than 100 billion suns, then faded away to nearly nothing a few weeks later — a destructive event both briefer and more spectacular than a...

May 31, 2023

The Apollo moon landing was real, but NASA's quarantine procedure was not

In a small desert town, dozens of unsuspecting people suddenly drop dead from a mysterious plague. The infectious agent has come from outer space; it has no known cure, and the U.S. government must scramble to contain it before it destroys the world. This is the plot of The Andromeda...