NASA finds water on the moon's sunlit surface for the first time By Chelsea Gohd The moon has more hidden pockets of water ice than previously thought, NASA's SOFIA flying observatory reveals.
The Milky Way's quiet, introverted monster won't spin By Rafi Letzter This supermassive black hole's spin has been measured for the first time, and it's surprisingly low.
Distant alien planets could be turned into dark matter detectors By Paul Sutter A pair of astronomers is advocating a daring new research program: to turn our widening search for life beyond Earth into a hunt for dark matter.
The first star in our galaxy caught sending out fast radio bursts is doing it again By Michelle Starr A little dead star that dazzled us earlier this year is not done with its shenanigans.
NASA's first attempt to sample an asteroid in space made a mess. It's the best mess ever, scientists say. By Tariq Malik A NASA spacecraft has really made a mess of things on the asteroid Bennu, and scientists are thrilled.
Physicists search for imprints left by dark matter haloes as they swoosh through galactic gas By Andreea Font The search for dark matter is at a crossroads. Now, physicists have a new way to tell what the invisible stuff is made of.
Aliens on 1,000 nearby stars could see us, new study suggests By Rafi Letzter Humans have gotten good at spotting planets orbiting alien stars. But how many of those alien stars are able to look back and see us?
Physicists clock the fastest possible speed of sound By Stephanie Pappas Scientists have discovered how fast sound can go, a blistering 22 miles (36 kilometers) per second.
Asteroid Bennu: Successful touchdown —but sample return mission has only just begun By Monica Grady The most hazardous part of the mission is over – and seemingly successful, although we will have to wait for a few more days to hear the scale of the success.
'Starman' just zipped past Mars in his rapidly-decaying Tesla Roadster By Rafi Letzter Starman — the dummy riding a Tesla Roadster through space — has made his closest approach ever to Mars since his stunt launch in 2018.
NASA spacecraft makes historic attempt to snag samples of asteroid Bennu By Mike Wall For the first time ever, a NASA probe has performed a sample-snagging operation on an asteroid in deep space.
Black holes could become massive particle accelerators By Paul Sutter Physicists suggest harnessing the gravitational pull of black holes to create ferocious particle accelerators. The trick? Carefully set everything up so the particles don't get lost forever.
The strange story of 2020 SO: How an asteroid turned into rocket junk and the NASA scientist who figured it out By Meghan Bartels As soon as he saw the data, Paul Chodas knew something was strange about the near-Earth object that had been designated 2020 SO.
The closest black hole to Earth may not actually be a black hole after all By Michelle Starr An object identified earlier this year as the closest black hole we've ever discovered may have just been demoted.
Astronomers claimed galaxy was 98% dark matter. They were wrong. By Rafi Letzter Back in 2016, researchers claimed Dragonfly 44 was a "failed" Milky Way — a galaxy with a huge dark matter mass but almost no stars. Now, on closer examination, that claim has fallen apart.
Artemis Accords: Why many countries are refusing to sign moon exploration agreement By Christopher Newman Only eight countries have signed the Artemis Accords, a set of guidelines surrounding the Artemis Program for crewed exploration of the moon.
Without gravity, the fluid around an astronaut's brain moves in weird ways By Doris Elin Salazar The fluid that cushions the human brain redistributes in the skull during spaceflight, according to a new study.
Higgs boson possibly caught in act of never-before-seen transformation By Rafi Letzter If the Higgs boson really is decaying into pairs of muons in the Large Hadron Collider, that's a big deal for particle physics.
NASA is about to play 'tag' with asteroid Bennu: Here's how it will work. By Samantha Mathewson NASA's OSIRIS-Rex spacecraft will "TAG" asteroid Bennu Tuesday (Oct. 20) and collect a sample for return to Earth.
Researchers capture elusive particle trios at room temperature By Stephanie Pappas Researchers have found a way to trap and study elusive particle trios called trions at room temperature.
