Puerto Rican scientists mourn loss of Arecibo Observatory's iconic telescope By Meghan Bartels In a year full of terrible new sorrows and burdens, the collapse of Arecibo Observatory's iconic radio telescope feels like a particularly brutal loss to Puerto Ricans.
China claims fastest quantum computer in the world By Rafi Letzter "Jiuzhang" would be the most powerful quantum computer in the world, capable of performing some tasks 100 trillion times faster than the world's fastest supercomputers.
Earth spent 500 million years creating and eating dead continents By Rafi Letzter For more than a billion years, Earth covered itself in new continents. New research shows that those continents were quickly swallowed up again but their deaths fertilized life on the surface.
Most accurate map of our galaxy pinpoints 1.8 billion cosmic objects By Megan Gannon With new data from the European Gaia spacecraft, astronomers can now explore 1.8 billion cosmic objects in unparalleled detail.
Mysterious minimoon circling Earth is actually a 1960s rocket booster By Laura Geggel It's official: Earth's minimoon is human made.
World's largest atom smasher could seed microscopic black holes By Paul Sutter If teensy black holes could be produced inside the world's largest atom smasher, the Large Hadron Collider, that would be a boon for physics.
China's Chang'e 5 probe lifts off from moon carrying lunar samples By Andrew Jones China has launched a small spacecraft from the surface of the moon in the critical next step in the ambitious Chang'e 5 mission to bring lunar samples to Earth.
Drone catches Arecibo Observatory's last moments By Laura Geggel When the cables broke at Arecibo Observatory, a drone caught the whole event on video.
Ghostly circles in the sky can't be explained. And astronomers are excited. By Ray Norris Ghostly circles of radio emission, hanging out in space like cosmic smoke-rings, can't be explained by current theories. And astronomers are excited to figure them out.
Mystery of galaxy's missing dark matter solved. (And it involves a thief.) By Michelle Starr A small, mysterious galaxy 44 million light-years away is finally yielding up its secrets.
Watch China spacecraft land on the moon in this amazing video By Andrew Jones A spectacular video from China's Chang'e 5 lander reveals its successful touchdown on the moon as it softly set down to collect the first lunar samples in 44 years.
Black holes may not exist, but fuzzballs might, wild theory suggests By Paul Sutter What if black holes aren't black holes at all, but rather the cosmic equivalent of fuzzy, vibrating balls of string?
These photos of the Arecibo Observatory telescope collapse are just heartbreaking By Elizabeth Howell Gut-wrenching pictures and video documented the beginning of the end for the Arecibo Observatory, one of the world's most iconic telescopes.
Scientists just mapped 1 million new galaxies, in 300 hours By Brandon Specktor Australian scientists tested all 36 receivers on the ASKAP radio telescope for the first time ever, mapping 85% of the sky in 300 hours.
China's Chang'e 5 lands on the moon to collect the 1st fresh lunar samples in decades By Mike Wall China has landed on the moon again — and this time the country plans to bring home some souvenirs.
Broken Arecibo telescope collapses, ending an era of alien-hunting By Mindy Weisberger After two snapped cables damaged Arecibo Observatory's radio telescope beyond repair, the iconic instrument has collapsed.
Our solar system will disintegrate sooner than we thought By Michelle Starr Although the ground beneath our feet feels solid and reassuring (most of the time), nothing in this universe lasts forever.
