Astronomy news, features and articles

Researchers bombarded lichens with a year's worth of Martian radiation in just 5 hours — and they survived, hinting that the extremophiles could potentially live on the Red Planet.

Early on April 24, Venus will be at its brightest in the morning sky — just 67 days after it was at its brightest in the evening sky. Here's why.

The James Webb Space Telescope has pointed its infrared optics at the 'Crystal Ball Nebula' NGC 1514, a planetary nebula studied since the late 1800s.

NASA's Curiosity Rover has discovered long carbon chains on Mars. On Earth, molecules like these are overwhelmingly produced by biological processes.

A slowly spinning universe could resolve a puzzle in physics known as the Hubble tension, a new model suggests.

Researchers conducted the first-ever near-infrared analysis of an extragalactic recurrent nova and found it is one of the hottest nova explosions ever discovered.

A rare 'smiley face' triple conjunction is coming to Earth's morning skies on April 25, when Venus, Saturn and the crescent moon form a celestial smirk near the horizon.

About half of the non-dark matter in the universe cannot be accounted for by stars and galaxies alone. Now, scientists say previously undetected clouds of hydrogen gas could finally reveal it.

Samples drilled by the Curiosity rover on Mars have revealed abundant signs of a carbon cycle that remained hidden from orbital scans, alongside clues of how life may have been wiped out on the planet.

New research suggests that the unexpected intensity of the ongoing solar maximum may be partly tied to a lesser-known, 100-year solar cycle. If true, solar activity could spike further in the coming decades. But some experts are skeptical.