New research suggests that a troubling disparity in the rate of expansion of the universe, known as the Hubble constant, may arise from the fact Earth sits in a vast underdense region of the cosmos. The issue has come to be known as the “Hubble tension.” It arises from the fact that there are two…

Was planetary formation different during the early universe than today? This is what a recent study published in The Astrophysical Journal hopes to address as an international team of researchers investigated whether planets could form with a lack of heavy elements, building off a 2003 finding from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope, which identified a 13-billion-year-old…

Astronomers have discovered the first binary stars orbiting a supermassive black hole. The stellar pairing in question orbits the cosmic titan at the heart of the Milky Way, Sagittarius A*. The binary stars, designated D9, were found in data collected by the Very Large Telescope (VLT), located atop Cerro Paranal, an 8,645-foot-tall (2,635-meter) mountain in…

European Space Agency (ESA), European space and space-technology research organization founded in 1975 from the merger of the European Launcher Development Organisation (ELDO) and the European Space Research Organisation (ESRO), both established in 1964. Members include Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland,…

What processes are occurring on the much-studied exoplanet, Trappist-1 b, despite it orbiting outside the inner edge of the star’s habitable zone (HZ)? This is what a recent study published in Nature Astronomy hopes to address as an international team of researchers investigated Trappist-1 b’s atmospheric and surface characteristics to ascertain the planet’s present state.…

Citing possible environmental and human effects of satellite-based space junk in low Earth orbit, 120 astronomers and researchers sent a letter to Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in October imploring the organization to look into the possible negative impacts. Backed by the special interest group U.S. Public interest Research Group (PIRG), these scientists urged FCC Space…

Want to see the most spectacular celestial events of 2025 — including bright planets, Blood Moons, and meteor showers? Use the Sky Tonight app: it will show you when any of these events will occur in your exact location. Keep reading to learn about all of the must-see events. Contents Best astronomy events in 2025…

Astronomers analyzing archival images from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) have discovered an unexpectedly vast population of the smallest asteroids ever seen in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. The finding could lead to better tracking of the tiny but powerful space rocks that are likely to approach Earth. The newfound asteroids range…

Everything scientists can observe in the universe, from people to planets, is made of matter. Matter is defined as any substance that has mass and occupies space. But there’s more to the universe than the matter we can see. Dark matter and dark energy are mysterious substances that affect and shape the cosmos, and scientists…

Scientists have just released a 10-year plan for studying the Sun, currently at its solar maximum. Credit: NASA At its current solar maximum, our Sun has been pretty busy of late, flinging parts of itself at Earth and raising concerns about effects on satellites and power grids while also gracing us with incredible aurorae. Solar…