What an amateur astronomer recently took to be a newly discovered asteroid turned out to be a Tesla Roadster voyaging through the cosmos. Yep, you read that right. The infinite vastness of outer space isn’t exactly conducive to terrestrial vehicles, like the sports car manufactured by Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s company. Perhaps that’s why the…

Star turn: Kenzie Nimmo presenting this work at a recent conference. (Courtesy: K Nimmo) The exact origins of cosmic phenomena known as fast radio bursts (FRBs) are not fully understood, but scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the US have identified a fresh clue: at least one of these puzzling cosmic discharges…

Sign up for CNN’s Wonder Theory science newsletter. Explore the universe with news on fascinating discoveries, scientific advancements and more. CNN  —  Mysterious fast radio bursts, or millisecond-long bright flashes of radio waves from space, have intrigued astronomers since the first detection of the phenomenon in 2007. The enigmatic signals, known as FRBs, release as much…

Scientists think a small rock discovered near Earth last August was hurled into space by an ancient impact on the lunar surface. For a few months last fall, a school-bus-size space rock named 2024 PT5 gained fame as Earth’s new “mini-moon.” Astronomers rushed to study the object while it was still close enough to Earth…

Astronomers have, for the first time, watched the moment a feeding supermassive black hole at the heart of a distant galaxy spat out a jet of material at one-third of the speed of light. Plus, the structure is technically made up of two jets, each about half a light-year across. The black hole in question,…

Astronomers have, for the first time, watched the moment a feeding supermassive black hole at the heart of a distant galaxy spat out a jet of material at one-third of the speed of light. Plus, the structure is technically made up of two jets, each about half a light-year across. The black hole in question,…

That’s no asteroid. That’s … a car? Credit: SpaceX On Jan. 2, the Minor Planet Center at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Massachusetts, announced the discovery of an unusual asteroid, designated 2018 CN41. First identified and submitted by citizen scientist H. A. Güler, the object’s orbit was notable: It came less than 150,000…

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Enlarge this image Bettymaya Foott/National Radio Astronomy Observatory At the turn of the century, 3.8 million people banded together in a real-time search for aliens — with screensavers. The project was called SETI@home. The hope was that with the power of millions of computers, researchers could comb through radio signals hitting Earth from outer space…

Students Engage with the Cosmos at Potter Gray Elementary In an extraordinary event at Potter Gray Elementary in Bowling Green, Kentucky, students immersed themselves in a unique educational experience with the Orbit Earth Expo. This interactive program featured massive inflatables representing the Earth, sun, and moon, capturing the imaginations of young learners the moment they…