Space

From black holes and galaxies to Mars exploration and the latest announcements from NASA and other space agencies, you’ll find all the most exciting space news here.

By ScienceAlert

Space
We Now Know What Smashed Into Jupiter Last Month
ScienceAlert - Michelle Starr
Last month, we got the exciting news of a rare flash of light on Jupiter, bright enough to be seen through telescopes. According to a new analysis, …
10 hours ago
Neutron Stars
Astronomers Have Detected What Could Be The Most Massive Neutron Star Yet
ScienceAlert - Michelle Starr
Astronomers have identified what could be the most massive neutron star to date. It's a pulsar, named J0740+6620, and discrepancies in the timing of …
13 hours ago
Space
Mesmerising New Images of Mars Show Spring Arriving Violently on Its Frozen Dunes
ScienceAlert - EVAN GOUGH
Springtime on Earth can be a riotous affair, as plants come back to life and creatures large and small get ready to mate. Nothing like that happens …
15 hours ago
Space
Astrophysicists Say One Space Elevator Concept Is Possible With Today's Technology
ScienceAlert - David Nield
Getting spacecraft into orbit is incredibly costly and difficult, and so scientists keep returning to the idea of a space elevator that can lift …
1 day ago
Comets
Here's What We Know So Far About The Possibly Interstellar Object in Our Solar System
ScienceAlert - Michelle Starr
In the Solar System, there are over 6,300 known comets. There are millions of asteroids. And of all those objects, only 'Oumuamua - a red, …
1 day ago
Space
The First Images Have Started Coming in of That New Interstellar Visitor
ScienceAlert - MATT WILLIAMS
On August 30, amateur astronomer Gennady Borisov spotted a comet of extrasolar origin passing through our Solar System. This is the second time in as …
2 days ago
Black Holes
Our Galaxy's Black Hole Recently Flared Crazily Bright, And We Still Don't Know Why
ScienceAlert - Michelle Starr
The supermassive black hole at the heart of the Milky Way, Sagittarius A*, is usually relatively quiet. It's not an active nucleus, spewing light and …
3 days ago
Space
Astronomers Have Found a Black Hole That's Erupting With Strange Regularity
ScienceAlert - EVAN GOUGH
Astronomers have found a supermassive black hole (SMBH) with an unusually regular feeding schedule. The behemoth is an active galactic nucleus (AGN) …
4 days ago
Space
Amazing Video Shows SpaceX Rigorously Testing Its Crew Dragon Escape System
ScienceAlert - VICTOR TANGERMANN
SpaceX just posted dramatic footage of its commercial space taxi Crew Dragon undergoing rigorous tests of its emergency abort system. The idea is that …
4 days ago
Black Holes
This Wild, Runaway Star Looks Like It Was Kicked Out by a 'Missing Link' Black Hole
ScienceAlert - Michelle Starr
A new discovery relating to a rogue star may have just given astronomers a clue towards one of the weirdest mysteries associated with black holes: …
4 days ago
Space
Hubble Just Captured a Breathtaking New Image of Saturn, And It Barely Looks Real
ScienceAlert - EVAN GOUGH
Hubble has captured a new image of Saturn that makes you wonder if it's even real. The image is so crisp it makes it look like Saturn is just …
4 days ago
Space
New Test to Measure The Expansion of Our Universe Provides Even More Puzzling Results
ScienceAlert - JAMES GEACH
Advances in astronomical observation over the past century have allowed scientists to construct a remarkably successful model of how the cosmos …
4 days ago
Space
Astronomers Have Heard The 'Ringing' of a Newborn Black Hole For The First Time Ever
ScienceAlert - Michelle Starr
When you strike a bell with a hammer, it rings for some time after, as the vibrating metal continues to resonate. And, as it turns out, when you …
5 days ago
Space
Astronomers Discover Giant Radio Bubbles Expanding From The Heart of The Milky Way
ScienceAlert - Michelle Starr
The region at the centre of our galaxy is still full of mysteries, but astronomers have just found a clue to its past: Huge, radio-emitting bubbles, …
5 days ago
Space
Another Mysterious Object From Interstellar Space May Have Entered Our Solar System
ScienceAlert - DAVE MOSHER & MORGAN MCFALL-JOHNSEN
Astronomers may have spotted the second object ever to visit our Solar System from another star system. The object may even fly near Mars later this …
5 days ago
Space
Water Detected in Atmosphere of Rocky Habitable Zone Exoplanet For First Time
ScienceAlert - Michelle Starr
In the atmosphere of an exoplanet just 111 light-years away, astronomers have just made a highly exciting discovery: they've detected water. As much …
6 days ago
Comets
New Evidence Hints All Comets in The Solar System May Come From The Same Place
ScienceAlert - DAN ROBITZSKI
All the comets in our Solar System may share the same origin story - and it could help explain how life on Earth came to exist. A team of American and …
September 10
Space
Unusual Lakes Detected on Titan Could Be The Ancient Scars of Giant Explosions
ScienceAlert - MORGAN MCRALL-JOHNSEN
Titan, Saturn's largest moon, might have a more violent past than astronomers realised. A new study suggests that the liquid methane lakes that dot …
September 10
Space
Giant Radio Telescope in China Just Detected Repeating Signals From Across Space
ScienceAlert - David Nield
Remember the spectacle of that gigantic telescope unveiled in a mountain-ringed valley in China just a few years ago? Well, the Five-hundred-meter …
September 9
Magnetism
The Strange Magnetic Poles on Mercury May Have More in Common With Earth's Than We Realised
ScienceAlert - EVAN GOUGH
Earth's magnetic poles drift over time. This is something that every airplane pilot or navigator knows. They have to account for it when they plan …
September 9
Aliens
Aliens May Have Explored The Galaxy And Visited Earth Already, Scientists Say
ScienceAlert - MORGAN MCFALL-JOHNSEN
The Milky Way could be teeming with interstellar alien civilizations, according to a new study. We just don't know about it because they haven't paid …
September 9
Science (India)
Update: India Has Located Its Lost Moon Lander And Is Trying to Make Contact
ScienceAlert - NIHA MASIH
ScienceAlert editor's update 08/09/2019: ISRO has reportedly found the location of the Vikram lander, after losing contact with it on its descent to …
September 8
Space
It Hasn't Rained on Mars For a Long Time, But These Sand Dunes Look Like Raindrops
ScienceAlert - MATT WILLIAMS
Mars is well-known for being a dry and arid place, where dusty red sand dunes are prevalent and water exists almost entirely in the form of ice and …
September 6
Space
We Just Got Fresh Insight Into The Spectacular Death of a Star Like Our Sun
ScienceAlert - EVAN GOUGH
About 10,000 light years away, in the constellation Centaurus, is a planetary nebula called NGC 5307. A planetary nebula is the remnant of a star …
September 6
Space
The Team Behind The First Black Hole Image Was Just Awarded $3 Million Prize
ScienceAlert - ARIA BENDIX
The heart of every major galaxy is thought to contain a supermassive black hole – a place where gravity is so strong that anything, including light, …
September 6
Space
Painstaking Pulsar Measurements That Took 14 Years Just Confirmed General Relativity
ScienceAlert - Michelle Starr
After 14 years of staring at a dead star, astronomers have once again confirmed Einstein's theory of general relativity. PSR J1906+0746, a pulsar …
September 5
SpaceX
These 9 Places on Mars Could Be The Target For SpaceX's First Starship Missions
ScienceAlert - DAVE MOSHER
SpaceX is scouting for prime real estate to populate Mars, according to a database of NASA spacecraft photography. The database entries suggest the …
September 5
Space
Radical Experiment Reveals How The Chemistry of Life Could Have Begun in Deep Space
ScienceAlert - Mike McRae
Assuming life on Earth evolved out of a hearty primordial soup spiced with organic space dust, it's fair to ask how such life-generating molecules …
September 5
Space
Astronomers Find Top-Secret US Surveillance Satellite Thanks to a Twitter Leak
ScienceAlert - EVAN GOUGH
The US President has tweeted an American spy satellite image. After some sleuthing, astronomers were able to figure out which satellite it came from: …
September 5