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The seven most extreme planets ever discovered

As the hunt for planets outside our own solar system continues, we have discovered many worlds with extreme features. And the ongoing exploration of our own solar system has revealed some pretty weird contenders, too. Here are seven of the most extreme.

June 9, 2017 Read more

The largest virtual Universe ever simulated

Scientists have simulated the formation of our entire Universe with a large supercomputer. A gigantic catalogue of about 25 billion virtual galaxies has been generated from 2 trillion digital particles.

June 9, 2017 Read more

Organic compound found in early stages of star formation (w/video)

Scientists seeking to understand the origins of life have found a new organic compound in the material from which a star like the Sun is forming.

June 8, 2017 Read more

A planet hotter than most stars

Newly found world has a 'year' only 1.5 days long - and may even have a tail like a comet.

June 5, 2017 Read more

Gravitational waves spotted for the third time

For the third time, researchers have detected gravitational waves predicted by Albert Einstein 100 years ago. A pair of black holes with 31 and 19 solar masses had merged into a single one with a mass about 49 times that of our Sun.

June 1, 2017 Read more

Walking on exoplanets

A recent statistical study has revealed that the mass of Exoplanets between 1 and 100 times the mass of the Earth have a surface gravity surprisingly similar to the terrestrial gravity.

June 1, 2017 Read more

DARPA picks design for next-generation spaceplane (w/video)

Agency partners with Boeing to build and fly an experimental vehicle for aircraft-like access to space.

May 31, 2017 Read more

Do stars fall quietly into black holes, or crash into something utterly unknown?

Astronomers have put a basic principle of black holes to the test, showing that matter completely vanishes when pulled in. Their results constitute another successful test for Albert Einstein's General Theory of Relativity.

May 30, 2017 Read more

Jupiter's complex transient auroras

Combined observations from three spacecraft show that Jupiter's brightest auroral features recorded to date are powered by both the volcanic moon Io and interaction with the solar wind.

May 26, 2017 Read more

The big star that couldn't become a supernova (w/video)

For the first time in history, astronomers have been able to watch as a dying star was reborn as a black hole. It went out with a whimper instead of a bang.

May 25, 2017 Read more

Biggest ever simulations help uncover the history of the galaxy

Thousands of processors, terabytes of data, and months of computing time have helped a group of researchers create some of the largest and highest resolution simulations ever made of galaxies like our Milky Way.

May 24, 2017 Read more

A new approach to forecasting solar flares?

Using 3D numerical models, an international team has discovered a proxy that could be used to forecast an eruptive event. The proxy is associated with magnetic helicity, which reflects the extent of twist and entanglement of the magnetic field.

May 22, 2017 Read more

Hubble spots moon around third largest dwarf planet

The combined power of three space observatories, including NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, has helped astronomers uncover a moon orbiting the third largest dwarf planet, catalogued as 2007 OR10. The pair resides in the frigid outskirts of our solar system called the Kuiper Belt, a realm of icy debris left over from our solar system's formation 4.6 billion years ago.

May 20, 2017 Read more

Experts explain origins of topographic relief on Earth, Mars and Titan

The surfaces of Earth, Mars, and Titan, Saturn's largest moon, have all been scoured by rivers. Yet despite this similarity and the amazingly Earth-like landscapes of Titan complete with valleys, lakes, and mountains, researchers report new evidence that the origins of the topography there and on Mars are different from on Earth.