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This Extremely Fluffy Exoplanet Is Changing Our Understanding of Planetary Formation

One of the fluffiest exoplanets we've ever found in the Milky Way galaxy is challenging our understanding of how giant planets form. It's called WASP-107b, orbiting an orange dwarf star 211 light-years away, and it was already known as one of the lowest density exoplanets when its discovery was announced in 2017. A new analysis shows the puffy planet is even puffier than astronomers thought.

Solar Wind Is Strangely Drawn to Earth’s North Pole, And Scientists Don’t Know Why

Likely the most well-known result of the Earth's magnetic field are the Aurora Borealis and Australis (Northern and Southern Lights). When charged particles from the solar wind run into the Earth's magnetic field, they can occasionally elicit spectacular light displays. For years now, scientists have thought that the charged particles that cause those displays were sent in equal numbers toward

17-Year-Old High Schooler Discovered A New Planet Only 3 Days Into His NASA Internship

Back in summer 2019, 17-year-old high school student Wolf Cukier from New York joined NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt to start his internship, where his job was to examine variations in star brightness captured by NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite, also known as TESS. On the third day of his internship, the teenager discovered a brand new planet lying in a system

Multiple underground water reservoirs discovered on Mars, new study finds

A number of liquid bodies have been found on Mars, raising the tantalizing possibility that liquid water could exist on the Red Planet long believed to be desolate and hostile to life. A number of liquid bodies have been found on Mars, raising the tantalizing possibility that liquid water could exist on the Red Planet long believed to be desolate and hostile to life. A major new study publis

Microbial Life on Venus? Here’s What You Really Need to Know About The Major Discovery

Venus, the Evening Star, may gleam prettily in our night sky, but up close it's about as inhospitable as a rocky planet can be, with sulphuric acid rains, a suffocating CO2 atmosphere, and a surface atmospheric pressure up to 100 times greater than Earth's. Based on our understanding of life on Earth, Venus would be among the last places in the Solar System you'd look to find living creatures.

NASA Confirms We’ve Officially Entered a Brand New Solar Cycle

Far from the woes of planet Earth, our Sun has been having a rather quiet year. A close look at its activity confirms what solar enthusiasts have been suspecting for a while – our closest star has entered a new cycle. Ever since we started to track the Sun's dark blemishes in earnest, humans have noticed a pattern of quiescence and temper that repeats roughly every 11 years. There have bee

Astronomers Detect a Huge Gas Giant Orbiting a Much Smaller Dead Star

Astronomers have discovered a planet the size of Jupiter closely orbiting the smouldering remains of a dead star, the first time that an intact exoplanet has been discovered travelling around a white dwarf, according to research published Wednesday. Researchers said the fate of this giant planet, called WD 1586 b, offers a potential vision of our own Solar System when the Sun eventually ages in

We Now Know How Dying Stars Carve Out Mesmerising Mandalas of Stardust

The last gasps of dying stars are some of the most beautiful objects in the galaxy. They're called planetary nebulae, clouds of stellar material ejected out into space as a red giant star enters the last stage of its life. The dying star shucks off its outer layers, which are illuminated from within by the hot, exposed core. These clouds are complex, and gorgeous, with mandala-like waves, st

15 Of The Most Breathtaking Astronomy Photographs Of The Year 2020 Have Just Been Revealed

Is there anything more breathtaking and surreal than outer space? Often, I feel like there absolutely isn't. Maybe it's because of all the celestial masterpieces stars, galaxies, and planets paint, effortlessly sweeping us off our feet? Or maybe we feel this way about space because it's something we can't touch, tame, or change? Or perhaps, it's because of that nostalgic feeling you get when it's

Majestic and haunting red jellyfish lightning over Texas captured in brilliant photos

These haunting spurts of lightning have been dubbed “sprites.” Scientists have been documenting rare phenomenon in recent years: streaks of red lightning that resemble the tentacles of a glowing crimson jellyfish hanging high from the sky. These haunting spurts of lightning have been dubbed “sprites,” and are the product of super-fast electrical bursts that occur high