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Brown dwarfs are "substellar" objects, more massive than planets but not massive enough to ignite hydrogen fusion like stars. They are the "in-betweeners" of the cosmos. Using JWST, astronomers have found the most chemically diverse disk ever seen around a brown dwarf, challenging our understanding of planet formation.

The search for life on other planets is one of humanity's greatest endeavors. Now, a Ph.D. student and his supervisor at Imperial College London have realized that an instrument already on Mars, the Gas Chromatograph-Mass Spectrometer (GC-MS), could be used to detect a key sign of *living* organisms—all without designing a single new piece of hardware.

SpaceX wants to dramatically increase its launch schedule from Vandenberg Space Force Base, setting up a direct conflict with the California Coastal Commission. The commission, tasked with protecting the state's coast, has raised alarms about the impact on wildlife and residents. This has sparked a legal battle over a fundamental question: are SpaceX's launches a private commercial venture, or a federal activity exempt from state oversight?

In astronomy, "metal" refers to any element heavier than hydrogen and helium. Ultra-metal-poor (UMP) stars, with iron levels 10,000 times lower than our sun, are the rarest of these ancient objects. They are believed to be the direct descendants of the very first stars (Population III), which were forged from the pure hydrogen and helium of the Big Bang. Now, a team led by Guilherme Limberg has found a new one, GDR3_526285, by sifting through data from ESA's Gaia satellite.

Many people share a fear that a giant asteroid could wipe out life on Earth. While scientists are clear that it *could* happen again, the odds can be hard to grasp. A new study led by Carrie Nugent aims to contextualize this risk by comparing it to other misfortunes one might encounter in a 71-year lifetime. The goal: to help the public and policymakers understand why "planetary defense" is a worthwhile investment.

For decades, the search for life has followed a simple rule: find the liquid water. But this may have blinded us to other possibilities. A new study from MIT scientists raises a tantalizing question: What if an entirely different type of liquid could support life? They found that "ionic liquids"—salts in liquid form—can easily form from common planetary ingredients and remain stable at temperatures and pressures that would instantly vaporize water.

The edge of our galaxy is a strange place. Unlike our solar neighborhood, this region has low-density gas, very few heavy elements (low metallicity), and isn't churned up by spiral arms. This makes it a simpler, cleaner laboratory for studying star formation. However, these distant molecular clouds are faint and difficult to observe. Now, a new study from the Xinjiang Astronomical Observatory has used the IRAM 30-meter telescope to get the best look yet at this extreme enviro

In July 2025, astronomers spotted 3I/ATLAS, the third interstellar object (ISO) ever detected passing through our solar system. Now, NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has provided the crispest view yet of this "interstellar tourist." The observations are helping scientists constrain its size and confirm its cometary nature, all while it travels at a staggering speed.

Four astronauts—NASA's Anne McClain and Nichole Ayers, Japan's Takuya Onishi, and Russia's Kirill Peskov—parachuted into the Pacific on Saturday after a five-month stint on the International Space Station. Their mission was anything but routine, beginning as an urgent replacement for the two NASA test pilots of Boeing's Starliner, who ended up stranded in orbit for over nine months.

Astrophysicist Cosimo Bambi has outlined a bold blueprint for a mission that could, within our lifetimes, launch a tiny probe to a nearby black hole. The goal: to return data that could completely alter our understanding of general relativity and the fabric of space-time. It hinges on technology that is just on the horizon and finding a target that is currently invisible.

Gamma-ray binaries are among the rarest and most extreme objects in the galaxy. They consist of a massive star in orbit with a compact object—a neutron star or black hole. HESS J0632+057, a TGB (TeV Gamma-ray Binary) 4,560 light-years away, is one of these mysteries. It's a massive Be-type star with a "decretion disk" (a disk of material it has shed) orbited by what is likely a pulsar.

Since 2015, we've detected over 100 gravitational wave events from binary black hole (BBH) mergers. We've always assumed they were isolated pairs. But researchers from the Shanghai Astronomical Observatory (SHAO) have found compelling evidence that a famous merger, GW190814, was part of a "hierarchical triple system," providing new clues to how these violent events form.