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In ancient salt crystals from Ontario, scientists have cracked open a time capsule. Inside was a sample of Earth's atmosphere from a time before animals, revealing a world far more habitable than we imagined. A billion years ago, a subtropical lake evaporated, leaving behind Halite (rock salt). As the crystals formed, they trapped tiny pockets of brine and air bubbles.

Getting into a car is easy. Getting into the Orion spacecraft for a trip to the moon requires a specialized "pit crew." Meet the Artemis II Closeout Team. When astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and Jeremy Hansen arrive at the launch pad, five people will be waiting for them. These are the last humans the crew will see before leaving Earth. Led by Taylor Hose, the team acts like a Formula 1 pit crew, but with much higher stakes.

Is the universe the same in every direction? A new study on the "Cosmic Dipole Anomaly" suggests it might not be, threatening the very foundation of modern cosmology. The Assumption: The "Standard Model" (Lambda-CDM) assumes the universe is isotropic (looks the same in all directions).

In a protoplanetary disk 500 light-years away, JWST has found Carbon Monoxide behaving in a way never seen before—glowing hot while spinning cold. The Target: HD 131488, a young star (15 Myr) with a debris disk. The Discovery: JWST detected Carbon Monoxide (CO) gas in the inner disk (0.5–10 AU) with a bizarre property.

Shipping cement to the Moon is impossibly expensive. To land massive rockets like Starship, we must build pads from local dust—but a new study reveals a dangerous paradox in the design. Why build a pad? You can't just land in the dirt. A rocket plume kicks up high-velocity rocks that can destroy nearby habitats or damage the rocket itself.

Just like your cellphone switches networks when you travel, NASA's new PExT technology proves spacecraft can "roam" between government and commercial satellites. It’s a game-changer. Imagine if your phone only worked on one specific tower in your hometown. Drive 20 miles away, and you have zero signal. That was essentially the reality for early space missions. They were locked into specific government networks.

New analysis of Cassini data strengthens the case for life on Enceladus. By looking at "fresh" samples, scientists have found the ingredients for a habitable world. The Old Data: Most previous studies looked at Saturn's E-Ring. While this ring is made of material from Enceladus, it floats in space for a long time, getting blasted by radiation that alters its chemistry.

Using the Keck Observatory, astronomers have peered into cluster RXC J0032.1+1808 and found a titan in the process of splitting apart—or rather, coming together. The Target: RXC J0032.1+1808, a massive galaxy cluster. In optical light (what Hubble sees), it looks like a single, elongated blob of galaxies. The Reveal: The DEIMOS spectrograph and X-ray data revealed a hidden structure. The cluster isn't one object; it's bimodal.

Astronomers have found a cosmic needle in a haystack: three galaxies merging, each hosting an actively feeding, radio-bright supermassive black hole. The Setup: Three galaxies interacting about 1.2 billion light-years away. The Problem: Optical telescopes saw the galaxies, but couldn't confirm if the black holes were active. Dust obscured the view, and star formation signals mimicked black hole activity.

JWST has looked back 13 billion years to watch a massive star die. What it found challenges our understanding of the early universe. On March 14, 2025, a Gamma-Ray Burst (GRB 250314A) flashed across the sky. Following the signal, JWST aimed its Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCAM) at the source 110 days later.

From the merging dwarfs of the early universe to the stripping of massive spirals in the Virgo Cluster. New images reveal the violent lives of galaxies. Released Dec 2, 2025, a new James Webb Space Telescope image captures two nearby dwarf galaxies in the act of merging.

JWST needs targets. A new study identifies 5 planets, but only one might be safe from the "sandblasting" fury of its star. We know of over 6,000 exoplanets, but finding one that can support life is a game of elimination. Most don't have atmospheres. Most aren't Earth-sized. New Discovery: A team led by Jonathan Barrientos (Caltech) has confirmed 5 new planets around M-dwarf stars using data from 9 telescopes.