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Astronomers are building a map of the universe using gravitational waves. Their first targets? Two supermassive black hole binaries named Rohan and Gondor. In 2023, NANOGrav heard the "hum" of the universe—a background of gravitational waves created by merging supermassive black holes. Now, they are learning to pick out individual voices from the choir.

In 2021, a particle with 40 million times the energy of the LHC struck Earth. It seemed to come from nowhere. New research finally traces its true origin. Cosmic rays are usually just atomic nuclei zooming through space. But the Amaterasu particle was different. Detected by the Telescope Array in Utah, it was the second-highest-energy cosmic ray ever seen.

Is Sagittarius A* a supermassive black hole, or something stranger? New research suggests our galaxy revolves around a dense core of dark matter. For decades, astronomers have believed that a supermassive black hole lurks at the center of the Milky Way. It explains the violent, high-speed orbits of the "S-stars" that whip around the galactic center.

A newly discovered comet is diving towards the Sun. Will it become the spectacle of the century or disintegrate in the heat? On January 13, amateur astronomers in the Atacama desert spotted a faint object. Named C/2026 A1 (MAPS), it was quickly identified as a member of the legendary Kreutz Sungrazers—a family of comets that includes some of the brightest ever seen.

NWA 7034 is a masterpiece of Martian geology. New CT scanning technology allows us to look inside this 4.48-billion-year-old rock without crushing a single grain. Historically, studying meteorites meant destroying them—cutting, crushing, or dissolving samples to unlock their secrets. But a new paper by Estrid Naver (Technical University of Denmark) demonstrates a better way.

A black hole shredded a star years ago. But instead of fading, it's been "burping" out a radio jet that is growing exponentially brighter. Normally, when a black hole eats a star (a Tidal Disruption Event), it's a flash in the pan. The star gets shredded, flares up, and fades away.

Using TESS and Swift data, astronomers have detected rare, rhythmic pulses in the chaotic jets of distant galaxies. Blazars are the monsters of the universe: supermassive black holes shooting jets of plasma directly at Earth at nearly the speed of light. They are usually chaotic and unpredictable.

Deep in a gas-rich cosmic web, astronomers found something that shouldn't be there: a massive, dead galaxy shaped like a potato. Using the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), a team led by Weichen Wang discovered a massive red galaxy dubbed "Red Potato." It sits in a node of the cosmic web (MQN01) that is overflowing with cool gas—the fuel for stars.

For the first time in over 50 years, humans will venture beyond low-Earth orbit. The SLS rocket has begun its slow march to the pad. Almost as tall as a football field, NASA's Space Launch System (SLS) traveled at a snail's pace—just under 1 mph—to the launchpad in Florida.

Researchers have simulated 1 million orbits in the unstable region between Earth and the Moon to solve one of the hardest problems in spaceflight.Cislunar space—the vast region between Earth and the Moon—is the next frontier for satellites and exploration. But it's a gravitational minefield.

When a sun dies, it swells into a monster that devours its children. New research reveals the grim odds for planets hoping to survive the Red Giant phase.Billions of years from now, our sun will run out of hydrogen. It will not fade quietly. It will swell into a Red Giant, expanding its radius hundreds of times, engulfing Mercury, Venus, and likely Earth.

Is Dark Matter real, or is our understanding of gravity wrong? A new study suggests gravity itself might change shape at cosmic distances. For decades, astronomers have observed that galaxies spin too fast. According to Newton's laws, stars on the edges should fly off into space, yet they hold together. To explain this, physics postulated Dark Matter—invisible mass holding galaxies together. For decades, astronomers have observed that galaxies spin too fast. According to Ne