News

Venus is hiding a secret. Radar data has revealed a massive volcanic cave system lurking beneath the planet's thick, toxic atmosphere. Volcanic activity isn't unique to Earth. We've seen lava tubes on Mars and the Moon. But finding them on Venus is a different challenge entirely. The planet is shrouded in thick sulfuric acid clouds that block visible light.

Enceladus isn't just an icy moon. It's a planetary-scale generator, pumping energy and plasma waves more than 500,000 km through the Saturnian system. Famous for its water geysers, Enceladus has long been known to feed Saturn's E-ring. But a new study of 13 years of Cassini data reveals something much bigger: a vast "lattice" of magnetic waves connecting the moon to the planet.

Samples from asteroid Bennu reveal that the building blocks of life didn't need warm water to form—they could have been forged in the freezing, radioactive dark of the early solar system. When NASA's OSIRIS-REx mission dropped a capsule containing dust from asteroid Bennu into the Utah desert, it delivered a time capsule from 4.6 billion years ago. Inside, scientists found amino acids—the molecules that make up proteins and DNA.

Water isn't enough. A new study reveals that Earth hit a rare "chemical jackpot" 4.6 billion years ago, retaining the Phosphorus and Nitrogen essential for DNA and proteins. Phosphorus (for DNA/RNA) and Nitrogen (for proteins) are the building blocks of life. Without them, a planet is sterile, no matter how much water it has.

Could the lack of coal on other planets explain the Great Silence? A new study argues that advanced civilizations cannot rise without burning their past. For seven decades, SETI has scanned the stars for radio signals. But a new paper suggests we might be missing a crucial prerequisite for radio technology: Geology.

Galaxy clusters are twice as heavy as we thought. A new study reveals a hidden population of black holes and neutron stars that could rewrite the laws of gravity. Galaxy clusters are the largest structures in the universe, held together by gravity. For decades, scientists assumed they were mostly made of dark matter.

Earth's magnetic poles don't just swap overnight. New evidence reveals they can wander in chaos for 70,000 years, leaving the planet exposed. Deep beneath our feet, the Earth's outer core of liquid nickel-iron churns, generating the magnetic field that shields us from cosmic radiation. But this shield isn't permanent. Every so often, the poles flip.

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.