Surprise ‘tail’ found on an iconic galaxy may rewrite its history
Galaxy M61 sports a long stellar stream, which had not been spotted before now.Credit: NSF–DOE Vera C. Rubin…
How to understand exoplanets — space scientists call on lab-based chemists to help
In the 30 years since exoplanets were first reported1, telescopes have revealed thousands of them. One of the…
Why we still don’t understand the Universe — even after a century of dispute
Discordance: The Troubled History of the Hubble Constant Jim Baggott Oxford Univ. Press (2025) Ever since the publication…
Mysterious ‘little red dots’ are baffling astronomers. What are they?
An artist’s impression of a black hole star, the explanation favoured by many astronomers for the little red…
The Moon is rusting — thanks to ‘wind’ blown all the way from Earth
A stream of charged particles that blows from Earth (foreground) to the Moon could account for the rust…
Clearest gravitational wave detection yet confirms Hawking’s black hole theory
The merger of one black hole (artist’s illustration) with another created gravitational waves detected in January by the…
how physics terms can confuse researchers
Listen to episode 3 of What’s in a name Categorizing things is central to science. And there are…