Two broad wedges made of thousands of tiny dots in colorful bands on a black background.

Shifting Forces: The Evolving Debate Around Dark Energy

New evidence suggests the universe might not behave as expected, raising questions about the costs of being wrong.
The Sun's corona observed in extreme ultraviolet (131 Å)

Colliding Plasma Ejections From the Sun Generate Huge Geomagnetic Storms

Studying them will help scientists monitor future space weather.
Artist’s conception of early star formation:

When Everything in the Universe Changed

The revolutionary James Webb Space Telescope and next-gen radio telescopes are probing what’s known as the epoch of reionization.
Ptolemaeus crater (foreground), Alphonsus crater, and Arzachel crater, looking south.

The Case of the Volcano on the Moon

In 1958, Soviet astrophysicist Nikolai A. Kozyrev claimed there was an active volcano on the Moon. Dutch American astronomer Gerard P. Kuiper begged to differ.
MeerKAT telescopes

MeerKAT: The South African Radio Telescope That’s Transformed Our Understanding of the Cosmos

MeerKAT has emerged as a beacon of innovation and opportunity on the African continent.
Artist's impression of ʻOumuamua

Why Interstellar Objects Like ʻOumuamua and Borisov May Hold Clues to Exoplanets

The detection of two celestial interlopers careening through our solar system has scientists eagerly anticipating more.
Andromeda Galaxy

100 Years after the “Great Debate”: How Edwin Hubble Expanded the Cosmos

In 1924, Edwin Hubble found proof that the Milky Way isn't the only galaxy in the Universe.
A deep image from the Dark Energy Survey showing the field covered by one of the individual detectors in the Dark Energy Camera.

Astronomers Use AI to Shed Light on Dark Energy

A new measurement offers insights on the density of the mysterious force driving the Universe’s expansion.
The Sun photographed at 304 angstroms by the Atmospheric Imaging Assembly (AIA 304) of NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO)

How Earthquakes Helped Us Map the Interior of the Sun

Temperatures in the Sun’s core exceed 10 million degrees Celsius. But how on Earth did we actually come to know that?

The Hunt for Life in Alpha Centauri

This oddball system of three stars might be our best chance at finding nearby life in the Universe.