Earth's Place in the Universe

Space

Explainer: Calculating a star’s age

Scientists can figure out a star's mass or composition pretty easily. Determining how old that star is, however, is a lot harder.

Planets

NASA’s Perseverance rover grabbed its first Martian rocks

Two finger-sized pieces of stone drilled from a basalt rock are the first bits of Mars ready to be brought to Earth.

Planets

Pluto is no longer a planet — or is it?

In the 15 years since Pluto lost its status as a planet, some scientists continue to use whatever definition works best for them.

Space

Here’s an easier new way to weigh a black hole

The timing of flickers in the gas and dust of a black hole’s accretion disk correlates to its mass, a new study finds.

Earth

Let’s learn about meteor showers

Meteor showers happen when Earth’s orbit passes through trails of debris left behind by comets or asteroids.

Planets

Jupiter’s intense auroras heat up its atmosphere

Jupiter’s hotter-than-expected upper atmosphere may be warmed by charged particles slamming into the air above the poles.

Earth

Scientists Say: Anthropocene

Humans are changing the world in profound ways. Some scientists think those changes have launched a new epoch in Earth’s history: the Anthropocene.

Oceans

Moon’s orbital wobble can add to sea-level rise and flooding

In a dozen years or so, the tide-enhancing effects of a wobble in the moon’s orbit should lead to dramatically higher sea levels in some coastal cities.

Space

Let’s learn about dark matter

Dark matter is only detectable by the gravitational pull it exerts on visible objects, like stars and galaxies.

Physics

Scientists Say: Plasma

In physics, plasma refers to one of the four states of matter. In medicine, plasma describes the part of blood that ferries cells, nutrients and more throughout the body.

Animals

Tiny animals survive 24,000 years in suspended animation

Tiny bdelloid rotifers awake from a 24,000-year slumber when freed from the Arctic permafrost.

Space

This image may be the first look at exomoons in the making

These observations offer some of the best evidence yet that planets around other stars have moons, or exomoons.