Space
This cosmic oddity blurs the line between planet and moon
The object orbits a brown dwarf that orbits a star. Astronomers aren’t sure if it’s a planet, a moon — or something else entirely.
Space
More Stories in Space
- Space
Scientists Say: Event horizon
Past this boundary, nothing that enters a black hole can ever leave — not even light.
- Earth
Analyze This: A rocket reentry spiked metal levels in the atmosphere
Detection of lithium from a SpaceX rocket reentering the atmosphere offers new evidence that space debris could harm the ozone layer.
- Earth
Scientists Say: Snow line
On Earth, this line marks the edge of snow-covered ground. In space, it marks a spot where a certain molecule might freeze.
- Earth
Could a storm last forever?
Thunderstorms help fix imbalances found in our atmosphere. For constant storms, those imbalances would have to persist.
- Space
A small object beyond Pluto may have a thin atmosphere
A brief stellar eclipse hints that this 2002 XV93 has a thin atmosphere. It would be a first for any solar-system body farther from the sun than Pluto.
- Space
NASA’s DART spacecraft changed 2 asteroids’ orbit around the sun
In 2022, NASA smashed a spacecraft into an asteroid. New data show how that impact changed the orbit around the sun of this space rock — and its partner.
- Space
The lives of black holes, from birth to death
After more than a century, scientists are just beginning to understand black holes — the most bizarre and powerful things in the universe.
- Physics
Exploding black holes could solve a big cosmic mystery
Tiny black holes in the early universe could explain why matter is common and antimatter is not.
- Space
Scientists Say: Observable universe
No light will ever reach Earth from beyond this distant horizon of space.
