Harry Baker

New research suggests that most of the atoms within the human body likely spent part of their lives drifting beyond the Milky Way on a cosmic "conveyor belt," before eventually returning to our galaxy.

Photos from the James Webb Space Telescope have revealed more than 40 stars within the gravitationally lensed "Dragon Arc" galaxy, 6.5 billion light-years from Earth. It is the largest group of individually imaged stars ever seen at such a distance.

Earth from space This 2014 satellite photo shows Pakistan's Khor Kalmat tidal lagoon brimming with water at the heart of an arid desert. This fluctuating body of water, which looks like "ink bleeding onto parchment," helps support life in this harsh environment.

From arachnid-like formations and mysterious blobs to an underground ocean and a giant volcano, here are our 10 favorite things scientists discovered on Mars this year.

Earth from space A 2023 astronaut photo captured a rare effect, known as sunglint, transforming the surface of one of Russia's deepest lakes into a sea of swirling clouds. The crater lake is sandwiched between a pair of unusual volcanic "nesting dolls" on a Pacific island.

From astronauts getting stranded on a leaking ISS and faceplanting moon landers to injured Mars robots and a tumbling solar sail, here are 10 of the biggest space exploration mishaps in 2024.

Earth from space A 2018 astronaut photo shows a festive, fir-tree-shaped artificial reservoir in Iraq decorated with both natural and imagined ornaments.

The sun's most active phase, solar maximum, officially arrived in 2024, triggering some explosive solar storms and colorful auroras. Here are 10 of our favorite solar outbursts this year.

NASA's record-breaking Parker Solar Probe will smash its own personal bests for proximity to the sun and fastest speed by a human-made object when it whizzes past our star on Christmas Eve (Dec. 24). It is unlikely to get significantly closer to the sun before the end of its mission.

The James Webb Space Telescope has captured an image of a baby, Milky Way-like galaxy that formed more than 13 billion years ago. This "Firefly Sparkle" galaxy could reveal how our own galaxy evolved.

Scientists have shown that a "remelting event" more than 4.3 billion years ago "reset" the internal clock of most lunar rocks, which has helped obscure the moon's true age.

The "megaberg" A23a is on the move again after spinning in one spot for months on end. This is the ice slab's second great escape in as many years after being stuck in place for the first 37 years of its existence.

Earth from space A 2018 satellite photo shows the aptly named Deception Island, which was formed by a massive eruption 4,000 years ago and remains volcanically active today.

Powerful solar storms in May and October painted auroras across large parts of North America. But some U.S. farmers also witnessed unusual activity from their high-tech machinery, which started boogying back and forth as a result of the geomagnetic disturbances.

Researchers have detected a giant tail of gas leaking from an exoplanet near Earth. The giant structure, which is up to 350,000 miles long, is being blown away from the alien world by stellar gusts, allowing researchers to use it like a windsock.

Earth from space This 2012 satellite photo shows a series of giant windblown ridges, known as yardangs, and a group of towering sand dunes at the heart of Iran's Lut Desert.

A pair of massive thunderstorms have been spotted swirling in Jupiter's "South Equatorial Belt" and are likely unleashing massive bolts of green lightning. Some experts think the pale clouds could end up altering the rusty band's color — and potentially even making it "disappear."

On Dec. 5, 2024 the European Space Agency's Proba-3 mission sent two spacecraft into orbit around Earth. By aligning the probes, researchers will create 6-hour-long mini eclipses, allowing the sun's atmosphere to be studied like never before.

Space weather experts warn that solar activity will persist or even increase after solar maximum has ended and we enter a phase of the solar cycle dubbed the "battle zone."

A "bizarre" E-shaped aurora was recently photographed dancing in the sky above Alaska. The unusual light show was caused by rare black auroras, a.k.a. anti-auroras, which catapult charged particles from the sun back out of Earth's atmosphere and into space.

Earth from space A 2014 satellite photo of the Sivash region shows off the kaleidoscopic colors of a series of shallow, hypersaline lagoons — each filled with a different kind of algae.

Curiosity has just finished the latest leg of its 12-year Mars mission and will now set out to explore miles of web-like surface features left behind by ancient water on the Red Planet. The zig-zagging rocks could also provide clues about whether Mars once harbored extraterrestrial life.

An asteroid that fell to Earth and exploded above Canada in 2022 was only around 20 inches wide — the smallest space rock ever properly measured, researchers say.

A new study has identified an exoplanet that is just 3 million years old — around 1,500 times younger than Earth — alongside a misaligned protoplanetary disk that researchers cannot explain.