Astronomy news, features and articles

Beautifully captured against a starry sky, Comet C/2024 G3 (ATLAS) — dubbed by some as the "Great Comet of 2025" — shines brightly after its last approach to the sun for hundreds of thousands of years.

The "Cosmic Horseshoe" is an Einstein ring, a system made up of a foreground galaxy whose mass is so great, it warps the light from a galaxy behind it. Now, astronomers know where it gets this mass from.

A stunning photo of a "parade of planets", shows Mars, Jupiter, Uranus, Saturn, Venus, Neptune, and Mercury in alignment from Earth. The image could be the first of its kind.

The most powerful cosmic rays in the universe currently have no explanation. New research suggests that exotic, self-annihilating particles in our own galaxy may hold the answer.

A curious connection between an ancient supernova and virus diversification in one of Earth's biggest lakes means that crazy cosmic events may have had more influence on our planet than we thought.

In world-first observations, the James Webb Space Telescope is watching two distant alien planets "spilling their guts into space" as they rapidly disintegrate — and scientists are elated at what they've found.

China's Zhurong rover has found evidence of an ancient shoreline buried deep beneath the planet. That could point to an ocean, a beach, and to life.

New research has revealed that Martian dust's red hue comes from reactions that occurred in wet — not dry — conditions, and it could have implications for the possibility of life on the planet.

"Even the strongest hurricanes in the solar system seem calm in comparison."

The likelihood of asteroid 2024 YR4 hitting Earth in 2032 rose and fell last week. NASA's impact odds are now so slim that the asteroid is no longer a hazard on the Torino asteroid scale.