Astrophysics

With a $100-million donation, billionaire Yuri Milner plans to revolutionize the astronomical quest to find alien life

The spheres of carbon₆₀ have been found to be responsible for mysterious cosmic-light features

High-resolution images of the icy worlds reveal towering mountains, yawning canyons and perhaps hints of a subsurface ocean

Scientists find that the biggest, brightest bursts of light herald the creation of the universe’s most magnetic objects

Astronomers have discovered more than 800 so-called "ultradiffuse galaxies" that are virtually invisible because they have relatively few stars and are mostly dark matter. Clara Moskowitz reports

A segmented mirror four or five times wider than Hubble's would peer directly at exoplanets

As the legendary space telescope enters its twilight years, astronomers are searching for a replacement, but no one agrees about what it should accomplish

The history of the leap second reveals a curious pattern of decreasing frequency since its adoption 43 years ago

Scientists might have found that an exotic astronomical object may not be so rare after all

The newfound planet is 96 light years away, but it's the closest twin to Jupiter astronomers have ever directly seen

Galactic collisions replicated in the lab help researchers investigate the origins of vastly amplified magnetic fields in the universe

General relativity and Noether’s theorem take center stage in two live Web broadcasts this week