
Alien World Denser Than Steel Confounds Our Understanding of Planet Formation
A newly spotted world is just perplexingly dense
Allison Gasparini isa science writer who has written for Forbes, Science News, NASA, Brookhaven National Laboratory, the American Institute of Physics, Stanford University, and more. Follow her on Twitter @astrogasparini

Alien World Denser Than Steel Confounds Our Understanding of Planet Formation
A newly spotted world is just perplexingly dense

‘Heartbreak’ Stars Cause Enormous, Tumultuous Waves in Their Partners
Two orbiting stars are causing unsustainably large tides as they draw closer together

Did JWST Just Find Water on a Rocky Exoplanet?
Hints of water vapor on a world called GJ 486 b could just as well come from the planet’s host star

Dried-Up Lagoon Is ‘Time Analog’ for Martian Life
If Martian microbes were like those in this Earth lagoon, they could have survived the Red Planet’s primordial desiccation

Mysteriously Young ‘Peekaboo’ Galaxy Could Reveal Secrets of Early Universe
A strange discovery could provide a window into the universe’s earliest galaxies

Life on Mars May Have Been Its Own Worst Enemy
A new study suggests that billions of years ago microbes may have thrived on Mars before succumbing to freezing temperatures of their own making

New Instrument Could Spy Signs of Alien Life in Glowing Rocks
Organisms on Earth produce a wide array of durable “biofluorescent” materials. If those on other planets do, too, the Compact Color Biofinder should be able to detect them

Betelgeuse ‘Great Dimming’ Mystery Solved by Satellite Photobomb
Images from Japan’s Himawari-8 spacecraft shed light on the red supergiant star’s remarkable fading

Our Sun Could Someday Reveal the Surfaces of Alien Earths
In the far future, we could reveal detailed views of distant worlds by turning our home star into a gravitational lens