Cosmology

The discovery could help astronomers better understand how these behemoths grow

NASA’s Solar Dynamic Observatory captures video of superheated plasma loops far larger than Earth as they rain down on solar surface

Rocketing through space at more than three million kilometers per hour, six speedy stars were likely ejected from the giant black hole in the center of the Milky Way

Spend a little more time observing meteors or combating climate change, spend a little less time worrying about global catastrophes. David Biello reports

Water on the moon was there as the moon formed, not delivered later by solar wind and comets

Computer models reveal a pair of 32-kilometer-long asteroids caused Vesta's crust to melt and then re-form, making it thicker than can be explained by typical rock layering

Beneath its pretty pink exterior, Messier 106 harbors a monster black hole that gobbles up matter at the galaxy’s center

Astronomers estimate 4.5 billion Earth-like planets are spread throughout the Galaxy

Maintenance, improvement work and data analysis will keep scientists busy as the European collider's planned closure begins

Microscopic analyses of chondrites, the oldest rocks in the solar system, are filling in details of what our neighborhood in space was like shortly before the planets formed

The solar system's moons may have emerged from long-gone planetary baubles

Scientific American contributing editor George Musser answers viewer questions submitted to YouTube's Spacelab Channel