Category Astronomy/Space

Almost 55 years after the launch of Apollo 11—the first mission to land humans on the moon—scientists have found evidence of a large cave system near the landing site of those astronauts.

Using radar images taken by Nasa’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter spacecraft in 2010, researchers have been able to determine that huge pits, found in images of the moon, may in fact be “skylights” to large caves and tunnels that sit beneath the lunar surface.

These could be incredibly valuable to future astronauts hoping to settle on the moon, acting as a convenient shelter for a lunar base.

The cave is accessible through a pit in the well-studied Mare Tranquillitatis (Sea of Tranquility)...

Interest in Earth-like planets orbiting within the habitable zone of their host stars has surged, driven by the quest to discover life beyond our solar system. But the habitability of such planets, known as exoplanets, is influenced by more than just their distance from the star.

A new study by Rice University’s David Alexander and Anthony Atkinson extends the definition of a habitable zone for planets to include their star’s magnetic field...

Researchers have found a link between some of the largest and smallest objects in the cosmos: supermassive black holes and dark matter particles.

Their new calculations reveal that pairs of supermassive black holes (SMBHs) can merge into a single larger black hole because of previously overlooked behavior of dark matter particles, proposing a solution to the longstanding “final parsec problem” in astronomy.

The research is described in ...

Space storms could soon be forecast with greater accuracy than ever before thanks to a big leap forward in our understanding of exactly when a violent solar eruption may hit Earth.

Scientists say it is now possible to predict the precise speed a coronal mass ejection (CME) is traveling at and when it will smash into our planet—even before it has fully erupted from the sun.

CMEs are bursts of gas and magnetic fields sp...