12 March 2026
The story of a wildflower that adapted to a severe drought in California raises hopes that evolution will come to the rescue of species hit by climate change, but there are limits
2 December 2025
We knew from prior analyses that a distant asteroid sampled in 2020 carried all but one of the molecules needed to kick-start life, and researchers have just found the missing ingredient: sugar
20 October 2025
The comet-like object Chiron has been caught in the process of forming new rings, which could help us understand how these complex systems work
6 October 2025
Some habitable worlds orbiting dead stars could be kept alive for aeons thanks to a quirk of Einstein’s theory of gravity
9 September 2025
Some cosmic events could have profoundly altered the lives of our ancient human relatives. Did Neanderthals go extinct, at least in part, due to changes in Earth’s magnetic field? Did Australopithecus witness huge meteorite impacts?
8 September 2025
The planet TRAPPIST-1e lies in its star’s Goldilocks zone, where water remains liquid – and an analysis suggests it might have a nitrogen-rich atmosphere like Earth’s
5 September 2025
A possible galaxy named Capotauro may have formed within 90 million years of the big bang – but astronomers can’t be sure that’s what it is
20 August 2025
A billion or so years into its evolution, the icy dwarf planet Ceres may have had the right conditions to sustain life, which indicates the solar system may be more habitable than we thought
8 August 2025
The James Webb Space Telescope has detected a possible gas giant the size of Saturn in the stellar system nearest our own
10 July 2025
Observations from NASA’s Juno spacecraft reveal that Jupiter’s strong magnetic field and the unique properties of its plasma can produce a truly novel kind of extraterrestrial wave near its poles
