Scientists have shown that water is likely to be a major component of those exoplanets (planets orbiting other stars) which are between two to four times the size of Earth. It will have implications for the search of life in our Galaxy.

A team of scientists using the highest-frequency capabilities of the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) has uncovered jets of warm water vapor streaming away from a newly forming star. The researchers also detected the 'fingerprints' of an astonishing assortment of molecules near this stellar nursery.

Astronomers have found evidence that the faintest satellite galaxies orbiting our own Milky Way galaxy are among the very first galaxies that formed in our universe.

Lab-based mimicry allowed an international team of physicists to probe hydrogen under the conditions found in the interiors of giant planets -- where experts believe it gets squeezed until it becomes a liquid metal, capable of conducting electricity.

Hubble and other space and ground-based telescopes, astronomers have assembled one of the most comprehensive portraits yet of the universe's evolutionary history.

Scientists have uncovered a sprawling new galaxy cluster hiding in plain sight. The cluster, which sits a mere 2.4 billion light years from Earth, is made up of hundreds of individual galaxies and surrounds an extremely active supermassive black hole, or quasar.

Researchers have discovered the unusual evolution of the central star of a planetary nebula in our Milky Way galaxy. The finding sheds light on the future evolution, and more importantly, the ultimate fate of the Sun.

The Earth's building blocks seem to be built from 'pretty normal' ingredients, according to researchers working with the world's most powerful telescopes. Scientists have measured the compositions of 18 different planetary systems from up to 456 light years away and compared them to ours, and found that many elements are present in similar proportions to those found on Earth. This will have implications for finding Earth-like bodies elsewhere.

Exoplanets can orbit close to their host star. When the host star is much hotter than our sun, then the exoplanet becomes as hot as a star. The hottest 'ultra-hot' planet was discovered last year. A team has now discovered the presence of iron and titanium vapors in the atmosphere of this planet. This detection was made possible by the surface temperature of this planet, which reaches more than 4,000 degrees.

A team of astronomers has made a surprising discovery: 12.5 billion years ago, the most opaque place in the universe contained relatively little matter.

Scientists have presented research on a curious cosmic phenomenon known as 'whistlers' -- very low frequency packets of radio waves that race along magnetic field lines. The study provides new insights into the nature of whistlers and space plasmas and could one day aid in the development of practical plasma technologies with magnetic fields, including spacecraft thrusters that use charged particles as fuel.

A new gel could increase energy efficiency in skyscrapers and help scientists to build habitats on Mars.

The 2017 total solar eclipse spurred a flurry of interest about solar eclipses, according to the final report of a survey led by the University of Michigan.

A new study suggests that the positively charged particles may have an outsize influence on the properties of neutron stars and other neutron-rich objects.

Scientists have found that 4.02-billion-year-old silica-rich felsic rocks from the Acasta River, Canada -- the oldest rock formation known on Earth -- probably formed at high temperatures and at a surprisingly shallow depth of the planet's nascent crust. The high temperatures needed to melt the shallow crust were likely caused by a meteorite bombardment around half a billion years after the planet formed.

Scientists have discovered an underlying repeatable pattern in how space weather activity changes with the solar cycle - having analysed solar activity for the last half century.

The detection of 'mini-moons' -- small asteroids temporarily captured in orbit around Earth -- will vastly improve our scientific understanding of asteroids and the Earth-moon system. Small and fast-moving, they have evaded detection by existing technology, with only one confirmed mini-moon discovery to date. The advent of the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope could verify their existence and track their paths around our planet, presenting exciting scientific and commercial opportunities.

Hours before the rise of the very star it will study, NASA's Parker Solar Probe launched from Florida Sunday to begin its journey to the Sun, where it will undertake a landmark mission. The spacecraft will transmit its first science observations in December, beginning a revolution in our understanding of the star that makes life on Earth possible.

In a new study, astronomers show how gas expelled in the merger of two small galaxies can linger across vast distances for billions of years, where it may eventually feed gas to more massive galaxies to make new stars.

An unusual kind of star-planet hybrid atmosphere is emerging from studies of ultrahot planets orbiting close to other stars.

A new discovery explains what happens during the phase transition in Dirac materials, paving the way for engineering advanced electronics that perform significantly faster.

A newly developed prototype flexible heat shield for spacecraft could reduce the cost of space travel and even aid future space missions to Mars.

A Japan-based research team led by Kanazawa University equipped the Arase satellite with sensors to study the convoluted interactions between high-energy particles in the inner magnetosphere and the Earth's electric and magnetic field. They have collected their first set of data from the satellite and from ground-based sensors, which they will soon analyze. Their approach promises to provide better predictions of harmful bursts of high-energy particles from the magnetosphere.

Cosmic gamma rays can provide us with important insights into the high-energy phenomena in our universe. The GRAINE (Gamma-Ray Astro-Imager with Nuclear Emulsion) collaboration aims to high resolution record high-energy cosmic gamma rays using a balloon-borne nuclear emulsion telescope. In April 2018 the team successfully completed another balloon flight test.

A glittering host of galaxies populate this rich image taken with ESO's VLT Survey Telescope, a state-of-the-art 2.6-m telescope designed for surveying the sky in visible light. The features of the multitude of galaxies strewn across the image allow astronomers to uncover the most delicate details of galactic structure.