Latest articles by Keith Cooper
James Webb Space Telescope snaps stunning view of supernova's expanding remains (photos)
The exploded guts of a supergiant star are giving up new secrets in a case of stellar CSI.
This gamma-ray space mystery may finally be solved with new black hole simulations
Here's why a black hole crashing into a neutron star belched out an odd gamma-ray burst.
How old is the universe?
Reference Our universe is less than 14 billion years old, but how do astronomers know this?
Weird dark spot on Neptune may have a bright spot buddy
A puzzling bright smudge was captured clinging to this dark spot in Neptune’s atmosphere.
A nearby supernova could reveal the secret lives of ghostly neutrinos. Here's how.
By modeling the neutrinos from a supernova as an exotic kind of fluid moving at nearly the speed of light, researchers are searching for signs of how neutrinos can interact with each other.
NASA's New Horizons will investigate Uranus from the rear (Neptune, too). Here's how you can help
An observing campaign involving New Horizons, the Hubble Space Telescope and perhaps even you is designed to better understand how heat flows through the atmospheres of two ice giants.
Supersonic tsunamis 3 times as tall as our sun are breaking on a distant 'heartbreak star'
The enormous waves are the result of gravitational tides dragging around stellar material.
Gravitational waves show black holes prefer certain masses before they collide
Knowing that black holes tend to have these masses could help provide a new way of measuring the expansion rate of the universe.
Mars is spinning faster and its days are getting shorter. Scientists aren't sure why
Radio data has also allowed planetary scientists to measure Mars' rotation rate and learn more about the world's over-sized, molten core.
AI is helping scientists reveal star ages. Here's how
Trained on a neural network on 6,000 stars, the EAGLES algorithm will be used on surveys of millions more.
Giant Mars mountain Olympus Mons may once have been a volcanic island
Mars' mighty Olympus Mons may have once been a volcanic island surrounded by an ocean nearly 4 miles deep, according to geological evidence found in towering cliffs that ring the extinct volcano.
Ocean current system could shut down as early as 2025, leading to climate disaster
This major system, which transport heat from the tropics to the north Atlantic, are now at high risk of collapse due to human-induced climate change.
Venus volcanoes may be powered by long-ago violent impacts
Venus has more volcanoes than any other planet in the solar system, and researchers may now know what is powering them.
Where did the interstellar object 'Oumuamua come from? Its speed could tell us
The velocity of interstellar objects passing through our solar system, like 'Oumuamua, can be correlated to their chemistry and the type of star they came from.
Why is Earth's day 24 hours long (and how did the sun keep it from being longer)?
Thermal tides in Earth's atmosphere have counterbalanced gravitational tides from the moon, bringing a pause to the slowing down of Earth's rotation.
Euclid mission: ESA's hunt for dark matter and dark energy
Reference The European Space Agency's Euclid mission will map 1.5 billion galaxies while searching for dark matter and dark energy.
The climate of Mars changed dramatically 400,000 years ago, Chinese rover finds
A shift in Mars' climate 400,000 years ago produced a change in wind direction that left its mark in the erosion of bright sand dunes.
Why is the sun's outer atmosphere so staggeringly hot? AI could help us find out
Why the sun's corona, or outer atmosphere, is so hot has been a mystery for decades, but machine-learning algorithms are now on the case.
Time appeared to move 5 times more slowly in 1st billion years after Big Bang, quasar 'clocks' reveal
Time dilation, brought about by the relativistic expansion of space, has resulted in the observed slowing of 'clocks' in the early universe.
Who is the Euclid 'dark universe' space telescope named after?
Dark matter and dark energy distort traditional Euclidean geometry in the universe, and the Euclid mission will measure how much they distort it by.
James Webb Space Telescope could determine if nearby exoplanet is habitable
The exoplanet LP 890-9c resides near the inner edge of its star's habitable zone, and if conditions are favorable it could potentially support liquid water and life.
The Milky Way's monster black hole let out a huge blast 200 years ago. We can now listen to its echo (video)
NASA's X-ray observatory detected the echo of a flare likely caused when an object, perhaps a gas cloud or star, was ripped apart by our galaxy's black hole.
Tonga undersea volcano created most intense lightning storm ever recorded
The volcano, which erupted in January 2022, was a type never seen before and produced rippling rings of lightning 150 miles (240 kilometers) across.
