Joanna Thompson

The massive planet LHS 3154b orbits a star much smaller than Earth's sun, and its discovery could upend everything we think we know about how solar systems form.

Last summer, a Harvard professor claimed tiny pellets of iron came from beyond our solar system. But new analyses suggest that they likely originated much closer to home.

Researchers have simulated how comets pinballing from one planet to another could deliver critical organic molecules to exoplanets.

In a first, researchers discovered oxygen atoms on the dayside and nightside of Venus' atmosphere.

Additional images from NASA's Lucy mission reveal that the "moon" orbiting asteroid Dinkinesh is actually a contact binary, made of two smaller moons touching.

Astronomers have captured ultrafast radio bursts from 3 billion light-years away for the first time ever.

The exoplanet WASP-17b's atmosphere is full of quartz clouds, according to a new James Webb Space Telescope observations.

Eclipses can be strange. Here are some of the weird things you can expect to experience during the Oct. 14 partial eclipse.

Life's Little Mysteries To figure out this mind-bogglingly high number, we need to know how many species have ever lived, dig deep into the fossil record and do a lot of math.

Here's how your brain might adjust to see color on another world.

The star T CrB flares up every 80 years. A document from 1217 could help confirm its regularity.

Earth is the only rocky body in the inner solar system with strong magnetic poles. But where do these poles come from, and what do they do?

The enigmatic pulsar J1023 radically changes in brightness every few seconds. Astronomers may finally have an explanation.

The record-breaking find of a star 43,000 times more magnetic than the sun could help unravel the mystery of how magnetars form.

This Jupiter-size object is 80 times denser than a planet and hotter than the sun.

Data from NASA's InSight mission shows that Mars's rotation is speeding up and its days are growing slightly shorter. Scientists have a few ideas why.

Instruments in different parts of the solar system all captured radiation from the same coronal mass ejection for the first time ever.

Asteroids are left over from the early solar system. Here's how they get destroyed.

Lightning is terrifying, but it's not always deadly. Here's what it does to the human body.

In its first year of operations, the James Webb Space Telescope has already revolutionized our view of the cosmos. Its one-year anniversary image is a spectacularly beautiful addition.

A distant star system has Milky Way-like spiral arms orbiting it. New research suggests a giant planet may be to blame.

A prominent extraterrestrial-hunting scientist thinks that more than 50 tiny, metal spheres pulled from the Pacific Ocean might be the work of intelligent aliens. Others are skeptical.

A phenomenon called coronal rain produces hot plasma clumps that streak through the sun's atmosphere like meteors, new data reveals.

Astronomers using the James Webb Space Telescope have discovered a clump of ancient galaxies that may be the oldest strand of the "cosmic web" ever detected.

The James Webb Space Telescope's new images of Saturn aren't finished, but they're still mind-blowingly cool.