Space

Astronomers have used the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) to discover that a distant “hot Jupiter” planet has two staggeringly long tails composed of helium that currently defy explanation. The observations represent the first study of gases leaking from a planet beyond the solar system during one of its complete orbits, and help paint the most complete picture of atmospheric escape…

NASA just released striking new video and audio that reveal the sounds of dust storms on Mars crackling with tiny lightning-like sparks. The footage, which NASA released on Dec. 3, was captured by the Perseverance rover inside Jezero Crater on Sept. 6, as Martian dust devils swept across the surface. Meanwhile, the rover’s SuperCam microphone also picked up the sounds of faint crackles and…

Two Russian cosmonauts and an American astronaut are safely back on Earth after spending eight months aboard the International Space Station. Soyuz MS-27 crewmates Sergey Ryzhikov and Alexey Zubritsky of the Russian federal space corporation Roscosmos, along with Jonny Kim of NASA, landed on the cold, snow-flurry-covered steppe of Kazakhstan on Tuesday (Dec. 9). The spacecraft, descending under a…

Just as the sun slips behind the Chilean Andes, it seemed to send up a tiny emerald flare. The photograph, taken from Cerro Pachón in Chile by NOIRLab Audiovisual Ambassador Petr Horálek, captures a classic but elusive atmospheric trick of the light: the green flash. What is it? Despite the dramatic name, a green flash isn’t an explosion or a burst of energy. It’s simply sunlight…