What Makes a Meteorite a Time Capsule?
Meteorites are more than rocks from space. Their minerals, isotopes and tiny chondrules preserve a record of how the young Solar System took shape—and what they cannot tell us.
Browse Curiosmos
Cosmos
This category presents the reader with astronomical events that can be seen each week, and month.
Why Do Some Galaxies Stop Making Stars?
Some galaxies stop forming stars when hot gas, black-hole energy and depleted fuel change the balance that lets new suns appear.
Andromeda Is Full of Giant Bubbles. Supernovae May Be Driving Its Turbulence
Astronomers identified 118 expanding hydrogen superbubbles across Andromeda and found that clustered supernovae can supply enough energy to sustain the galaxy’s observed turbulence.
Why Is Part of Mars Purple? A New Image Shows What the Colour Is Hiding
A Mars Express view of Thyles Rupes near the south pole reveals kilometre-high cliffs, frozen dunes and a landscape shaped by cooling, dust and frost. Mars is usually pictured in…
How Did a 222-Metre Crater Hide on the Moon Until Now?
A 222-metre crater formed on the Moon in 2024 but was found only after a routine comparison of Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter images. Here is what the fresh impact reveals about the lunar surface.
What Would Count as Evidence of Life Beyond Earth?
A habitable world is not the same as a living world. Here is how scientists define biosignatures, test false positives and build a case for life beyond Earth.
How Do Radio Telescopes Turn Invisible Waves Into Images?
Radio telescopes measure radio waves, combine signals and reconstruct images of hidden cosmic structures.
This Planet Is Less Than a Million Years Old. It Is Still Growing Inside Its Birth Disk
Astronomers confirmed Elias 2-24 b, a Jupiter-mass world less than a million years old still growing inside its star’s birth disk. Here is how they found it.
Why Do Black Holes Launch Jets? A New Study Finds a Possible Universal Trigger
A new Nature Astronomy study finds that black holes of very different sizes may launch jets at the same low accretion threshold. Tidal disruption events let astronomers watch the transition in real time.
A Pulsar Is Feeding on a Giant Star’s Wind. How Can Astronomers See It?
A neutron-star pulsar is pulling gas from a blue hypergiant 13,000 light-years away. XRISM’s X-ray spectra show how astronomers can follow that material as it falls.
NASA’s Roman Telescope Has Opened Its Main Eye. What Will It See?
Something remarkable happened on the way to the next great map of the universe. NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope has activated its main science instrument, a 300-megapixel infrared camera…
BepiColombo Let Go of Its Power Module at Mercury. Why Is the Hardest Part Still Ahead?
After nearly eight years and 9.9 billion kilometres, ESA and JAXA’s BepiColombo has released the module that powered its journey to Mercury. The spacecraft has reached the arrival phase—but orbit insertion is still months away.
Webb Looked Into the “Black Eye” of a Galaxy—and Found a Collision Still Written in Its Gas
At first glance, Messier 64 looks as though someone has drawn a dark eye across the centre of a spiral galaxy. That band of dust is why M64 is better…
Chandra Found 84 Cosmic Objects That Shine in X-Rays—But What Are They?
Astronomers have found 84 objects in nearby galaxies that do not behave like the familiar X-ray sources catalogued over the past six decades. They are bright at the lowest X-ray…
Webb Found Brown Dwarfs Only Twice Jupiter’s Mass. How Small Can a Star-Born Object Be?
Webb found brown dwarfs as light as twice Jupiter’s mass in IC 348. One may have a disk, while an unexplained molecule hints at unfamiliar atmospheres.
A Circular Pit on Google Maps Led Scientists to a 390-Million-Year-Old Impact Structure
An amateur spotted a circular depression in Quebec on satellite maps. Fieldwork found shatter cones and impact-melt rock inside the 25-kilometre Uhackatik structure.
Roman Is on Its Way to L2. Why Are Its First Days in Space So Carefully Choreographed?
Roman’s antenna, sunshade and visor are deployed. Here is why the telescope’s three-month commissioning journey matters before its first images arrive.
A Single Asteroid Impact May Have Shaped Mars’ Moon Deimos
University of Bern simulations and ESA Hera observations point to one non-destructive asteroid impact as the source of Deimos’ southern depression and dusty surface.
The Sun’s Ancient Journey Through the Galaxy May Have Changed Earth’s Climate
Two NASA-funded studies trace how the Sun’s changing galactic surroundings may have altered Earth’s climate and helped warm the young planet.
NASA’s Pandora Mission Begins Separating Planet Light From Star Light
NASA’s Pandora satellite has started science observations of at least 20 exoplanets, measuring their host stars so Webb’s atmospheric results can be read more reliably.
Fast Radio Bursts Are Starting to Map the Universe’s Missing Gas
A new Nature Astronomy study uses 114 fast radio bursts to trace cosmic gas and test how stellar and black-hole feedback reshapes matter around galaxies.
Meteorite Grains Preserve Evidence of a Magnetic Field in the Infant Solar System
Tiny minerals inside one of the most pristine meteorites ever found still carry a record of magnetism from the solar system’s first 200,000 years.
Why Do Galaxies Collide If the Universe Is Expanding?
The universe is expanding, yet galaxies still merge. The answer lies in gravity, local motion, and the difference between cosmic expansion and a galaxy’s neighbourhood.
When Gravity Bends Light: How Gravitational Lensing Reveals the Distant Universe
Gravity can bend and magnify light from a distant galaxy. Here is how gravitational lensing works, what Einstein rings are, and what astronomers learn from them.