Featured
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News |
‘Milestone’ discovery as JWST confirms atmosphere on an Earth-like exoplanet
55 Cancri e is too hot to support life as we know it, but could provide clues about Earth’s formation.
- Sumeet Kulkarni
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Nature Podcast |
Living on Mars would probably suck — here's why
Kelly and Zach Weinersmith join us to discuss their book A City on Mars: Can We Settle Space, Should We Settle Space, and Have We Really Thought This Through?
- Benjamin Thompson
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News |
Total solar eclipse 2024: what dazzled scientists
Amateur and professional astronomers share with Nature what they observed and what data they collected when the Moon blocked the Sun.
- Sumeet Kulkarni
- & Lauren Wolf
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News |
Total solar eclipse 2024: how it will help scientists to study the Sun
The Sun’s mysterious outer atmosphere, the corona, will become easier to view from Earth on 8 April.
- Sumeet Kulkarni
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News |
‘Best view ever’: observatory will map Big Bang’s afterglow in new detail
The Simons Observatory will search for signs of gravitational waves that originated from the Big Bang.
- Davide Castelvecchi
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Arts Review |
159 days of solitude: how loneliness haunts astronauts
The psychological pressures of going into space might be as hard as the physical feat, a documentary reveals.
- Alexandra Witze
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Correspondence |
Space and nuclear pioneers show the value of empowering women in STEM
- Farhan M. Asrar
- , Safa Siddiqui
- & Soyeon Yi
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News |
Two giant US telescopes threatened by funding cap
The Thirty Meter Telescope and Giant Magellan Telescope might need to compete for survival in the face of federal spending limits.
- Alexandra Witze
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Article
| Open AccessThe Dimorphos ejecta plume properties revealed by LICIACube
Dimorphos ejecta plume properties were revealed by the observations from the LICIACube cube satellite, which was deployed 15 days in advance of the impact of DART.
- E. Dotto
- , J. D. P. Deshapriya
- & M. Zannoni
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News |
Japanese Moon-lander unexpectedly survives the lunar night
Its engineers never gave up hope, but the Moon-lander continues to beat the odds.
- Ling Xin
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News |
Giant ‘bubble’ in space could be source of powerful cosmic rays
Scientists have identified a region in the Milky Way capable of accelerating particles to super-high energy levels.
- Gemma Conroy
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News |
Supernova mystery solved: JWST reveals the fate of an iconic stellar explosion
Decades-long quest ends as the landmark observatory detects signs of the 1987 blast’s central neutron star.
- Alexandra Witze
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Where I Work |
Building precision instruments to explore the cosmos
Phil Korngut tests NASA’s SPHEREx telescope under extreme conditions at his laboratory in California.
- Rachael Pells
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News |
This new map of the Universe suggests dark matter shaped the cosmos
The eROSITA telescope’s detailed pictures are among the most precise cosmological measurements ever made.
- Davide Castelvecchi
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News |
JWST is most in-demand telescope ever — leaving many astronomers in the cold
Reviewers will probably approve only one in every nine research proposals submitted in latest application cycle.
- Rahul Rao
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News |
Near death experience — Japan’s Moon lander makes a comeback
After nine days in a state of suspension, the upside-down Moon lander has received enough sunlight to start operating again.
- Gemma Conroy
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News |
‘Sci-fi instrument’ will hunt for giant gravitational waves in space
An experiment has been given the go ahead to send lasers to orbit the Sun to hunt for gigantic ripples in space-time.
- Elizabeth Gibney
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News |
Black-hole observations solve cosmic-ray mystery
Data from an African observatory show that jets from a collapsed star are capable of producing some of the Galaxy’s fastest particles.
- Davide Castelvecchi
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News |
Japan’s successful Moon landing was the most precise ever
Landing within 100 metres of its target zone, the craft has pioneered a new image-based automatic navigation system. But its mission might be cut short.
- Ling Xin
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Spotlight |
I predict solar storms
Yoshita Baruah says understanding space weather has immediate practical applications for our technology-reliant world.
- Sahana Ghosh
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News Feature |
The engineer who helped India to reach the Moon
Kalpana Kalahasti had a crucial role in ensuring Chandrayaan-3’s triumphant touchdown on the Moon.
- Jatan Mehta
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News |
SpaceX Starship launch ends in explosion — what’s next for the mega-rocket?
The craft travelled into space for the first time, before it self-destructed for unknown reasons.
- Alexandra Witze
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Nature Podcast |
Martian sounds reveal the secrets of the red planet's core
NASA's InSight mission recorded vibrations of Mars exposing a surprising layer of silicate around the core.
- Geoff Marsh
- & Nick Petrić Howe
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News Feature |
Staring at the Sun — close-up images from space rewrite solar science
Researchers have never had such detailed views of our nearest star.
- Alexandra Witze
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News |
This fast radio burst took 8 billion years to reach Earth
The bright flash has cosmologists adjusting their models on how such intergalactic energy behaves.
- Gemma Conroy
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Essay |
How would we know whether there is life on Earth? This bold experiment found out
Thirty years ago, astronomer Carl Sagan convinced NASA to turn a passing space probe’s instruments on Earth to look for life — with results that still reverberate today.
- Alexandra Witze
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News |
‘Immense relief’: Universe-mapping Euclid telescope fixes problem that threatened mission
The European Space Agency says a software patch restored stability to its new cosmic mapper — but slower operations could extend the mission.
- Davide Castelvecchi
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News |
Huge new satellite outshines nearly every star in the sky
At times, the enormous telecommunications spacecraft is brighter than some of the most iconic stars visible from Earth.
- Shannon Hall
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Article
| Open AccessThe high optical brightness of the BlueWalker 3 satellite
We report the outcome of an international optical observation campaign of a prototype constellation satellite, AST SpaceMobile’s BlueWalker 3, which features a 64.3 m2 phased-array antenna and a launch vehicle adaptor.
- Sangeetha Nandakumar
- , Siegfried Eggl
- & Mario Soto
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News |
A new era for Arecibo: legendary observatory begins next phase
The US National Science Foundation announces plan to use the historic site for biology and computer science education.
- Anil Oza
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News |
China’s powerful new telescope will search for exploding stars
The Wide Field Survey Telescope is the largest facility of its kind in the Northern Hemisphere.
- Gemma Conroy
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News |
How worlds are born: JWST reveals exotic chemistry of planetary nurseries
The telescope is delivering a cascade of insights about the ‘protoplanetary’ disks where planets take shape.
- Alexandra Witze
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News Q&A |
UFO sightings: how NASA can bring science to the debate
An astrophysicist who advised the agency talks to Nature about ways to bring rigour to reports of ‘unidentified anomalous phenomena’.
- Alexandra Witze
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News |
Ancient-human fossils sent to space: scientists slam ‘publicity stunt’
The decision to send hominin bones on a commercial spaceflight has raised eyebrows among human-evolution researchers.
- Ewen Callaway
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News Explainer |
An ‘alien meteorite’ probably didn’t slam into Earth — how will we know if one does?
Nature looks at the detective work required to confirm a controversial claim of finding interstellar debris.
- Alexandra Witze
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News Explainer |
India’s first Sun mission will investigate the origins of space weather
Aditya-L1 will join other spacecraft from Europe and the United States in an attempt to understand our stormy star.
- T.V. Padma
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News |
Japan’s space observatory will measure X-rays in exquisite detail
XRISM’s precision measurements will unveil a Universe in motion.
- Davide Castelvecchi
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Editorial |
India’s Moon landing is a stellar achievement — and a win for science
When Chandrayaan-3 touched down, India pulled off a huge win for its own space programme and for international efforts to understand the Moon.
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News |
What powers the Sun’s mysterious wind? A daring spacecraft has some answers
Analysis shows that mini jets of gas help to generate the solar wind, a discovery that also illuminates how our star’s activity damages satellites.
- Alexandra Witze
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Article
| Open AccessOutflows from the youngest stars are mostly molecular
Near-infrared imagery and spectroscopy from JWST of the Herbig-Haro 211 system, an analogue of the young Sun, reveals supersonic jets of hot molecules that can explain the origin of the ‘green fuzzies’ phenomenon.
- T. P. Ray
- , M. J. McCaughrean
- & G. Wright
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News |
India lands on the Moon! Scientists celebrate as Chandrayaan-3 touches down
The craft has performed a technically challenging descent at the lunar south pole.
- T. V. Padma
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News |
Russian Moon lander crash — what happened, and what’s next?
The Luna 25 mission has ended in failure, raising major questions about the future of Russia’s space program.
- Jonathan O'Callaghan
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News |
Russia launches first Moon mission in half a century: what it means for science
The Luna 25 spacecraft will attempt to land at the lunar south pole for the first time in a hunt for valuable water ice.
- Jonathan O'Callaghan
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News |
Closing down an icon: will Arecibo Observatory ever do science again?
Although it is slated to become an education centre, astronomers hope research might one day return to the site.
- Anil Oza
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News |
‘It’s a dream’: JWST spies more black holes than astronomers predicted
The James Webb Space Telescope’s observations could help to answer questions about how the celestial objects formed early in the Universe.
- Alexandra Witze
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Nature Podcast |
Disrupting snail food-chain curbs parasitic disease in Senegal
Intervention against schistosomiasis also shows agricultural and economic benefits, and the successful launch of India’s Chandrayaan-3 lunar mission.
- Benjamin Thompson
- & Shamini Bundell
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News |
Stunning star nursery is latest JWST image to amaze astronomers
Powerful space telescope reveals star-forming region — image of the week.