Our Milky Way’s ‘Zone of Avoidance’ holds a galaxy supercluster with 30,000 trillion times the sun’s mass

The Vela Supercluster, in our Milky Way’s Zone of Avoidance, is competing gravitationally with other superclusters for the attention of local galaxies.

Lasers take aim at a galaxy far, far away | Space photo of the day for May 4, 2026

Looking like a scene out of “Star Wars,” this image shows the ESO’s Very Large Telescope Interferometer (VLTI) beaming four separate lasers into the sky towards the Tarantula Nebula.

Why were galaxies so active in the early universe? We may be getting close to the answer

Early galaxies were star-forming machines, gobbling up gas and spitting out stars with a furious intensity. A new model helps explain why things were so different back then.

Why do some stars become ‘supernova impostors’? Astronomers still don’t quite know

Astronomers call this “eruptive mass loss,” and it’s a stellar drama we’re still trying to fully grasp.

Drone radar could help spacecraft pinpoint where to drill for water on Mars, scientists say

Drone-mounted radar flown over glaciers on Earth show how the technology can map buried ice in detail, helping future Mars spacecraft choose exactly where to drill.

Is it cake? No, it’s a parachute! | Space photo of the day for May 1, 2026

In this donut-shaped bag is a massive parachute. Next stop? Mars.

NASA’s Curiosity and Perseverance rovers capture sweeping Mars panoramas (video)

New panoramic views from NASA’s Curiosity and Perseverance rovers reveal dramatically different Martian terrains shaped by ancient water and billions of years of geological change.

Is Venus volcanically active? Big Hawaiian eruption in 2022 could help scientists find out

Evidence suggests that Venus is still volcanically active, and new data about a big eruption in Hawaii a few years ago could help scientists find out for sure.

An Amazon rainforest river from space | Space photo of the day for April 30, 2026

The Ucayali River snakes across the rainforest in this image captured by NASA astronaut Jessica Meir from the International Space Station.

James Webb Space Telescope’s strange little red dots may really be ‘black hole stars’, X-ray data suggests

Finding X-rays coming from one of the little red dots discovered by the James Webb Space Telescope could be the key to answering what these weird objects truly are.