Harry Baker

Aftershock II, a new rocket built by students at the University of Southern California, recently broke a number of 20-year-old amateur spaceflight records for altitude, power and speed. It reached more than 470,000 feet above Earth's surface and went "hypersonic."

A 70-foot-long Apatosaurus skeleton, named Vulcan, recently became the biggest dinosaur fossil ever sold when it was acquired for around $6.4 million at an auction in France. The sizable remains weigh more than 22 tons.

A new JWST study has revealed the true origins of a luminous quasar that has been duplicated six times as its light "zig-zags" through space-time via a phenomenon first predicted by Albert Einstein. The unusual light show could help tackle one of cosmology's biggest problems, experts claim.

Earth from space This 2023 satellite photo shows New Zealand's Mount Taranaki, which is surrounded by a near-perfect circle of deformed trees. The volcano was recently granted the same legal rights as a person.

Until now, Antarctica was the only continent on Earth without any known amber fossils. But sediment cores taken from below the seafloor have revealed a tiny piece of fossilized resin holding fragments of an ancient rainforest that covered the South Pole during the Cretaceous period.

A new model based on the famous alien-hunting Drake equation suggests that some parallel universes within the hypothetical "multiverse" could have higher chances of containing extraterrestrial life than our universe.

Earth from space A 2010 satellite image shows dozens of golden islands covered with strange parallel lines shining among the shallow waters of a massive, half-full ephemeral lake in Australia's Great Sandy Desert.

The cryovolcanic "centaur" comet 29P/Schwassmann-Wachmann has erupted four times in less than 48 hours, becoming unusually bright in the process. It is the most powerful outburst from the city-size oddball in more than three years.

A student-led project comparing satellite images of the Arctic has discovered that a small Russian island has recently vanished after "completely melting" away.

Scientists have discovered a new way of creating superheavy elements by firing supercharged ion beams at dense atoms. The team believes this method could potentially help synthesize the hypothetical "element 120," which would be heavier than any known element.

The nearby bright star Vega is surrounded by a surprisingly smooth, 100 billion-mile-wide disk of cosmic dust, confirming that it is not surrounded by any exoplanets, JWST images reveal. And scientists cannot explain its lack of alien worlds.

Earth from space Satellite images show the true extent of the flash flooding in Valencia during a freak weather event that killed at least 214 people across Spain.

Earth from space A 2014 photo shows a massive, iceberg-littered pool of vibrant blue meltwater sitting alone on top of a glacier in Alaska. Similar "melt ponds" are becoming increasingly common in the Arctic due to climate change and are further accelerating the rate of ice loss across the region.

Researchers spotted a second distant star orbiting a well-known black hole and its stellar companion in a never-before-seen gravitational triad. The system's unique configuration suggests that the black hole was not created as scientists initially expected.

A new animated map sheds light on the superhot "zombie star" at the heart of a nebula leftover from a distant supernova witnessed by astronomers in 1181. The remains of the stellar explosion are unusually wonky and are still exploding at a constant speed.

Four "potentially hazardous" space rocks, which are between 100 and 580 feet across, will all make their closest approaches to Earth within less than 12 hours of one another on Thursday (Oct. 24). Two of them were only discovered earlier this month.

A new NASA-led study suggests that photosynthetic microbes could thrive in hidden bubbles of meltwater below patches of ice on Mars. This could be one of the easiest places to search for extraterrestrial life "anywhere in the universe," the team says.

Half a dozen dinosaur eggs, each around the size of a grape, were recently saved from a construction site in China. Researchers say the tiny fossilized shells are exceptionally well preserved.

Earth from space A recent satellite image captured the reemergence of a unique, UFO-like cloud, known as the "Taieri Pet," which appears above New Zealand's South Island when conditions are just right.

A new video shows how Earth's magnetic field weakened and warped before temporarily flipping during a recent "polar reversal event."

A probabilistic new map of the universe surrounding the Milky Way reveals that our galaxy is likely part of an even larger "basin of attraction" than we previously assumed.

A new analysis of a peculiar metallic cloud surrounding the exoplanet WASP-49 b provides further evidence that it may have been birthed by a volcanic satellite, which may become the first officially recognized "exomoon."

A surprise announcement from scientists involved in monitoring the solar cycle has finally confirmed that the sun's most active and dangerous phase — solar maximum — is already well underway, and could continue for at least a year.

New photos of comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS appear to show a faint "anti-tail" pointing away in the wrong direction. The puzzling extra limb is the result of a rare illusion that is only possible when our planet is in a certain position.