The Top Photos in the CWAS David Malin Awards Highlight Astronomical Wonders

The search for life outside our solar system has taken another twist as researchers revealed they have discovered an atmosphere around an Earth-like planet 49 light years away that could have liquid water on its surface. Atmospheres have previously been found around gas giant exoplanets as well as “sub-Neptunes”. There have also been signs of…

A major Atlantic Ocean current is slowing, and the consequences could reach far beyond the Atlantic. New research from the University of California, Riverside suggests the change could strengthen powerful storms along the California coast while reducing snowfall over Greenland. The Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation, or AMOC, is a vast system of ocean currents that…

Researchers have uncovered a surprising side effect of artificial lighting: ordinary streetlights can lure thousands of tiny land dwelling isopods into giant synchronized “death spirals.” The newly documented behavior, observed in Israel, is the first of its kind and suggests that human made lighting can dramatically disrupt the instincts of small ground dwelling animals. The…

Red and green don’t look like particularly close colors at a glance, but the way your eye treats them is surprisingly similar.  A new study in Science, led by biochemists at Nagoya Institute of Technology in Japan, has now revealed just how close they really are on a molecular level. It only takes differences in…

NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope has released a dazzling new image featuring more than 500,000 stars glowing in shades of red, white, and blue. The breathtaking view, shared in celebration of the United States’ 250th anniversary, highlights Messier 3 (M3), one of the largest and most impressive globular clusters in the Milky Way. Globular clusters are…

Space startup Interlune revealed a new technology that extracts 99% pure helium-3 from standard Grade A helium. The innovation aims to address immediate shortages on Earth while validating the technology for future lunar harvesting. Seattle-based space startup has been testing its “Cold Capture” technology, which is developed with support from the U.S. Air Force.  “Every…