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Early Universe

The universe began 13.8 billion years ago, and in its early years, it looked completely different than it does now. For nearly 400,000 years, the entire cosmos was opaque, which means we have no ...
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Founding Gift Establishes Smithsonian STARS Program in Delaware in Honor of Rev. Barbara Louise Hebner

A founding gift from longtime Smithsonian supporter Laura Peebles and the Barbara Hebner Charitable Fund at Vanguard Charitable will launch the Smithsonian Scientists Taking Astronomy to Rural Schools ...
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Astronomers find strongest evidence yet that Betelgeuse has a companion

Astronomers have firm evidence that Betelgeuse, one of the most famous stars in the night sky, is not alone. Using the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope (ESO's VLT), a team ...
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First atmosphere detected on a habitable-zone rocky world

In a major milestone in the search for life on other planets, astronomers have detected, for the first time, an atmosphere surrounding an Earth-like, rocky planet orbiting within the habitable zone of ...
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Smithsonian Starstruck Makes Its World Premiere in Washington, D.C., Launching an Immersive Journey to the Cosmos

Built from real astronomical data, the fully immersive experience brings stars, galaxies and black holes within reach. Washington, D.C., May 28--The Smithsonian launches a gateway to the cosmos with ...
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The Solar Wind’s Secret Hammerheads and What They Tell Us About Heat in Space

Cambridge, MA (May 27, 2026) —The proton sharks showed up on a Friday. In a routine data calibration meeting for NASA’s Parker Solar Probe in 2020, a small group of scientists were scrolling through ...
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'Interstellar Glaciers': NASA’s SPHEREx Maps Vast Galactic Ice Regions

In observations led by CfA scientists, NASA’s SPHEREx has mapped water, carbon dioxide, and carbon monoxide ices attached to the surface of tiny dust particles in clouds spanning hundreds of ...
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'Space Archaeology' Reveals First Dynamic History of a Giant Spiral Galaxy

For the first time, astronomers used galactic archaeology techniques to trace the chemical "fossil record" of a galaxy outside the Milky Way Cambridge, MA (March 23, 2026) — A team of astronomers led ...
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NASA's Hubble Reveals Largest Found Chaotic Birthplace of Planets

Nearly 300 years after Immanuel Kant proposed that our solar system’s family of planets condensed from a flattened disk of gas and dust, NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope revealed that such planetary ...
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New X-ray Space Telescope Gives Sharpest-Ever Glimpse at Growth of a Rapidly-Spinning Black Hole

The first results on the iconic active galactic nucleus MCG–6-30-15 captured with the XRISM mission show the most precise signatures yet of its supermassive black hole’s extreme gravity and the ...
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New NASA-Backed Research Platform SciX Expands Open Science

The new research data and discovery platform expands beyond astrophysics into the Earth, environmental and space sciences. Cambridge, MA -The team behind the NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS) has ...
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Astronomers Find Black Hole With Tremendous Growth Using NASA’s Chandra X-Ray Observatory

CfA astronomers have found one of the fastest growing black holes on record, which could explain how some can get so big so quickly Cambridge (September 19, 2025)—A black hole is growing at one of the ...