Cosmic Evolution

By aiming intense X-ray beams at iron samples, scientists have discovered what may lie at the core of "super-Earths," rocky planets triple the mass of Earth orbiting far-distant stars.

About 200 to 400 million years after the Big Bang created the universe, the first stars began to appear.

Habitable planets may be more likely around warmer M-dwarfs.

New images from the SPHERE instrument on ESO's Very Large Telescope are revealing the dusty discs surrounding nearby young stars in greater detail than previously achieved.

Chemical models developed to help limit the emission of pollutants by car engines are being used to study the atmospheres of hot exoplanets orbiting close to their stars.

Axial tilt and tidal locking also matter in a planet's habitability.

More than halfway across the universe, an enormous blue star nicknamed Icarus is the farthest individual star ever seen.

For the first time, astronomers have detected a signal from stars emerging in the early universe.

A team of scientists has solved an important puzzle in astrochemistry: how to measure magnetic fields in space using methanol, the simplest form of alcohol.

When scientists searching for exoplanets first spotted patterns in disks of dust and gas around young stars, they thought newly formed planets might be the cause.