compiled by Arlene & David Kaplan

NASA’s Hubble spots a mysterious flash in the middle of nowhere that defies science A bright flash of blue light appearing in the middle of seemingly empty space has scientists confused.The brilliant flash — thought to have burned at about 36,000 degrees Fahrenheit —is a rare explosion…more

‘Big Whack’ Formed the Moon and Left Traces Deep in Earth, a Study Suggests Where did the moon come from? The most popular theory says that about 4.5 billion years ago, a Mars-size protoplanet slammed into Earth. Some of the resulting debris, tossed into orbit, coalesced to form the moon….more

A chunk of the moon appears to be orbiting near Earth, new study suggests Astronomers have found more evidence that a near-Earth asteroid is an ejected chunk of the moon.The asteroid Kamo’oalewa — a Hawaiian name that means “the oscillating fragment” — is a Ferris-wheel-size rock chunk…more

Salts and organics observed on Ganymede’s surface by NASA’s Juno Data collected by NASA’s Juno mission indicates a briny past may be bubbling to the surface on Jupiter’s largest moon. NASA’s Juno mission has observed mineral salts and organic compounds on the surface of Jupiter’s moon Ganymede…more

Black Hole Rain The planned LISA gravitational-wave detector might discover a shower of hundreds of small black holes falling in galactic centers. At the center of nearly every massive galaxy sits at least one supermassive black hole. These black holes weigh in at millions or even billions of times the mass of the Sun…more

Nailing down exoplanet orbits could be key to finding ET. Here’s why The search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI) will likely be sped up thanks to new results that narrow down how alien radio signals would drift in frequency as a result of the Doppler shift caused by their home planet’s orbit around its star. A Doppler shift is the lengthening or shortening of the frequency of a signal caused by the motion of the transmitter…more

Supervolcano eruption on Pluto hints at hidden ocean beneath the face Although it has been close to a decade since NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft visited Pluto, the dwarf planet continues to reveal itself as a surprisingly complex world. Scientists studying spacecraft data of an unusual crater near a bright, heart-shaped region…more

Lucy Mission Set Its Sights on 1 Asteroid. It Found 2 On Wednesday, NASA’s Lucy spacecraft zoomed by its first asteroid target — and scientists on the mission were shocked to discover that the rock, named Dinkinesh, was actually two rocks. The binary consists of a larger, primary asteroid and a smaller “moon” orbiting around it, as seen in images that Lucy captured of the pair…more

Supermassive black hole seen spinning ropes of plasma like a cosmic spider Like a monstrous cosmic spider, a distant supermassive black hole is spinning a jet of plasma into a twisted rope and blasting it out at near-light speed. Astronomers witnessed this spectacular sight with a network of radio telescopes, including the RadioAstron space telescope, that are combined to form an Earth-sized…more

NASA’s Parker Solar Probe smashes record for fastest human-made object The NASA Parker Solar Probe has become the fastest human-made object ever recorded — again. On Sept. 27, the probe reached a blistering 394,736 mph/ (635,266 km/h) as it swooped close to the sun’s surface, thanks to a little gravity assistance from a close flyby of Venus on Aug. 21…more