Our solar system is currently traveling through a 'dark matter hurricane'

The sun emits a continuous stream of plasma known as the solar wind

Composed of charged particles—electrons and ions—the solar wind is deflected around the Earth by the planet's magnetic field. More powerful solar storms, known as coronal mass ejections, are short-lived but produce huge clouds of plasma that disrupt technology upon reaching Earth.

Mars' orbit may provide evidence that dark matter is made of primordial black holes

Physicists at MIT have found that, statistically, one such microscopic black hole should pass through the solar system every decade, which they predict would introduce a detectable wobble in Mars' orbit. Such black holes would have formed in the early universe from collapsing gas clouds and scattered as the universe expanded.

The Earth orbits the sun within the Orion Spur arm of the Milky Way galaxy

The solar system is roughly halfway between the galaxy's outer rim and its center, which is located about 25,000 light years away. The Milky Way is itself one of hundreds of thousands of galaxies in the Virgo Supercluster.

New model replaces the Milky Way's central black hole with dark matter

A study published in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society states that a dense core of fermionic dark matter, rather than a supermassive black hole, could explain both the rapid orbits of stars near the Milky Way's center and the galaxy's large-scale rotation detected in Gaia mission data.

Dark stars are hypothetical stars that would have existed in the early universe

Primarily composed of visible matter, this celestial object would also contain a significant amount of dark matter that would annihilate with itself, converting its mass into energy. This energy would prevent the star from collapsing under its own gravity and from triggering nuclear fusion until its dark matter fuel was exhausted.

Black holes can disrupt the formation of galaxies

A team of astronomers in Munich detected a gas cloud being stretched and torn apart by the supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way, preventing matter from coalescing into new stars. Energy released from siphoned gas produced warm winds that may also prevent surrounding gas from coalescing.

Cosmic rays are high-energy particles from outside the solar system

Trillions of these particles moving close to the speed of light hit Earth daily, with some originating from beyond our galaxy. While the planet’s magnetic field blocks most, some collide with atoms in the atmosphere, producing cascades of exotic secondary particles.

View a simulation of the dark matter filaments that make up the cosmic web

The distribution of matter in the universe is not uniform, with interconnected threads of galaxy clusters surrounded by voids of empty space. Simulations of the universe show this is only possible within 13.8 billion years—the universe's age—if a foundational network of seeds—dark matter halos—were present to gravitationally attract visible matter.

Due to dark energy, the universe is expected to end as a dark, sparse place

While the sun is expected to continue shining for another five billion years, the expansion of the universe will cause nearby stars and galaxies to become ever more distant, until they are too far to observe. Once the last old, red, dim stars cool into darkness after trillions of years, the universe will settle into a state of eternal, dark emptiness.

While the sun's gravity keeps the planets in orbit, their gravity also pulls on the sun, causing it and everything else in the solar system to orbit around a mutual balance point called the barycenter—the true center of the solar system.

The Milky Way only has a 50-50 chance of merging with the Andromeda galaxy

Previously considered a near certainty, research data from Hubble and GAIA have reduced the likelihood of a collision and merger between the two galaxies. Instead, the data suggests the Milky Way will absorb the Large Magellanic Cloud, a dwarf galaxy, in the next two billion years.

The Oort cloud, our solar system's theoretical icy shell

Recurring comets lead astronomers to believe they originate from an extremely distant, icy shell encapsulating the solar system. They call it the "Oort cloud," and this giant swarm of icy objects is as fascinating as it is is massive. Home of comets and a tremendous number of planetesimals, this NASA site introduces you to the Oort.

While the sun's gravity keeps the planets in orbit, their gravity also pulls on the sun, causing it and everything else in the solar system to orbit around a mutual balance point called the barycenter—the true center of the solar system.

A cup of coffee on Earth contains about 100 proton masses worth of dark matter

The estimate is based on Earth's location within the Milky Way and the dark matter cloud it resides in. Because scientists do not know the nature of dark matter, the mass may be accounted for with any number of dark matter particles of varying mass.

Could the world's largest solar storm happen again?

In 1859, the world witnessed the most intense solar storm in recorded history. The electromagnetic deluge of dust and gas lit up the night sky and sparked fires, disrupting Earth's magnetic field and putting on a show for the millions. If a storm with a similar intensity today occurred, scientists believe it would be catastrophic for our communications systems. Learn what would happen if the Carrington Event happened again here.

Learn about solar neutrinos—about 70 billion of which pass through your thumbnail every second

About 100 quadrillion sextillion (10³⁸) of these elusive particles are created in the core every second, making up about 1% of the sun's total energy output. Because they seldom interact with normal matter, highly specialized equipment is needed to detect them, allowing scientists to probe what is happening in the solar core.

Dark comets appear to be rocky asteroids but move like comets

Cometary orbits are known to exhibit accelerations independent of gravity that result from forces related to the release of gases. Dark comets exhibit this behavior but lack visible clouds of frozen material that have turned into a gas—the coma the comets display—indicating minor quantities of escaping subsurface ice.

Space trash is making low Earth orbit increasingly dangerous for spacecraft

Millions of fragments from satellites, rockets, and other spacecraft that are no longer operational move thousands of meters per second as they circle Earth. Even a piece of debris a centimeter in size can cause mission-ending damage to space stations, telescopes, and astronauts.

Zoom around our solar system

This interactive model of our local neighborhood in the Orion arm of the Milky Way galaxy lets you sail and zoom around our Solar System. Learn about various different objects (include planets and manmade planet-exploring probes) and their proximity to Earth and other heavenly objects.

Evidence for a ninth planet in our solar system

Is there a massive ninth planet on the edge of our solar system? Many of our solar system's most distant objects tend to swing out in one direction, hinting at evidence for a previously unknown ninth planet potentially larger than Earth. This theoretical planet's orbital period is estimated to be roughly 20,000 years, revolving around the sun at a distance of 60 billion miles. Experts break down the evidence in this quick video.

Most of the observable universe's volume consists of voids and supervoids—enormous regions of space with little to no galaxies, stars, or light.

Why Earth's atmosphere constantly loses the universe's lightest elements to space

The masses of hydrogen and helium are too small for these gases to be held by Earth's gravitational force, particularly when these atoms are given energy from collisions with high-speed particles from the sun. Although the planet loses a meter-wide balloon's worth of hydrogen every second, it will still take billions of years to exhaust the planet of this element.

Read about the dangerous comet behind the Perseids meteor shower

Every summer, Earth passes through the debris trail of the Swift-Tuttle comet, producing the spectacle of the Perseids meteor shower. The phenomenon is a glorious opportunity for amateur stargazers, but astronomers have long noted the comet's orbit...

All hurricanes have a central eye where no extreme weather phenomena take place

When standing in the eye of a hurricane, you're likely to experience sunny, cloudless skies surrounded by a wall of intense winds and thunderstorms. The physics behind this formation is the same as what causes water to spiral around a hollow cone as it goes down a drain.

The solar system formed between 4.5 and 4.6 billion years ago

Its age is best estimated by studying meteorites from the early formation period of the planetary system, including Erg Chech 002 (4.565 billion years old) and NWA 11119 (4.5648 billion years old). Solar analysis and stellar evolution models estimate the sun's age to be approximately 4.57 billion years.

Watch a simulated flight through Jupiter's Great Red Spot

Since its discovery over 350 years ago, the anticyclonic storm—with a high-pressure center and flows opposite to the low-pressure system underneath it—has fascinated astronomers due to its size, which is larger than Earth's, and its prominent features, including winds that surpass 250 miles per hour.

Shooting stars, or meteors, are fragments of asteroids and comets that burn up as they enter Earth's atmosphere, creating streaks in the sky called meteor showers.

Jupiter may have affected the trajectory of the asteroid that wiped out the dinosaurs

Despite its reputation as Earth’s cosmic shield, Jupiter’s gravity pulls more asteroids into Earth-crossing orbits. Simulations show that Earth experiences over three times more asteroid impacts because of Jupiter’s influence than if Jupiter didn’t exist.

Hurricanes, which rely on air consistently spinning in the same direction, cannot cross the equator because air curves in opposite directions north and south of it.

After NASA's Voyager 1 captured Earth as a single pixel as it left the solar system in 1990, astronomer Carl Sagan used the image to reflect on humanity's fragility and the responsibility to protect 'the only world we've ever known.'

Explore the known asteroids, comets, and spacecraft involved in asteroid studies within our solar system with 'Eyes on Asteroids,' a 3D visualization from NASA.

According to the physics of black holes, our 4D reality may be a hologram—a projection of information coded on a 2D surface on the edge of the universe.

Planeterrellas create artificial auroras that mimic the atmospheric displays of light by setting up an electric field between two metal balls in a jar filled with a small amount of air.

Track the location of the Voyager probes, currently between 13 and 15 billion miles away from Earth.

All rainbows are 'raincircles' caused by water droplets separating white sunlight into a spectrum of colors, but Earth's surface blocks the bottom half of the circle from our line of sight.

Dirty lightning is a thunderstorm created from friction between rising and falling flows of ash and smoke during volcanic eruptions.

Visualize the path of every solar eclipse from 1900 to 2099 and see what each looks like when observed from different locations on Earth.

While atoms are normally made of protons, neutrons, and electrons, exotic ones have been built with antimatter—alternate versions of normal matter that live for fractions of a second and are about a billion times as rare.

Chaos theory—informally known as the butterfly effect—is the reason why weather forecasts are presented with probabilities rather than certainties.

View the ten deadliest tornadoes in US history.

One disco producer saw 'Star Wars' four times on its opening weekend and was so inspired that he recorded the album 'Star Wars and Other Intergalactic Funk,' which produced a chart-topping single.

SpaceX's S-1 or 'prospectus' revealed many previously unknown details about the company, including its unprofitability despite doing $18.7B in revenue in 2025, exactly how many voting shares Elon Musk will have in the company (roughly 85%), and more.

A 2019 Facebook event called on attendees to "Storm Area 51, They Can't Stop All of Us," resulting in countless memes, the creation of a music festival, and eventually the arrests of those who did try to approach the area.

Fear or disgust related to clusters of holes and cracks, called trypophobia, may stem from evolutionary processes to help us avoid pathogens.

US consumers collectively owe more than $1T to credit card companies—almost as much as they owe in auto loans.

Electrical grids worldwide must double their power delivery capacity by 2050 to meet surging demand from AI and electric vehicles.

Waves off the coast of Nazaré, Portugal, can reach over 100 feet and are caused by the area's deep underwater canyon geography

Browse a detailed visual analysis of over 200,000 similes—comparisons that often use 'like' or 'as'—from popular fiction to see how frequently writers the same idiomatic expressions.

Take a 3D tour of the Hajj, Islam's annual pilgrimage to Mecca, undertaken by over 1.5 million Muslims.

Gerrymandering works through two techniques: cracking opposing voters across districts to dilute their power, and packing them into a few to waste their votes in lopsided majorities.