For decades, astronomers have believed that dark matter and dark energy make up most of the universe, however, a new study suggests they might not exist at all. Instead, what we perceive as dark matter and dark energy could simply be the effect of the natural forces of the universe slowly weakening as it ages.

SAN ANTONIO — October 1, 2025 — Surface features on asteroid 52246 Donaldjohanson, as identified by the Southwest Research Institute-led Lucy Mission, have been given official names by the International Astronomical Union (IAU). The surface features of the carbonaceous asteroid will be named for significant paleoanthropological sites and discoveries. The NASA Lucy spacecraft flew past the asteroid on April 20, 2025.

The first stars in the universe formed out of pristine hydrogen and helium clouds, in the first few hundred million years after the Big Bang. New James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) observations reveal that some of the first stars in the universe could have been very different from regular (nuclear fusion-powered) stars, which have been observed and catalogued by astronomers for millennia.

For decades, scientists struggled to explain how rain forms so quickly during solar flares.

Scientists digging through data collected by the Cassini spacecraft have found new complex organic molecules spewing from Saturn’s moon Enceladus. This is a clear sign that complex chemical reactions are taking place within its underground ocean. Some of these reactions could be part of chains that lead to even more complex, potentially biologically relevant molecules.

Published today in Nature Astronomy, this discovery further strengthens the case for a dedicated European Space Agency (ESA) mission to orbit and land on Enceladus.