astronomy and space sciences

Roughly diamond-shaped asteroid with a rocky, uneven surface, set against a completely black background

Research

Strange ‘space plastic’ found on asteroid Bennu

In material from an ancient asteroid, UC Berkeley and NASA scientists found a gum-like organic residue that likely formed more than 4 billion years ago during the formation of the solar system.

Research

NASA’s ESCAPADE mission to Mars — twin UC Berkeley satellites dubbed Blue and Gold — will launch in early November

a young woman cinches up the green flight suit of an older woman

Campus news

Former Air Force chief scientist to guide program development at Berkeley Space Center

a man in a brown leather jacket, blue shirt and glasses, with the Andromeda Galaxy in the background.

Milestones

Nobelist George Smoot, whose satellite experiments validated the Big Bang theory, dies at 80

closeup of a satellite with the Earth and sun in the background

NASA launches spacecraft with UC Berkeley-built instruments to study Earth’s hydrogen halo

an orange star is stretched out to loop around a dark oval at the center of a pink swirling mass

Not one, but two massive black holes are eating away at this galaxy

smiling woman with white hair and glasses wearing a mustard blouse with black jacket

Planetary scientist Lindy Elkins-Tanton to head Space Sciences Laboratory

layers of fuzzy blue and red clouds on a 3D grid

On Jupiter, it’s mushballs all the way down

a fluffy blue sphere of gas with 3 small galaxies at the center, set against a black background

Half of the universe’s hydrogen gas, long unaccounted for, has been found

Alex Filippenko and Pat Joseph talk onstage

The Edge: Life, the universe and everything with Berkeley astrophysicist Alex Filippenko

Ancient beaches testify to long-ago ocean on Mars

looping steel structure lit up against a starry sky

Astronomers thought they understood fast radio bursts. A recent one calls that into question.

a bright yellow spot amid stars, with a blue background of stars

The Andromeda galaxy struts its stuff

A round shaped yellow flame burns in front of a green background.

Engineers from UC Berkeley and NASA team up to study fire in space

the southern portion of a blue Jupiter with a dark blue spot and a chocolate-brown cap at the bottom

Magnetic tornado is stirring up the haze at Jupiter’s poles

a planet against a blue background is exploded in layered hemispheres resembling clouds, an ocean, an amber layer and a core

A clue to what lies beneath the bland surfaces of Uranus and Neptune

All astronomy and space sciences