Astronomy
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Astronomy
Four’s a crowd
Astronomers have found a quartet of stars packed into a region smaller than Jupiter's orbit around the sun.
By Ron Cowen -
Astronomy
Gravity at play: A double lens
Astronomers have discovered an extraordinarily rare double cosmic mirage.
By Ron Cowen -
Astronomy
Case of the misshapen disk
A deformed disk around a young star may have gotten its swept-back appearance as the result of a collision with a dense gas cloud.
By Ron Cowen -
Astronomy
X-raying a galactic jet set
The deepest X-ray portrait ever taken of the galaxy Centaurus A highlights its jets and activity around its supermassive black hole.
By Ron Cowen -
Astronomy
Second Time Around: Some old stars may make new planets
Two old stars appear to have been rejuvenated and may be undergoing a new wave of planet formation hundreds of millions to billions of years after young stars normally do.
By Ron Cowen -
Astronomy
Heavy Find: Weighty neutron stars may rule out exotic core
Neutron stars may be the weirdest stars in the universe, but they don't seem to be very strange, a weighty new report finds.
By Ron Cowen -
Astronomy
Twinkle, Twinkle: Dark matter may have lit up first stars
The earliest stars in the universe might have been fueled by dark matter instead of nuclear fusion.
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Astronomy
Black Hole Bully: Galaxy blasts its smaller neighbor
A distant galaxy is shooting a deadly jet of radiation at a neighboring galaxy, astronomers have observed.
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Astronomy
Run of the Mill: Finding galactic building blocks in early universe
Astronomers have discovered 27 faint, run-of-the-mill galaxies from the early universe that may be some of the building blocks of giant galaxies such as the Milky Way.
By Ron Cowen -
Astronomy
Stellar Opposites: Sky survey reveals new halo of stars
The Milky Way galaxy possesses a distinct outer halo that orbits in the opposite direction from its inner halo and the rest of the galaxy.
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Astronomy
One star, five planets
With the discovery of a fifth planet circling the nearby star 55 Cancri, astronomers have found the most abundant—and heaviest—planetary system beyond the sun's.
By Ron Cowen -
Astronomy
Flare-Up: Comet Holmes’ surprise bloom
Comet 17P/Holmes abruptly brightened last month, blossoming into a naked eye object.
By Ron Cowen