Astronomy

Astronomy

Bloated planet

A newly discovered exoplanet is the largest and lowest-density such object yet found.

Astronomy

Major merger

Four galaxies are ramming into each other in one of the biggest cosmic collisions ever recorded.

Astronomy

Killer Collision: Dino demise traces to asteroid-family breakup

The asteroid that wiped out the dinosaurs 65 million years ago was a wayward fragment from a violent collision in the asteroid belt.

Astronomy

Dawn of a Disk: Water vapor pours down on embryonic star

Infrared observations show water vapor pouring down on a planet-forming disk around a young star.

Astronomy

Separation Anxiety: Cosmic collision may shed light on dark matter

The debris from an ancient collision of galaxy clusters seems to show cosmic dark matter behaving in a puzzling way.

Astronomy

Veiled black holes

Many X ray sources in the sky could be active galactic nuclei smothered by gas and dust that blocks their emission of visible and ultraviolet light.

Astronomy

Shedding light on the precursor to a supernova

A supernova lights up its surroundings, revealing evidence of what made the star explode.

Astronomy

Heavenly Chemistry: Astronomers announce astrophysical anion

Astronomers' discovery of a rare negatively charged organic molecule sheds light on conditions in interstellar gas clouds, where amino acids, sugars, and other prebiologic compounds form.

Astronomy

Help Spot Galaxies

Although computer programs can be written to sort galaxies into general categories, they would inevitably throw out the unusual, the weird and the wonderful, astronomers say. Because the human brain is much better at recognizing patterns, astronomers launched a site this week recruiting the public to help identify spiral galaxies on sky photos. Instructions are […]

Astronomy

Shattering Find? Comet fragments show surprising uniformity

Close observations of fragments of a comet indicate that its interior was remarkably similar to its surface, meaning that repeated solar heating didn't much change its outer layers.

Astronomy

Passages

By observing the minieclipses known as transits, when a distant planet passes in front of its parent star, astronomers are learning more about the size, composition, and temperature of exoplanets.

Astronomy

Galactic Émigré: Incoming dwarf galaxy could feed its larger kin

A dwarf galaxy at the periphery of the giant Andromeda galaxy may be a pristine building block for forming galaxies in the modern-day universe.