Astronomy

Astronomy

A newfound, oddly slow pulsar shouldn’t emit radio waves — yet it does

The highly magnetic neutron star rotates three times slower than the previous record holder, challenging the theorical understanding of these objects.

Astronomy

The Solar Orbiter spacecraft spotted a ‘hedgehog’ on the sun

In its closest flyby yet of the sun, the Solar Orbiter came within 48 million kilometers of our star, revealing new details.

Astronomy

Pulsars may power cosmic rays with the highest-known energies in the universe

Earth is pelted by energetic particles from space. The source might be the magnetic remains of massive stars, a new study suggests.

Particle Physics

High-energy neutrinos may come from black holes ripping apart stars

Where extremely energetic neutrinos originate from is a mystery. A new study supports the idea that “tidal disruption events” are one source.

Astronomy

We finally have an image of the black hole at the heart of the Milky Way

Observations from the Event Horizon Telescope reveal the turbulent region around our home galaxy’s black hole, Sagittarius A*, in new detail.

Astronomy

The sun’s searing radiation led to the shuffling of the solar system’s planets

As the young sun’s radiation evaporated gas from its surrounding disk, it triggered a jumbling of the giant planets’ orbits, simulations suggest.

Physics

Gravitational waves gave a new black hole a high-speed ‘kick’

Ripples in spacetime revealed that two black holes united into one, which then sped off at around 5 million kilometers per hour.

Astronomy

‘Goldilocks’ stars may pose challenges for any nearby habitable planets

Orange dwarfs emit far-ultraviolet light long after birth, stressing the atmospheres of potentially life-bearing worlds.

Astronomy

Crumbling planets might trigger repeating fast radio bursts

Mysterious blasts of cosmic radio waves might be due to planets sweeping extremely close to their host neutron stars.

Astronomy

A newly discovered planet renews debate about how some giant worlds form

An implosion of gas may have given birth to this young exoplanet, which orbits too far from its star to have been built up bit by bit, researchers say.

Astronomy

A star nicknamed ‘Earendel’ may be the most distant yet seen

Analyzing Hubble Space Telescope images revealed a star whose light originates from about 12.9 billion light-years away, researchers say.

Space

Binary stars keep masquerading as black holes

The drive to find black holes in ever-larger astronomy datasets is leading some researchers astray.