Astronomy

Astronomy

Tiny shutters for new observatory

A recently developed device, known as a microshutter, will allow the proposed James Webb Space Telescope to simultaneously record the spectra of light from 100 galaxies.

Astronomy

Kaput: Hubble’s main camera stops working

The sharpest, most sensitive camera on the aging Hubble Space Telescope has stopped working.

Astronomy

Magnificent McNaught

Flaunting a majestic tail over southern skies, Comet McNaught became in mid-January the brightest comet in more than 40 years.

Astronomy

Astronomers discover smallest galaxy ever

Astronomers have found the smallest galaxy yet recorded, about one-sixteenth the diameter of the Milky Way.

Astronomy

A Cosmic Pas de Trois: Triple-quasar system may signal galaxy mergers

Astronomers have discovered the first example of a trio of quasars, the brilliant beacons of light that seem to be fueled by supermassive black holes at the centers of galaxies.

Astronomy

Fleet Finding: Speed of Milky Way’s companions poses puzzle

New measurements of the speed of two familiar companion galaxies to the Milky Way suggest some unfamiliar possibilities.

Astronomy

Rocky Finding: Evidence of extrasolar asteroid belt

Astronomers have obtained some of the best evidence yet for an asteroid belt beyond the solar system.

Astronomy

A New Spin

Using a flotilla of spacecraft to study X-ray emissions from the vicinity of black holes, astronomers are nudging ever closer to the whirlpool of activity surrounding these gravitational monsters.

Astronomy

Comet Sampler: Specimens show that inner and outer solar system mixed

Just as the solar system was forming some 4.6 billion years ago, some of the hottest material, residing so close to the sun that it was almost vaporized, sped out to the chilliest reaches of deep space, where it became incorporated into comets.

Astronomy

The magnetic link between star and planet

Astronomers have for the first time directly measured the magnetic field of a star known to host a giant planet.

Astronomy

What’s a Planet?

Recent observations have blurred distinctions among stars, brown dwarfs, and planets.

Astronomy

Cosmic Pops: Nearby galaxy is hotbed of supernova formation

Large galaxies usually have no more than three supernovas blow up in a century, but the nearby galaxy NGC 1316 has had two such explosions within the past 5 months and four in the past 26 years.