Astronomy

Astronomy

Tiny planet orbits faraway star

Taking advantage of some gravitational sleight of hand, astronomers have found indirect evidence of the smallest planet known to exist outside the solar system.

Astronomy

Radio Daze: Staccato pulses suggest a new stellar class

Astronomers have discovered what may be a new class of star that emits bursts of radio waves for 2 to 30 milliseconds before falling silent for minutes to hours.

Astronomy

Found: A missing hot halo

Astronomers have for the first time found a halo of hot inflowing gas around a massive, spiral galaxy, a likely leftover from the galaxy's formation.

Astronomy

Blasts from the Past

Gamma-ray bursts may soon surpass quasars and galaxies as the most distant known objects in the universe and are likely to provide a new window on the early universe.

Astronomy

Galactic cannibalism

A highly elongated group of stars is most likely a dwarf galaxy that is being gobbled up by the Milky Way.

Astronomy

Pay Dirt: Cometary dust collector comes home

A capsule containing dust collected from the comet Wild-2 safely landed in the Utah desert.

Astronomy

Cosmic Push: Finding pieces of a dark puzzle

A controversial new study, the first to use gamma-ray bursts to measure the expansion of the universe far back in time, hints that dark energy may not be constant in time.

Astronomy

Images reveal possible origin of young stars

Astronomers say they have solved the riddle of how young, massive stars can reside so close to the monster black hole at the Milky Way's center.

Astronomy

Hubble spots North Star companion

Astronomers have obtained an image of a close companion star to Polaris, the North Star.

Astronomy

Gravity at play

Astronomers have found 19 cosmic mirages, distorted images created when the gravity of a massive galaxy bends and magnifies the light from a background object.

Astronomy

Outer Limits

A slew of recently discovered objects at the far reaches of the solar system, including a possible tenth planet, are providing scientists with clues about the origin and evolution of this distant region.

Astronomy

Gauging Star Birth: Spacecraft uses gamma rays as stellar tracer

Using radioactive material spewed into space by dying stars, astronomers have measured the star-formation rate in our galaxy over the past few million years.