Astronomy

  1. 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.

    By
  2. 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.

    By
  3. 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.

    By
  4. 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.

    By
  5. 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.

    By
  6. 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.

    By
  7. 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.

    By
  8. 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.

    By
  9. 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.

    By
  10. 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.

    By
  11. Space

    Binary stars keep masquerading as black holes

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

    By
  12. Astronomy

    When the Magellanic Clouds cozy up to each other, stars are born

    The Magellanic Clouds, the two closest star-making galaxies to the Milky Way, owe much of their stellar creativity to each other.

    By