Astronomy

Astronomy

Puzzling radio blasts

Astronomers are stumped by powerful radio waves emanating from the center of our galaxy.

Astronomy

Weighing In on a Star: A stellar size limit

A new study suggests that no star in our galaxy can weigh more than 150 times the mass of the sun.

Astronomy

Radiation from a baby star

X-ray telescopes have captured the earliest and clearest view of the core of a gas cloud about to transform into a star.

Astronomy

Nursery Pictures: Astronomers glimpse primordial clustering

Astronomers have found the earliest traces of galaxy clustering, from a period just 1 billion years after the birth of the universe.

Astronomy

Hole power

New computer simulations and observations are adding to the evidence that supermassive black holes control the growth of the galaxies they inhabit, wielding an influence far beyond their gravitational grasp.

Astronomy

Big Flash: Record-breaking explosion in outer space

The brightest flash of light ever recorded from beyond the solar system could help account for a puzzling group of extremely short-lived gamma-ray bursts from distant galaxies.

Astronomy

Ghostly Galaxy: Massive, dark cloud intrigues scientists

Astronomers say they have found the only known galaxy devoid of stars.

Astronomy

Speedstar

Astronomers have discovered a star so speedy that it will eventually leave the Milky Way and venture into intergalactic space.

Astronomy

Images from the Edge

Examining nearby reaches of the universe at ultraviolet wavelengths, a recently launched spacecraft has found regions of star birth in unexpected places.

Astronomy

Swift detection of a gamma-ray burst

A telescope has for the first time detected X rays directly from an ongoing gamma-ray burst, the most powerful type of explosion in the universe.

Astronomy

Proton storm erupts from the sun

A storm of high-speed protons, triggered by a Jan. 20 solar eruption, bombarded spacecraft and was the most energetic such squall recorded in 15 years.

Astronomy

Puny Parent? Planets may form around tiny orbs

Barely more massive than a planet itself, a tiny failed star 500 light-years from Earth is nonetheless cloaked in a disk of gas and dust from which planets may coalesce.