Astronomy
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Astronomy
Ghostly Galaxy: Massive, dark cloud intrigues scientists
Astronomers say they have found the only known galaxy devoid of stars.
By David Shiga -
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.
By Ron Cowen -
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.
By Ron Cowen -
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.
By Ron Cowen -
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.
By Ron Cowen -
Astronomy
Hubble views bar in galaxy
The Hubble Space Telescope has captured a strikingly detailed image of the starlit arms, glowing gas, and dark dust clouds of a barred spiral galaxy called NGC 1300, which lies 69 million light-years from Earth.
By Ron Cowen -
Astronomy
Black Hole Bonanza: 10,000 objects near our galaxy’s center
Astronomers have found the first evidence of a suspected population of black holes near the Milky Way's center, each hole with 10 times the mass of the sun.
By David Shiga -
Astronomy
Stars in the dust
The dusty disks surrounding three nearby stars show that they played host to massive collisions between asteroid-like objects as recently as 100 years ago.
By David Shiga -
Astronomy
Zooming in on a great void
New X-ray observations provide the most detailed view yet of the environment near a supermassive black hole.
By David Shiga -
Astronomy
The Hole Story
New evidence suggests that supermassive black holes have an impact on the evolution of galaxies that goes far beyond their gravitational grasp.
By Ron Cowen -
Astronomy
Ultimate Retro: Modern echoes of the early universe
Two teams of astronomers have for the first time detected the surviving notes of a cosmic symphony created just after the Big Bang, when the universe was a foggy soup of matter and radiation.
By Ron Cowen