Astronomy
- Space
The Milky Way makes little galaxies bloom, then snuffs them out
When dwarf galaxies cross the Milky Way’s frontier, our galaxy compresses their gas, sparking star birth, but then robs them of their star-making gas.
- Physics
LIGO and Virgo’s gravitational wave tally more than quadrupled in six months
Scientists report 39 sets of spacetime ripples from just half a year of data.
- Astronomy
Turning space images into music makes astronomy more accessible
Music created from telescope data helps people with blindness and visual impairments experience the wonders of astronomy, and could aid research.
- Space
A spherical star cluster has surprisingly few heavy elements
A globular cluster in the nearby Andromeda galaxy challenges conventional wisdom about how galaxies form.
- Space
The asteroid Bennu’s brittle boulders may make grabbing a sample easier
NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft is about to collect a bit of asteroid Bennu. Here’s why it’s good that new research suggests its boulders are brittle.
- Space
The first black hole image helped test general relativity in a new way
The Event Horizon Telescope’s iconic image of the black hole at the center of galaxy M87 once again shows Einstein was right.
- Astronomy
The Milky Way’s most massive star cluster may have eaten a smaller cluster
Observations of newfound stars suggest how the gathering of stars at the galaxy’s core grew so big.
- Space
Stellar winds hint at how planetary nebulae get their stunning shapes
Observations of red giant stars reveal that planets or even other stars may influence the shape of a nebula’s cloud of dust and gas.
- Space
Neutrinos could reveal how fast radio bursts are launched
Highly magnetized stellar corpses called magnetars may be the source of two different cosmic enigmas: fast radio bursts and high-energy neutrinos.
- Space
Dark matter clumps in galaxy clusters bend light surprisingly well
Cosmologists have found one more way to be confused by dark matter.
- Space
A weirdly warped planet-forming disk circles a distant trio of stars
The bizarre geometry of a disk of gas and dust around three stars in the constellation Orion could be formed by “disk tearing” or a newborn planet.
- Physics
Record-breaking gravitational waves reveal that midsize black holes do exist
The biggest merger of two black holes so far raises questions about how the pair of objects came to be.
