Astronomy

Astronomy

Check out the first-ever map of the solar corona’s magnetic field

Solar physicists watched waves in the sun’s corona to map the whole corona’s magnetic field. Future observers could use the same technique to predict solar eruptions.

Astronomy

In a first, astronomers spotted a space rock turning into a comet

Scientists have caught a space rock in the act of shifting from a Kuiper Belt object to a comet. That process won’t be complete until 2063.

Astronomy

Hubble watched a lunar eclipse to see Earth from an alien’s perspective

Hubble observed sunlight filtering through Earth’s atmosphere during a lunar eclipse to see what a habitable exoplanet’s atmosphere might look like.

Space

Paradoxically, white dwarf stars shrink as they gain mass

Observations of thousands of white dwarf stars have confirmed a decades-old theory about the relationship between their masses and sizes.

Astronomy

50 years ago, Mauna Kea opened for astronomy. Controversy continues

Current plans to build a new telescope on the volcano sparked the latest conflict.

Physics

The physics of solar flares could help scientists predict imminent outbursts

Physicists aim to improve space weather predictions by studying the physical processes that spark a solar flare.

Space

An Antarctic ice dome may offer the world’s clearest views of the night sky

The highest point in East Antarctica could be an ideal place for an optical telescope, a new study finds.

Astronomy

The star cluster closest to Earth is in its death throes

Gaia spacecraft observations of stars’ motion within and fleeing the cluster suggest the 680-million-year-old Hyades has only 30 million years left.

Astronomy

This is the first picture of a sunlike star with multiple exoplanets

A first family portrait reveals a weird cousin of the solar system: a star about the mass of the sun orbited — distantly — by two massive gas giants.

Astronomy

Pinning down the sun’s birthplace just got more complicated

Many astronomers think that the sun was born in a loose association of thousands of stars. A new study suggests there’s another possibility.

Astronomy

The closest images of the sun ever taken reveal ‘campfire’ flares

The first images from Solar Orbiter, a NASA-European Space Agency spacecraft, show tiny, never-before-seen flares across the sun’s surface.

Space

This is the most comprehensive X-ray map of the sky ever made

A new X-ray map of the entire sky, using data from the eROSITA telescope’s first full scan, looks deeper into space than any other of its kind.