Astronomy

Astronomy

A neutron star crash may have spawned a black hole

The neutron collision that took the astronomical community by storm last year probably created a black hole, researchers say.

Astronomy

Two-faced star reveals a pulsar’s surprising bulk

An ultramassive pulsar is frying its stellar companion so that the star shows two different temperatures.

Astronomy

Astronomers scrutinized last year’s eclipse. Here’s what they’ve learned

Astronomers observed the 2017 total solar eclipse from the ground and the air, and found some never-before-seen features of the sun’s atmosphere.

Astronomy

Pluto’s demotion ignores astronomical history

A historical review of asteroids’ planetary status suggests Pluto’s demotion was not justified.

Astronomy

Plasma rain in the sun’s atmosphere falls in surprising places

Scientists found rain in the sun’s corona where they didn’t expect it, which could help solve the mystery of why the corona is so hot.

Astronomy

Maverick asteroid might be an immigrant from outside the solar system

A space rock’s backward orbit could be a hint of unusual origins.

Cosmology

These stars may have been born only 250 million years after the Big Bang

Scientists find evidence that stars were forming just 250 million years after the universe was born.

Astronomy

The recipes for solar system formation are getting a rewrite

A new understanding of exoplanets and their stars is rewriting the recipes for planet formation.

Astronomy

First 3-D map of a gas cloud in space shows it’s flat like a pancake

An interstellar gas cloud dubbed the Dark Doodad Nebula looks like a wispy, thin cylinder. But it’s actually a flat sheet.

Astronomy

Gaia delivers a trove of data revealing secrets of the Milky Way

Astronomers are already using Gaia’s new information to estimate the galaxy’s mass, the diameter of exoplanets and more.

Astronomy

New ideas about how stars die help solve a decades-old mystery

New ideas about stellar evolution help explain why astronomers see so many bright planetary nebulae where they ought not be.

Planetary Science

Getting NASA’s Pluto mission off the ground took blood, sweat and years

Alan Stern talks about the new book ‘Chasing New Horizons’ and what’s next for the spacecraft that got close to Pluto.