Astronomy

Astronomy

This year’s Perseid meteor shower will be especially flashy

This year’s Perseid meteor shower could produce up to 200 meteors per hour as Earth plows through the debris trail of comet 109P/Swift-Tuttle.

Particle Physics

Cooling stars hint at dark matter particles

Stars that cool faster than expected can be explained by hypothetical particles called axions.

Astronomy

Magnetic fields in sun rise at 500 kilometers per hour

Magnetic fields within the sun rise up no faster than about 500 kilometers per hour, suggesting that the movement of gas is responsible for bringing these fields to the sun’s surface.

Astronomy

Kepler tally grows: 104 more exoplanets confirmed

Kepler space telescope adds another 104 planets to its growing census of worlds in our galaxy.

Astronomy

Black hole born without stellar parent, evidence suggests

A galaxy in the early universe might harbor the first known “direct collapse” black hole, one that forms when a cloud of gas collapses under its own weight without forming stars.

Astronomy

Asteroid Day is a chance to learn about space and plan for disaster

Asteroid Day on June 30 tries to raise awareness about the hazards of an asteroid impact and what we could do to stop it.

Astronomy

Possible perp found in mystery of Milky Way’s missing galaxy pals

Billions of years of supernovas could explain why galaxies like the Milky Way have so few tiny companions and why those companions have so little mass.

Physics

More events needed to pin down gravitational waves backstory

As more black hole collisions are found, researchers hope to piece together how and where these destructive duos form.

Astronomy

Bulging stars mess with planet’s seasons

On planets orbiting rapidly rotating stars, the seasons can get a little strange.

Planetary Science

The 43-year history of journeys to Jupiter, in one graph

With the arrival of Juno, nine spacecraft will have flown past or orbited Jupiter over the last 43 years.

Astronomy

Molecular handedness found in space

Propylene oxide in an interstellar cloud sets up a testing ground for understanding why life chooses one type of mirror-image molecule over another.

Physics

Second gravitational wave signal detected

LIGO has spotted a second set of ripples in the fabric of spacetime.