Astronomy

Astronomy

Source of blazars’ super brightness comes into focus

Astronomers take a close look at a blazar, a galaxy whose central black hole emits gamma rays and other high-energy material toward Earth.

Astronomy

Massive black hole lurks in lightweight galaxy

A heavyweight black hole grew to weigh as much as 7 billion suns within the first 2 billion years after the Big Bang.

Astronomy

Exploding star breaks record for brightest supernova

A recent supernova shines with the light of 600 billion suns.

Astronomy

Beta Pictoris planet makes waves

Spiral waves whip through the belt of debris around a young star — and it’s all a giant planet’s fault.

Life

Puzzling cosmic signals, processed food defined and more reader feedback

Readers sort out a definition for processed food, discuss the benefits of tinkering with human DNA and more.

Astronomy

A loopy look at sunspots

In visible light, sunspots look like dark blotches that often expel flares of searing plasma. NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory offers a different view.

Astronomy

Super-Earths are not a good place for plate tectonics

The intense pressures inside super-Earths make plate tectonics less likely, new research suggests.

Astronomy

Advice to a baby planet: Avoid black holes

A dust cloud looping around the Milky Way’s supermassive black hole might have once been an infant planet.

Astronomy

X-ray rings reveal neutron star’s distance

Concentric X-ray rings around a neutron star help astronomers triangulate the star’s distance.

Astronomy

Dark galaxies grow in abundance

Nearly 1,000 shadowy galaxies lurk in a nearby cluster, some of which are as massive as the Milky Way and yet have only 0.1 percent the number of stars.

Astronomy

Magnetic ‘glue’ helps shape galaxies

Galaxy-wide magnetic fields may play a role in shaping the spiral arms of gas and stars.

Astronomy

Big exoplanet may be surrounded by helium

Warm Neptune-sized exoplanet might have atmospheres filled with helium.