Astronomy
- Astronomy
What a blast!
Astronomers have glimpsed a rare, long-lived neutron-star explosion that may represent the burning of carbon just beneath the surface of this superdense star.
- Astronomy
More moons for Saturn
With the discovery of two additional moons, the ringed planet now has a retinue of 24 known satellites orbiting it.
- Astronomy
Old stars shed light on young Milky Way
Analyzing the composition of 70 of the oldest stars in the galaxy—the largest such sample so far—scientists have found new evidence that a generation of short-lived stars that died explosively must have preceded this elderly population and that the oldest part of the Milky Way originated not as a single component, but as bits and pieces that may have taken several hundred million years to form and coalesce.
- Astronomy
Variable quasar may help measure the cosmos
A flickering cosmic mirage, recorded for the first time in X rays, promises to provide a new estimate of how rapidly the universe is expanding.
- Astronomy
Rendezvous gets more personal with Eros
Venturing closer to a space rock than any satellite has ever gone before, the Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous (NEAR)-Shoemaker mission last week took the sharpest images ever recorded of an asteroid.
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- Astronomy
Are most extrasolar planets hefty imposters?
A new study makes the startling claim that nearly half the objects reported to be extrasolar planets are something much more massive and mundane—either lightweight stars or stellar wannabes known as brown dwarfs.
- Astronomy
Invisible Universe
X-ray astronomy opens a new window on the most energetic cosmic events.
- Astronomy
Nudging asteroid fragments toward Earth
New computer simulations detail how fragments of asteroids travel to Earth and rain down as meteorites.
- Astronomy
Cosmic afterglow steals the limelight
Thanks to a chance cosmic alignment, researchers appear to have resolved the detailed structure of the afterglow of a gamma-ray burst—even though the parent burst erupted halfway across the universe.
- Astronomy
New Images: They Might Be Planets
Astronomers have for the first time obtained images of as many as 18 objects beyond our solar system that, based on their mass alone, could qualify as planets.
- Astronomy
Stellar motions provide hole-y data
Measuring for the first time the acceleration of stars near the dense core of our galaxy, astronomers have obtained more precise information on the location and density of the black hole that lurks there.
