Astronomy
- Astronomy
A fast radio burst’s unlikely source may be a cluster of old stars
The burst’s origin in a globular cluster suggests that not all these enigmatic blasts come from young stellar populations.
- Astronomy
A rare collision of dead stars can bring a new one to life
These carbon- and oxygen-covered stars may have formed from an unusual merging of two white dwarfs.
- Computing
Core memory weavers and Navajo women made the Apollo missions possible
The stories of the women who assembled integrated circuits and wove core memory for the Apollo missions remain largely unknown.
- Astronomy
How ‘hot Jupiters’ may get their weirdly tight orbits
Gravitational kicks from other planets and stars can send giant worlds into orbits that bring them close to their suns.
- Planetary Science
These are the first visible-light images of Venus’ surface captured from space
Cameras aboard NASA’s Parker Solar Probe managed to peer through Venus’ thick clouds to photograph the planet’s surface.
- Space
The heart of the Milky Way looks like contemporary art in this new radio image
The MeerKAT telescope array in South Africa provided this image of radio emissions from the center of our galaxy using data taken over three years.
- Astronomy
The James Webb Space Telescope has reached its new home at last
The most powerful telescope ever launched still has a long to-do list before it can start doing science.
- Astronomy
An X-ray glow suggests black holes or neutron stars fuel weird cosmic ‘cows’
With the brightest X-ray glow of a new class of exploding stars, cosmic oddity AT2020mrf boosts evidence of these mysterious blasts’ power source.
- Astronomy
An early outburst portends a star’s imminent death
An eruption before a stellar explosion was the first early warning sign for a standard type of supernova.
- Astronomy
Astronomers identified a second possible exomoon
Kepler 1708 b i, a newly discovered candidate for an exoplanet moon, has a radius about 2.6 times that of Earth, a new study suggests.
- Astronomy
Two stars’ close encounter may explain a cosmic flare that has barely faded
A brilliant outburst of light that has lasted nearly a century arose when two young stars skirted past each other, simulations suggest.
- Space
Spacecraft in 2021 set their sights on Mars, asteroids and beyond
This year, a bevy of new missions got under way on Mars and spacecraft prepared to visit asteroids.
