Astronomy

Space

The Milky Way’s supermassive black hole reached record brightness this year

The big black hole at the center of the galaxy recently flared twice as bright as ever seen before in near-infrared wavelengths.

Astronomy

This may be the first known exoplanet with rain and clouds of water droplets

For the first time, astronomers have detected water vapor and possibly signs of clouds and even rain in the air of a potentially habitable exoplanet.

Astronomy

Giant radio bubbles spew from near the Milky Way’s central black hole

New structures found at the heart of our galaxy join other bubbles, chimneys and filaments that hint at a turbulent past.

Space

Einstein’s general relativity reveals new features of a pulsar

Measurements that rely on the physicist’s theory of gravity are letting astronomers view a pulsar in ‘a whole new way.’

Science & Society

‘End Times’ explores the catastrophic events that could kill us all

A new book looks at the threats that could wipe out humankind and what can be done to counteract them.

Space

LIGO and Virgo probably spotted the first black hole swallowing up a neutron star

In a first, astronomers may just have detected gravitational waves from a black hole merging with a neutron star.

Space

Astronomers just quintupled the number of known repeating fast radio bursts

A Canadian telescope spotted eight more repeating fast radio bursts. What causes these cryptic flashes of radio waves from deep space remains unclear.

Space

A proposed space telescope would use Earth’s atmosphere as a lens

One astronomer has a bold solution to the high cost of building big telescopes.

Physics

Exploding stars scattered traces of iron over Antarctic snow

Researchers melted half a ton of snow to find just 10 atoms of a radioactive variety of iron.

Astronomy

Giant, active galaxies from the early universe may have finally been found

Overlooked galaxies from when the universe was younger than 2 billion years old could be the ancestors of other ancient and modern monster galaxies.

Astronomy

Stars may keep spinning fast, long into old age

NASA’s TESS telescope has spotted an old star that spins too fast for theory to explain, suggesting that stars may have a magnetic midlife crisis.

Astronomy

A 3-D map of stars reveals the Milky Way’s warped shape

Our galaxy flaunts its curves in a chart of thousands of stars called Cepheids.