Astronomy

Astronomy

Saturn has a fuzzy core, spread over more than half the planet’s diameter

Analysis of a wave in one of Saturn’s rings has revealed that the planet’s core is diffuse and bloated with lots of hydrogen and helium.

Space

A rare glimpse of a star before it went supernova defies expectations

A hydrogen-free supernova in a nearby galaxy appears to have come from an unusual source.

Space

Stars made of antimatter could lurk in the Milky Way

Fourteen celestial sources of gamma rays provide preliminary hints of matter colliding with “antistars” in our galaxy.

Astronomy

Mysterious ‘yellowballs’ littering the Milky Way are clusters of newborn stars

The first comprehensive analysis of the celestial specks indicates they are clusters of infant stars of various masses.

Astronomy

Neutron stars may not be as squishy as some scientists thought

NASA’s NICER X-ray telescope finds that the most massive known neutron star has an unexpectedly large diameter.

Astronomy

A record-breaking, oxygen-starved galaxy may be full of gigantic stars’ shrapnel

The newly discovered galaxy may have once been home to stars more than 300 times as massive as the sun — a peek at conditions in the early universe.

Physics

Uranium ‘snowflakes’ could set off thermonuclear explosions of dead stars

Uranium crystals that settle in the cores of white dwarfs could trigger nuclear chain reactions that blow the dead stars apart, a new study suggests.

Astronomy

Here’s why humans chose particular groups of stars as constellations

Distances between stars, their brightnesses and patterns of human eye movement explain why particular sets of stars tend to be grouped together.

Astronomy

The ‘USS Jellyfish’ emits strange radio waves from a distant galaxy cluster

The unusual pattern of radio waves dubbed the USS Jellyfish tells a story of intergalactic gas meeting black hole by-products.

Astronomy

A new black hole image reveals the behemoth’s magnetic fields

A new analysis of Event Horizon Telescope data from 2017 brings to light the magnetic fields twisted around the black hole at the core of galaxy M87.

Astronomy

Carbon-ring molecules tied to life were found in space for the first time

Two types of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in the Taurus Molecular Cloud are far more abundant than predicted.

Astronomy

A gargantuan supernova remnant looks 40 times as big as the full moon

New observations confirm that a cloud in the constellation Antlia really is a supernova remnant and the largest ever seen from Earth.