Astronomy

Astronomy

A simulation of a dying star shows how it could create gravitational waves

Massive jets and an expanding cocoon of debris from a collapsing star could be a source of never-before-seen ripples in spacetime.

Astronomy

Weird black holes may hold secrets of the early universe

Big black holes in little galaxies, rogue black holes and other behemoths could offer clues to cosmic evolution.

Astronomy

The first radiation belt outside the solar system has been spotted

Encircling a Jupiter-sized body about 18 light-years from Earth, the radiation belt is 10 million times as bright as the ones around Jupiter.

Astronomy

A reappearing supernova offers a new measure of the universe’s expansion

Supernova Refsdal blew up once but burst into view at least five times. The timing of its appearances provides clues to how fast the universe is growing.

Astronomy

The James Webb telescope revealed surprise asteroids in the Fomalhaut star system

New images of Fomalhaut confirm that an alleged planet is probably just dust while also revealing a new asteroid belt and a “Great Dust Cloud.”

Astronomy

A streak of light may not be a black hole fleeing its galaxy after all

A suspicious trail of starlight may just be a spiral galaxy seen edge on, not stars that formed in the wake of a runaway supermassive black hole.

Astronomy

For the first time, astrophysicists have caught a star eating a planet

A burst of light and a cloud of dust are signs that a star 12,000 light-years away swallowed a planet up to 10 times the mass of Jupiter.

Space

Rocky planets might have been able to form in the early universe

The James Webb telescope spied planet-building material around young stars in a nearby galaxy whose chemical makeup matches that of the early cosmos.

Astronomy

Cosmic antimatter hints at origins of huge bubbles in our galaxy’s center

An excess of positrons in Earth’s vicinity supports the idea that the Fermi bubbles were burped by the Milky Way’s supermassive black hole long ago.

Planetary Science

Saturn’s icy rings are probably heating its atmosphere, giving it an ultraviolet glow

Detecting similar emission from a distant world could help astronomers find other planets that boast bright and beautiful rings.

Astronomy

The first black hole portrait got sharper thanks to machine learning

A machine learning technique filled in data gaps in the image of M87’s black hole, resulting in a thinner ring.

Science & Society

The Smithsonian’s ‘Lights Out’ inspires visitors to save the fading night sky

The exhibition examines how light pollution harms astronomy, ecosystems and human cultures. But it also offers hope.