Astronomy

Astronomy

Lucy’s new neighbor, downloading New Horizon’s data and more reader feedback

Readers discuss why Pluto's data will take so long to get to Earth, the role the cerebellum plays in creative thinking and more.

Astronomy

24-eyed telescope takes full-sky movies every night

The Evryscope, a 24-telescope array in northern Chile, will nearly continuously watch for changes in the southern sky.

Astronomy

Young black holes evade detection

Supermassive black holes should be growing in the first billion or so years after the Big Bang, but astronomers can’t find them.

Astronomy

Faint red stars can build water worlds drip by drip

Rocky planets around faint red stars have a hard time getting water, but they’re still probably the most common habitable locales in the Milky Way, new computer simulations suggest.

Astronomy

Cosmic threads may hide some of universe’s missing matter

Half the normal matter in the universe might be hiding in cosmic threads strung between clusters of galaxies.

Astronomy

Distant star has northern lights–like display

A dim star shows signs of auroral lights, the first detected on a body that’s not a planet or moon.

Space

Best cosmic ‘cradles of life’ may be elliptical in shape

Giant elliptical galaxies might harbor up to 10,000 times as many Earthlike planets than galaxies like the Milky Way.

Astronomy

Kepler telescope identifies new ‘habitable zone’ planet

A new analysis of data from NASA’s Kepler mission has uncovered a planet orbiting a sunlike star that could be Earth’s “cousin.”

Space

Search for E.T. gets financial boost

Search for extraterrestrial intelligence gets a $100 million donation from a Russian entrepreneur.

Astronomy

Source of blazars’ super brightness comes into focus

Astronomers take a close look at a blazar, a galaxy whose central black hole emits gamma rays and other high-energy material toward Earth.

Astronomy

Massive black hole lurks in lightweight galaxy

A heavyweight black hole grew to weigh as much as 7 billion suns within the first 2 billion years after the Big Bang.

Astronomy

Exploding star breaks record for brightest supernova

A recent supernova shines with the light of 600 billion suns.