How two seemingly distinct exoplanet systems turned out to be related. Practically every star in the Milky Way has a similar origin story. At some point in the past, a molecular […]
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Unless you have a critical mass of heavy elements when your star first forms, planets, including rocky ones, are practically impossible.
Binary black holes eventually inspiral and merge. That’s why the OJ 287 system is destined for the most energetic event in history.
With 1550 distinct type Ia supernovae measured across ~10 billion years of cosmic time, the Pantheon+ data set reveals our Universe.
There are so many problems, all across planet Earth, that harm and threaten humanity. Why invest in researching the Universe?
Scientists should be cautious when expressing an opinion based on little more than speculation.
The newest record-setting quasar houses an enormous black hole. No one knows how. In every scientific field, we’re always on the lookout for whatever new discovery might reveal what’s currently beyond […]
If you thought it was just one rich region in space, look deeper and wider. Shining brilliantly in January’s skies is the Great Orion Nebula. By 10 PM every night in […]
California’s Bobcat Fire has reached Mount Wilson Observatory’s doorstep. 100 years ago, our understanding of the Universe was very different from what it is today. Einstein’s General Relativity, our theory […]
Known as primordial black holes, they could thoroughly change our Universe’s history. But the evidence is strongly against them.
The ‘final parsec problem’ is still a mystery for astronomers. When it comes to black holes in the Universe, we know there are at least two major types. There are […]
If you truly want to understand modern astrophysics, knowing how to read this graph is essential.
For the cosmos, it’s all too easy being green. Stars come in a wide variety of colors, but never green. Stars form in a wide variety of sizes, colors and masses, […]
A new study shows our planet is much closer to the supermassive black hole at the galaxy’s center than previously estimated.
One single plot of data embodies the most profound thing we know about the stars.
NASA’s SOFIA mission is upgraded and back in action, and the Cigar Galaxy makes a perfect target. In theory, cold, neutral gas is the key to stars and galaxies. A visualization […]
A new study proposes mysterious axions may be found in X-rays coming from a cluster of neutron stars.
We only detected our very first gravitational wave in 2015. Over the next two decades, we’ll have thousands more.
There are two fundamentally different ways of measuring the Universe’s expansion. They disagree. “Early dark energy” might save us.
If you think you know how an astronomical nova works, buckle up. You’re in for a ride like you never expected.
Avi Loeb says it’s aliens. Every other astronomer disagrees. Here’s why. In 2017, an astronomical event occurred that was unlike any other: for the first time, we observed an object that […]
Watch the plasma slide down the prominence like a roller coaster! Our Sun, despite it’s outward appearance as a perfectly hot sphere, is anything but uniform. When take a closer look […]
You can lead an overconfident chatbot to expert knowledge, but can it actually learn and assimilate new information?
The night sky is already noticeably different, and bigger changes are ahead. For all of human history until the launch of Sputnik, the only objects in the night sky were naturally […]
13.8 billion years ago, the hot Big Bang gave rise to the Universe we know. Here’s why the reverse, a Big Crunch, isn’t how it will end.
GPS holds the key, but astronomers can’t do it without help. Since 2019, the night sky — as seen by both human eyes and the telescopes we use to enhance our views of […]
In all the Universe, only a few particles are eternally stable. The photon, the quantum of light, has an infinite lifetime. Or does it?
The Universe is expanding, and the Hubble constant tells us how fast. But how can it be a constant if the expansion is accelerating?
Even the ones hunting for aliens aren’t excited. Here’s the reason why. In this world, there are very few issues more polarizing than the notion of aliens. For as long as […]
A new study from NASA and the SETI Institute comes up with an exciting number of potentially life-supporting planets.