Brian Koberlein

Betelgeuse Is Disturbed By Its Companion Star

October 28, 2026

Betelgeuse has a close-orbiting companion that disturbs the red supergiant into an egg-like shape. New observations show how the two stars interact and how this could help explain the varying brightness of Betelgeuse.

Neutrinos May Be The Key To Why We Are Surrounded By Matter

October 21, 2026

In the early Universe, neutrinos interacted strongly with other matter before some of them "decoupled." The heaviest of these decoupled neutrinos may be the solution to the matter-antimatter cosmic mystery.

A Magnetar Can Be Born When Two Neutron Stars Touch

October 20, 2026

Magnetars are neutron stars with magnetic fields a thousand times stronger than normal. One way that magnetars might form is through the merger of two small neutron stars.

New Observations Show How Black Holes Stir Up Material Surrounding A Galaxy

October 19, 2026

Supermassive black holes power tremendous jets that extend far beyond their galaxy. A new study finds how they can also warm material at the outer edge of a galaxy and reduce the rate of star production over time.

The Flavor of Neutrinos Could Determine How a Large Star Dies

October 16, 2026

Neutrinos come in three different flavors. A new study finds that neutrino flavor could play a significant role in whether a dying star becomes a supernova or collapses directly into a black hole.

A Distant Supercluster of Galaxies Points To Self-Interacting Dark Matter

October 16, 2026

The El Gordo supercluster is unusually large given its distance. How could such a large galaxy cluster form so quickly? The answer could be that dark matter is self-interacting in an interesting two-state way.

Astronomers Observe The Limb Darkening Effect On Nearby Stars

October 14, 2026

The edge of the Sun appears darker than its central region. This effect is known as limb darkening and tells us about the solar atmosphere. This same limb darkening effect has now been observed on several nearby stars and could help us improve our understanding of stellar atmospheres.

Chandrasekhar Placed A Limit On White Dwarfs, But A New Study Finds This Limit Is Not Absolute

October 14, 2026

The Chandrasekhar limit states that a white dwarf can be no larger than 1.4 solar masses. A new study demonstrates how highly magnetized white dwarfs could overcome that limit, and how such super-Chandrasekhar white dwarfs could form.

Primordial Helium Further Confirms Our Understanding Of The Big Bang

October 12, 2026

Most helium in the Universe is primordial helium, formed during the Big Bang. But a fraction of helium was formed by long-dead stars. Distinguishing between the two allows astronomers to further confirm our observations of the Big Bang.

The Most Distant FRB Tells The Story Of Its Origin

October 09, 2026

Astronomers use the Webb to study a distant fast radio burst and reveal clues as to the origin of these mysterious events.

To Win A Nobel Prize, Go To The Ends Of The Earth

October 08, 2026

Neutrinos are persnickety particles. We couldn't really detect neutrinos from deep space until Francis Halzen had a brilliant, Nobel Prize-winning idea.

Neutrons, Rotating Black Holes, and a Galactic PeVatron at the Center of the Milky Way

October 05, 2026

Supermassive black holes generate tremendous amounts of energy through their accretion disks and jets. But they can also generate energy through the magnetic Penrose process. A new study looks at how we might observe this process through multimessenger astronomy.

A New Test Looks For A Subtle Twist In Ancient Light

September 29, 2026

The standard model of cosmology predicts that the Universe is homogeneous. A new study tests this using the polarization of the cosmic microwave background and finds this isn't quite true. This study supports an earlier study which also found a small polarization bias.

When It Comes To Burping Jets, Supermassive Black Holes and Stellar-Mass Black Holes Have The Same Table Manners

September 28, 2026

Both stellar-mass black holes and supermassive black holes can produce ionized jets streaming from their poles. Stellar-mass black holes consume the material of companion stars, while supermassive black holes rip stars apart in tidal disruption events. Despite these different eating habits, the formation of jets requires similar conditions.

Earth's Center of Mass Drifts Less Than We Thought

September 21, 2026

Earth's center of mass isn't stationary. It drifts seasonally and over the course of years. A new study measures this down to the scale of millimeters and finds the seasonal drift is smaller than we thought.

To Understand The Solar Cycle, Notice How The Sun Sleeps

September 18, 2026

Astronomer Sandra Chapman has found a connection between the quiet period of one solar cycle and the active period of the next. Her data shows how a critical cutoff point is the key, but the real test will be the solar maximum of Cycle 26 in the 2030s.

Little Red Dots Are The Seeds of Quasars and Supermassive Black Holes

September 17, 2026

Computer simulations find that overmassive black holes form readily in the early universe. Their spectra match that of Little Red Dots, which later become powerful quasars and supermassive galactic black holes.

For Trans-Neptunian Objects, The Past Is Written On Their Surface

September 16, 2026

Some Trans-Neptunian Objects (TNOs) formed closer to the Sun and migrated to the outer solar system, while others formed there originally. A new study finds that "hot" and "cold" origin TNOs can be distinguished not only by their orbits, but also by their surface color.

If Black Holes Have Hair, We Will See It in the Ringdown of Their Mergers

September 15, 2026

Researchers have found that if black holes have certain features, known as "hair," then we could prove it by observing the gravitational ringdown of merging black holes. Future studies could test the no-hair theorem of general relativity.

If Alien Civilizations Use Hyper-Efficient Computers, They Will Have A Distinct Energy Signal We Can Detect

September 09, 2026

Astronomers have long searched for Dyson spheres as a sign of advanced alien civilizations. But if an alien civilization is dependent on advanced computing, we may be better served by looking for a Slysh halo.

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