Astronomy
The Universe Sparkles in Gamma Rays in this New NASA Animation
We've come a long way since gamma rays were discovered. The late 1800s and early 1900s were a time of…
Didymos is Spinning So Quickly That Rocks are Detaching at its Equator and Going Into Orbit
Asteroid Didymos is spitting rocks out into space. Last fall, when NASA’s DART mission impacted Didymos’ moon Dimorphos in a…
Prelude to a Supernova: The James Webb Captures a Rare Wolf-Rayet Star
Massive stars are sprinters. It might seem counterintuitive that stars 100 or 200 times more massive than our Sun could…
Pluto Team Updates Science From the Solar System’s Edge
Nearly eight years after its historic Pluto flyby, NASA's New Horizons probe is getting ready for another round of observations…
Warm Carbon Increased Suddenly in the Early Universe. Made by the First Stars?
New research shows that carbon was more abundant in the early Universe than previously thought, a find that could have…
Even the Calmest Red Dwarfs are Wilder than the Sun
There's something menacing about red dwarfs. Human eyes are accustomed to our benevolent yellow Sun and the warm light it…
A Distant Galaxy Ate All of its Friends. Now It’s All Alone
An international team of astronomers discovered a "fossil galaxy" that consume its neighbors, the farthest observed to date!
Christiaan Huygens’ Telescope Lenses Tell Us He Was Nearsighted
A world-famous 17th-century astronomer credited with discovering Saturn’s moon Titan may have needed glasses, according to a recent paper in…
2023 A3 Tsuchinshan-ATLAS: a Bright Comet for the End of 2024?
New Comet C/2023 A3 Tsuchinshan-ATLAS may put on a show at the end of next year.
TESS Shows That Even Small Stars Can Host Giant Planets
Can low-mass stars play host to giant, Jupiter-sized planets? Theories of planet formation suggest that it's highly unlikely. But a…