Stardust Shines New Light on the Formation of the Solar System
The study of a tiny grain of stardust — older than our solar system — is shining new light on how planetary systems are formed….
Astronomy
Evidence of How a Dwarf Galaxy Contributes to Growth of the Milky Way
Small stellar systems like dwarf galaxies are suggested to be the main building blocks of our Galaxy. However, it is unclear how many and what…
New Model Reveals How Earth’s Moon Formed
For more than a century, scientists have squabbled over how the Earth’s moon formed. But researchers at Yale and in Japan say they may have…
Important Threshold Crossed in Mystery of the Universe’s Expansion Rate
Astronomers using NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope say they have crossed an important threshold in revealing a discrepancy between the two key techniques for measuring the…
Hubble Telescope Image of the Week – Crowded Cluster
This sparkling burst of stars is Messier 75. It is a globular cluster: a spherical collection of stars bound together by gravity. Clusters like this…
Hubble Reveals Amazing New View of the Southern Crab Nebula
This incredible image of the hourglass-shaped Southern Crab Nebula was taken to mark the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope’s 29th anniversary in space. The nebula, created…
VERITAS Collaboration Measures Smallest Star Size to Date
Scientists in the VERITAS (Very Energetic Radiation Imaging Telescope Array System) Collaboration have published a paper in Nature Astronomy journal detailing the results of their…
Cassini’s Final Flyby Reveals Surprises with Titan’s Lakes
On its final flyby of Saturn’s largest moon in 2017, NASA’s Cassini spacecraft gathered radar data revealing that the small liquid lakes in Titan’s northern…
Scientists Discover the First Type of Molecule Formed in the Universe
The first type of molecule that ever formed in the universe has been detected in space for the first time, after decades of searching. Scientists…
Hubble Image of the Week – Comet or Cluster?
Most globular clusters are almost perfectly spherical collections of stars — but Messier 62 breaks the mould. The 12-billion-year-old cluster is distorted, and stretches out…
Astronomers Reveal First Direct Visual Evidence of a Supermassive Black Hole
The Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) — a planet-scale array of eight ground-based radio telescopes forged through international collaboration — was designed to capture images of…
Planet Orbiting Barnard’s Star Might Have An Atmosphere
The closest exoplanet to us, if we include only single stars like the Sun, is the planet around Barnard’s Star, Barnard’s Star-b (“BSb”). (The planet…
Update on Private Robotic Spacecraft Moon Landing Attempt
April 11 Editor’s Note: NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine released the following statement on the Beresheet lunar lander: “While NASA regrets the end of the SpaceIL…
First Image of a Black Hole Captured by Astronomers
The Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) operates a planet-scale array of eight ground-based radio telescopes that are linked together. The Black Hole Cam (BHC) Team, led…
Chandra Black Hole Close-Up Image Makes History
A black hole and its shadow have been captured in an image for the first time, a historic feat by an international network of radio…
Astronomers Discover a Giant Object in the Cygnus Constellation
In the past three decades, almost 4,000 planet-like objects have been discovered orbiting isolated stars outside the Solar System (exoplanets). Beginning in 2011, it was…
Astronomers Search for Iron Volcanism on Metallic Asteroids
Metallic asteroids are thought to have started out as blobs of molten iron floating in space. As if that’s not strange enough, scientists now think…
Hubble Telescope Image of the Day – Blue Rejuvenation
Globular clusters are inherently beautiful objects, but the subject of this NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image, Messier 3, is commonly acknowledged to be one of…