Unprecedented Ground-Based Discovery of Unusual Planetary System, WASP-148
Several interacting exoplanets have already been spotted by satellites. But a new breakthrough has been achieved with, for the first time, the detection directly from…
Astrophysics
Unprecedented Astronomy: Atmosphere of the Red Supergiant Star Antares Revealed by Radio Telescopes
An international team of astronomers has created the most detailed map yet of the atmosphere of the red supergiant star Antares. The unprecedented sensitivity and…
Stunning Celestial Fireworks Celebrate Birth of Colossal Star Cluster
Astronomers created a stunning new image showing stellar fireworks in star cluster G286.21+0.17. Most stars in the universe, including our Sun, were born in massive…
Scientific Red Flag Spotted in Milky Way’s Dark, Dusty Center – Oddity Moving in the Direction of Earth
Scientific ‘Red Flag’ Reveals New Clues About Our Galaxy Figuring out how much energy permeates the center of the Milky Way — a discovery reported…
“Spooky Popcorn of the Universe” Revealed: Quantum Fluctuations Can Jiggle Objects on the Human Scale
Study shows LIGO’s 40-kilogram mirrors can move in response to tiny quantum effects, revealing the “spooky popcorn of the universe.” The universe, as seen through…
TESS Mission Discovers “Really Unusual” Exoplanet That May Be the Remnant Core of a Giant Planet
Neptune-sized planet may be remnant core of a much larger planet. The “ice giant” planets Neptune and Uranus are much less dense than rocky, terrestrial…
World’s Largest Telescope Detects Extragalactic Neutral Hydrogen Emission for the First Time
The Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Radio Telescope (FAST) is the largest telescope with the highest sensitivity in the world. Extragalactic neutral hydrogen detection is one of…
First Exposed Planetary Core Discovered – An Extremely Unusual Planet in the So-Called “Neptune Desert”
The newly discovered exoplanet TOI 849 b offers the unique opportunity to peer inside the interior of a planet and learn about its composition. It…
Specialized Telescope Proves a Binary Star Is a Very High-Energy Cosmic Particle Accelerator
Evidence of very high-energy gamma radiation from Eta Carinae. With a specialized telescope in Namibia, a DESY-led team of researchers has proven a certain type…
Hungry Black Hole Among the Most Massive in the Universe – 34 Billion Times the Mass of Our Sun
We now know just how massive the fastest-growing black hole in the Universe actually is, as well as how much it eats, thanks to new…
Black Hole Swallows Much Smaller Mysterious Astrophysical Object
A black hole around 23 times the size of the Sun has swallowed a mysterious, much smaller astrophysical object, according to new research announced today by the LIGO and Virgo gravitational wave observatories,…
Extremely Warped Spacetime: To Find Giant Black Holes, Start With Jupiter
The revolution in our understanding of the night sky and our place in the universe began when we transitioned from using the naked eye to…
A Cosmic Mystery: Disappearance of a Massive Star Surprises Astronomers
Using the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope (VLT), astronomers have discovered the absence of an unstable massive star in a dwarf galaxy. Scientists think…
International “RedDots” Team Has Detected a System of Super-Earth Planets Orbiting Nearby Red Dwarf Star
An international team of researchers has found multiple planet systems orbiting red dwarf star Gliese 887. The international “RedDots” team – joined by Australian astronomers…
Exoplanet the Size of Neptune Discovered by Astronomers – About 32 Light-Years From Earth
An exoplanet the size of Neptune has been discovered around the young star AU Microscopii, thanks in part to the work of Jonathan Gagné, a…
Alien Civilization Could Use a Black Hole to Generate Energy – 50-Year-Old Theory Experimentally Verified
A 50-year-old theory that began as speculation about how an alien civilization could use a black hole to generate energy has been experimentally verified for…
First Measurement of Spin-Orbit Alignment for ‘Super-Jupiter’ Planet Located 63 Light Years From Earth
Astronomers have made the first measurement of spin-orbit alignment for a distant ‘super-Jupiter’ planet, demonstrating a technique that could enable breakthroughs in the quest to…
Surprising Findings Beneath the Surface of Our Galaxy’s Water Worlds
A team of researchers simulated conditions on water-rich exoplanets in the laboratory and learned something surprising about their geological composition. Out beyond our solar system,…