Strangely Massive Black Hole Discovered in Milky Way Satellite Galaxy
Astronomers at The University of Texas at Austin’s McDonald Observatory have discovered an unusually massive black hole at the heart of one of the Milky…
Astrophysics
Astronomers Observe a New Type of Binary Star – “Exciting, Missing Evolutionary Link”
Researchers have predicted the new class of star’s existence for 50 years but until now, never observed it in space. Researchers at the Center for…
Sub-Earth Planet Discovered by Astronomers: Boiling New World Is Ultra-Light and Super-Fast
The boiling new world, which zips around its star at ultraclose range, is among the lightest exoplanets found to date. Ultra-short-period planets are small, compact…
NASA SOFIA Observations Reveal a Spiral Galaxy’s Invisible, Opposing Arms
NGC 7479 – also known as Caldwell 44 – is a barred spiral galaxy, with a bar-shaped center filled with stars, as is characteristic of…
Tread Lightly: Strange “Eggshell Planets” Possible Around Other Stars
Strange ‘eggshell planets’ are among the rich variety of exoplanets possible, according to a study from Washington University in St. Louis. These rocky worlds have…
Astronomers Discover Largest-Known Comet Was Active at Near-Record Distance
University of Maryland astronomers discovered that comet Bernardinelli-Bernstein is among the most distant active comets from the sun, providing key information about its composition. The…
Supermassive Black Holes on a Collision Course: Closest Pair of Supermassive Black Holes to Earth Ever Discovered
Using the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope (ESO’s VLT), astronomers have revealed the closest pair of supermassive black holes to Earth ever observed. The…
“Dancing Ghosts” – A New, Deeper Scan of the Sky Throws Up Big Surprises for Astronomers
Scanning through data fresh off the telescope, we saw two ghosts dancing deep in the cosmos. We had never seen anything like it before, and…
Mystery of the Origins of the Earth’s Water: Sun Is a Surprising Likely Source
Curtin University researchers have helped unravel the enduring mystery of the origins of the Earth’s water, finding the Sun to be a surprising likely source….
How and When the Earth and Moon Formed
The Earth formed over 4.6 billion years ago out of a mixture of dust and gas around the young sun. It grew larger thanks to…
Astronomers Discover Ancient “Failed Star” With Lithium Deposits Intact
A team of researchers at the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC) and the Instituto Nacional de Astrofísica, Óptica y Electrónica (INAOE), Mexico, has discovered…
Black Hole Star Destroyer: Scientists Fling Model Stars at a Virtual Black Hole to See Who Survives
Watch as eight stars skirt a black hole 1 million times the mass of the Sun in these supercomputer simulations. As they approach, all are…
Black Hole Collision May Have Exploded With Light
In a first, astronomers may have seen light from the merger of two black holes, providing opportunities to learn about these mysterious dark objects. This…
Astronomers Find a Blazing Hot Planet That Orbits Its Star in Just 16 Hours!
Mercury is the speed champion in our Solar System. It orbits the Sun every 88 days, and its average speed is 47 km/s. Its average…
Webb – The Most Powerful Space Telescope Ever Built – Will Look Back in Time to the Dark Ages of the Universe
Some have called NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope the “telescope that ate astronomy.” It is the most powerful space telescope ever built and a complex…
Astronomers Have Discovered the Reason Behind the Mysterious Lack of Massive Black Holes in Telescope Data
Our telescopes have never detected a black hole more massive than twenty times the mass of the Sun. Nevertheless, we now know of their existence…
High-Speed Propeller Star Is Fastest Spinning White Dwarf – It’s the Size of Earth, but 200,000 Times More Massive
Record-breaking spin rate for a confirmed white dwarf star is observed by University of Warwick-led astronomers Establishes the star as only the second magnetic propeller…
60 Years After It First Gazed at the Skies, the Parkes Radio Telescope Is Still Making Breakthroughs
The CSIRO’s 64-meter Parkes Radio Telescope was commissioned on October 31, 1961. At the time it was the most advanced radio telescope in the world,…