Astronomy & Astrophysics 101: Dark Energy
What Is Dark Energy? Dark energy is the name given to the as yet unknown energy source that is causing our Universe’s expansion to accelerate….
Astrophysics
Webb Space Telescope To Provide Details of Two Intriguing “Super-Earths” in the Milky Way
Astronomers will train Webb’s high-precision spectrographs on two intriguing rocky exoplanets. Imagine if Earth were much, much closer to the Sun. So close that an…
Astronomy & Astrophysics 101: Comet
What Is a Comet? A comet is an icy, rocky mass that has passed close by the Sun within our Solar System, and has thus…
Astronomers Discover Hidden Trove of Massive Black Holes – “We All Got Nervous”
Newfound black holes in dwarf galaxies shed light on the origin of our galaxy’s supermassive black hole. A team of researchers led by astronomers in…
Controversial Alternative Gravity Theory Revived by New Spin on Galaxy Rotation
An international group of astronomers, led by a physicist at the University of St Andrews, has revived an alternative gravity theory. Headed by Dr. Indranil…
New Targets in Search for Extraterrestrial Life: Planets of Binary Stars As Homes for Alien Life
Nearly half of Sun-like stars are binary. According to new research, planetary systems around binary stars may be very different from those around single stars….
Experiments Measure Freezing Point of Extraterrestrial Oceans To Aid Search for Alien Life
University of Washington (UW) and University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley) researchers conducted experiments that measured the physical limits for the existence of liquid water…
Incredible New Views of the Sun – As You’ve Never Seen It Before
Powerful eruptions, breathtaking views across the solar poles, and a strange solar ‘hedgehog’ are among the incredible haul of spectacular images, movies, and data returned…
Mystery of Universe’s Expansion Rate: Hubble Data Shows That “Something Weird” Is Going On
Three Decades of Space Telescope Observations Converge on a Precise Value for the Hubble Constant Science history will record that the search for the expansion…
Astronomers Find “Gold Standard” Star in Milky Way With the Widest Range of Elements
In our sun’s cosmic neighborhood of the Milky Way Galaxy is a relatively bright star, and in it, astronomers have been able to identify the…
Massive Stars Play a Crucial Role in Shaping Their Surroundings: How Do the Simulation Models Stack Up?
Less than one percent of stars in a galaxy are formed with masses exceeding ten solar masses. Despite their rarity, massive stars are believed to…
Astronomy & Astrophysics 101: James Webb Space Telescope
What Is the James Webb Space Telescope? The James Webb Space Telescope is the next great space science observatory, designed to answer outstanding questions about…
Supermassive Black Holes: The Ultimate Snitches Giving Away Galactic Center Secrets
The Universe contains different “flavors” of black holes. While “stellar” mass black holes are 10-50 times the mass of our Sun, supermassive black holes are…
Ghostly Unseen “Mirror World” Might Be Cause of Cosmic Controversy With Hubble Constant
According to new research, an unseen ‘mirror world’ of particles that interacts with our world only via gravity might be the key to solving a…
Spanish Dancer Galaxy Twirls Into View – Dark Energy Camera Captures Celestial Phenomena
Dark Energy Camera captures a trove of celestial phenomena in one shot. This image, taken by astronomers using the US Department of Energy-fabricated Dark Energy…
NASA’s Voyager 1 Spacecraft Mystery: Engineers Investigating Telemetry Data
While the Voyager 1 spacecraft continues to return science data and otherwise operate as normal, the mission team is searching for the source of a…
First Direct Visual Evidence That the Object in the Center of the Milky Way Is Indeed a Black Hole
Astronomers reveal the first image of the black hole at the heart of our galaxy. It is the first direct visual evidence of a ring-like…
Extraterrestrial Stone Could Be First Evidence on Earth of Supernova Ia Explosion
New chemistry ‘forensics’ indicates that the stone named Hypatia from the Egyptian desert could be the first physical evidence found on Earth of a supernova…
