AB Aur: A Rosetta Stone for Planet Formation
Planets are formed from the disk of gas and dust around a star, but the mechanisms for doing so are imperfectly understood. Gas is the…
Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics News
Artificial Intelligence Classifies Real Supernova Explosions With Unprecedented Accuracy
A new machine learning algorithm trained only with real data has classified over 2,300 supernovae with over 80% accuracy. Artificial intelligence is classifying real supernova…
Proxima Centauri C Experiences Earth-Like Conditions in Terms of Stellar Wind
Proxima Centauri is the closest star to the Sun, and its planet, Proxima Cen b (“Proxima b”), lies in its habitable zone (the distance range…
A Hard Look at Obscured Seyfert Galaxies
Seyfert galaxies are distinguished by their bright nuclei and radiation from highly ionized atoms. Seyferts look much like quasars, but unlike point-like quasars the Seyfert…
Simulating Meteors With ASMODEUS (All-Sky Meteor Optical Detection Efficiency Simulator)
A meteor is a rocky or metallic body that enters the Earth’s atmosphere (or the atmosphere of another planet) from space at high speed and…
Growing Interest in Limited Moon Resources Could Cause Tension
New research indicates that limited resources on Earth’s satellite could cause crowding and competition as site selection, extraction become reality. An international team of scientists…
Galactic Bars: Feeding a Galaxy’s Nuclear Black Hole
A galactic bar is the approximately linear structure of stars and gas that stretches across the inner regions of some galaxies. The bar stretches from…
First Habitable-Zone, Earth-Sized Exoplanet Discovered With Planet-Hunter TESS
TESS, the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite, was launched in 2018 with the goal of discovering small planets around the Sun’s nearest neighbors, stars bright enough…
Stranger Than Fiction: The Monster in the Middle of the Milky Way Is…Spinning Slowly?
The monstrous black hole at the center of the Milky Way galaxy—now of Nobel Prize fame—is proving yet again to be stranger than fiction. New…
The Recipe for Powerful Quasar Jets: Why Some Supermassive Black Holes Launch Powerful Beams
Some supermassive black holes launch powerful beams of material, or jets, away from them, while others do not. Astronomers may now have identified why. Using…
Life Could Exist Deep Underground on Mars
Recent science missions and results are bringing the search for life closer to home, and scientists at the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian…
Front-Row Seats to Star’s Death by Spaghettification
Astronomers have captured the last moments of a star just before it was ripped apart by a black hole. The violent occurrence—called a tidal disruption…
ALMA Reveals Magnetic Fields in the Early Stages of Massive Star Formation
Star formation in molecular clouds usually occurs in a two-step process. Supersonic flows first compress the clouds into dense filaments light-years long, after which gravity…
The Evolving Volatile Chemistry of Protoplanetary Disks
Planets form from the gas and dust in disks that surround young stars. Chemicals in the disk that evaporate easily, called volatiles, include important molecules…
Twin Suns: Our Sun May Have Started Its Life with a Binary Companion
A new theory published recently in The Astrophysical Journal Letters by scientists from Harvard University suggests that the Sun may once have had a binary…
Another Twist in the Debate Over the Origins and Structure of Mysterious Interstellar Object ’Oumuamua
Scientists Determine ‘Oumuamua Isn’t Made From Molecular Hydrogen Ice After All The debate over the origins and molecular structure of ‘Oumuamua continued with an announcement…
Bold Plan to Determine If Planet Nine Is a Primordial Black Hole
Scientists at Harvard University and the Black Hole Initiative (BHI) have developed a new method to find black holes in the outer solar system, and…
Infrared Dark Clouds Cataloged Across the Cosmos
Infrared dark clouds (IRDCs) are dark patches of cold dust and gas seen in the sky against the bright diffuse infrared glow of warm dust…
