The stunning echo of 800-year-old explosion

In the year 1181 a rare supernova explosion appeared in the night sky, staying visible for 185 consecutive days. Historical records show that the supernova looked like a temporary "star" in the constellation Cassiopeia shining ...

New cataclysmic variable discovered by astronomers

By analyzing the data from ESA's XMM-Newton and Gaia satellites, astronomers from the Leibniz Institute for Astrophysics Potsdam (AIP) in Germany and elsewhere have detected a new magnetic cataclysmic variable system, most ...

Eclipses make the sun's gravitational light bending visible

During night-like conditions created during the totality of a solar eclipse, like that of April 8, planets and stars are visible. Venus and Jupiter, bracketing the sun, will be very noticeable, while Mercury will be rather ...

Neutron stars could be heating up from dark matter annihilation

One of the big mysteries about dark matter particles is whether they interact with each other. We still don't know the exact nature of what dark matter is. Some models argue that dark matter only interacts gravitationally, ...