The galaxy UGC 8201, captured here by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, is a dwarf irregular galaxy, so called because of its small size and chaotic structure. It lies just under 15 million light-years away from us in ...
Astronomy
Mar 19, 2015
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As an astrophysicist, probably the most common question I get asked is: "Are we alone in the universe and do aliens exist?"
Astronomy
Nov 16, 2018
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When a star unleashes as much energy in a matter of days as our Sun does in several billion years, you know it's not going to remain visible for long.
Astronomy
Oct 1, 2020
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490
On May 2, scientists from MIT, the University of Liège, and elsewhere announced they had discovered a planetary system, a mere 40 light years from Earth, that hosts three potentially habitable, Earth-sized worlds. Judging ...
Astronomy
Jul 20, 2016
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996
Astrophysicists have taken a major step forward in understanding how supermassive black holes formed. Using data from Hubble and two other space telescopes, Italian researchers have found the best evidence yet for the seeds ...
Astronomy
May 24, 2016
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In the hunt for life on other worlds, astronomers scour over planets that are light-years away. They need ways to identify life from afar—but what counts as good evidence?
Astronomy
Aug 2, 2019
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345
This computer-simulated image shows a supermassive black hole at the core of a galaxy. The black region in the center represents the black hole's event horizon, where no light can escape the massive object's gravitational ...
Astronomy
Apr 7, 2016
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Some of the peculiar aspects of our solar system—an enveloping cloud of comets, dwarf planets in weird orbits and, if it truly exists, a possible Planet Nine far from the sun—have been linked to the close approach of ...
Astronomy
Feb 28, 2019
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464
The James Webb Space Telescope lit up 2022 with dazzling images of the early universe after the Big Bang, heralding a new era of astronomy and untold revelations about the cosmos in years to come.
Astronomy
Dec 7, 2022
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160
Nothing lasts forever, including the stars in our night sky. One of the brighter and more notable stars in our sky is Betelgeuse, the bright red supergiant in the shoulder of Orion.
Astronomy
Aug 16, 2022
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