New images from NASA's James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) reveal for the first time galaxies with stellar bars—elongated features of stars stretching from the centers of galaxies into their outer disks—at a time when the ...
Astronomy
Jan 5, 2023
10
1040
Before the Apollo era, the moon was thought to be dry as a desert due to the extreme temperatures and harshness of the space environment. Many studies have since discovered lunar water: ice in shadowed polar craters, water ...
Astronomy
Jan 28, 2021
1
9283
If you're standing in the Southern Hemisphere on a clear night, you can see two luminous clouds offset from the Milky Way.
Astronomy
Oct 25, 2018
2
1528
Scientists have long been puzzled by the existence of so-called "buckyballs"—complex carbon molecules with a soccer-ball-like structure—throughout interstellar space. Now, a team of researchers from the University of ...
Astronomy
Nov 13, 2019
1
2167
A dense, collapsed star spinning 707 times per second—making it one of the fastest spinning neutron stars in the Milky Way galaxy—has shredded and consumed nearly the entire mass of its stellar companion and, in the process, ...
Astronomy
Jul 26, 2022
6
1950
Following 15 years of data collection in a galaxy-sized experiment, scientists have "heard" the perpetual chorus of gravitational waves rippling through our universe for the first time—and it's louder than expected.
Astronomy
Jun 28, 2023
5
671
For the first time astronomers have identified a planet that is spiralling towards a cataclysmic collision with its ageing sun, potentially offering a glimpse into how Earth could end one day.
Astronomy
Dec 24, 2022
1
197
Billions of years ago, in the center of a galaxy cluster far, far away (15 billion light-years, to be exact), a black hole spewed out jets of plasma. As the plasma rushed out of the black hole, it pushed away material, creating ...
Astronomy
Dec 24, 2019
25
886
The first detailed cross-section of a galaxy broadly similar to the Milky Way, published today, reveals that our galaxy evolved gradually, instead of being the result of a violent mash-up. The finding throws the origin story ...
Astronomy
May 24, 2021
11
2341
For five months in mid 2017, Emily Mason did the same thing every day. Arriving to her office at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, she sat at her desk, opened up her computer, and stared at images ...
Astronomy
Apr 5, 2019
26
925
