The center of our Galaxy has been intensely studied for many years, but it still harbors surprises for scientists. A snake-like structure lurking near our galaxy's supermassive black hole is the latest discovery to tantalize ...
Astronomy
Dec 20, 2017
15
877
Physicists are capitalizing on a direct connection between the largest cosmic structures and the smallest known objects to use the universe as a "cosmological collider" and investigate new physics.
General Physics
Jul 20, 2017
13
866
All known black holes fall into two categories: small, stellar-mass black holes weighing a few Suns, and supermassive black holes weighing millions or billions of Suns. Astronomers expect that intermediate-mass black holes ...
Astronomy
Feb 8, 2017
3
708
There are now about 2700 confirmed exoplanets discovered by transiting techniques including those used with the Kepler satellite. The transit method observes the stellar light curve (the flux versus time), and spots the slight ...
Astronomy
Oct 17, 2016
0
240
In August astronomers announced that the nearby star Proxima Centauri hosts an Earth-sized planet (called Proxima b) in its habitable zone. At first glance, Proxima Centauri seems nothing like our Sun. It's a small, cool, ...
Astronomy
Oct 11, 2016
9
1
Our Earth consists of silicate rocks and an iron core with a thin veneer of water and life. But the first potentially habitable worlds to form might have been very different. New research suggests that planet formation in ...
Astronomy
Jun 7, 2016
59
1624
Nearly four billion years ago, life arose on Earth. Life appeared because our planet had a rocky surface, liquid water, and a blanketing atmosphere. But life thrived thanks to another necessary ingredient: the presence of ...
Astronomy
Mar 16, 2016
87
1444
Every school kid learns the basic structure of the Earth: a thin outer crust, a thick mantle, and a Mars-sized core. But is this structure universal? Will rocky exoplanets orbiting other stars have the same three layers? ...
Astronomy
Feb 8, 2016
8
2966
How did the universe begin? And what came before the Big Bang? Cosmologists have asked these questions ever since discovering that our universe is expanding. The answers aren't easy to determine. The beginning of the cosmos ...
Astronomy
Jan 25, 2016
74
3590
In April 2015, after traveling for about half the age of the universe, a flood of powerful gamma rays from a distant galaxy slammed into Earth's atmosphere. That torrent generated a cascade of light - a shower that fell onto ...
Astronomy
Dec 15, 2015
32
2953
