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Astronomy news
A dying star offers a rare glimpse of how the universe recycles its raw materials
Astronomers have captured an unprecedented image of a cosmic recycling project in progress—fragments of a dying star being busted up, stripped and absorbed into interstellar space.
Astronomy
13 hours ago
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Stellar stream beyond Milky Way offers new tool to map dark matter
In the image above, a faint trail of stars can be seen stretching across the galaxy. These structures, known as globular cluster stellar streams, are coherent stellar structures that retain a record of their dynamical history ...
Astronomy
15 hours ago
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Chemical fingerprints reveal hidden binary pasts of massive stars
More than 70% of massive stars are born in close binary systems, where gravitational tugs and mass transfer between companions dramatically alter their evolution. Yet once the interaction ends—whether through mass transfer, ...
Astronomy
17 hours ago
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What if there's a star inside a black hole?
There is a question that often comes up at every public talk I do, and I have never had a good answer to it—well, not an entirely confident one. What's inside a black hole? The textbook reply is a singularity. Cross the event ...
Astronomy
17 hours ago
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Famous oddball quasar isn't X-ray weak after all, astronomers say
For more than two decades, the quasar PHL 1811 has been considered the prototype of a rare class of "intrinsically X-ray weak" quasars, thought to produce unusually little X-ray radiation. But in 2024, the Einstein Probe ...
Mirage or miracle? JWST finds earliest known 'black hole star' at cosmic dawn
Little red dots have puzzled astronomers since their discovery in James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) data from the universe's deep past. Their "powering engines" might resemble a newly discovered phenomenon dubbed a "black ...
Astronomy
20 hours ago
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Three supermassive black holes discovered in a single galaxy for the first time
An international team of astronomers led by the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics has identified three actively accreting supermassive black holes in the galaxy J0148-4214. Matter is falling into the black ...
Astronomy
22 hours ago
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Three energy-loss routes may explain Tarantula Nebula's X-ray shortfall
Like a collage made of layered sheets of colored cellophane, a vibrant new image layers observations of a famous star-forming nebula from NASA's space telescopes. The resulting cosmic "craft" reveals new details about the ...
Astronomy
Aug 11, 2026
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Star cluster discovery could change how scientists measure the universe
University of Missouri researchers have uncovered evidence that challenges one of astronomy's most trusted assumptions, a breakthrough that could reshape how scientists measure galaxies and reconstruct the history of the ...
Astronomy
Aug 11, 2026
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Twisted magnetic field around newborn star confirms decades-old jet theory
Astronomers using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), of which the U.S. National Science Foundation National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NSF NRAO) is a partner, have captured the first direct, high-resolution ...
Astronomy
Aug 11, 2026
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Webb reveals oxygen-rich dust and water surviving near Milky Way's central black hole
Using the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope, an international team of astronomers has discovered that dust and water can form and survive surprisingly close to the supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky ...
Astronomy
Aug 11, 2026
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The telescope that points itself
I'll admit to using AI for things it was probably never designed for. When my van threw a fault I couldn't immediately figure out—one that seems notorious for trips back and forth to a repair shop—I ended up in a long (but ...
Astronomy
Aug 11, 2026
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DESI releases biggest 2D map of the universe
Hold on to your telescopes: The DESI Legacy Imaging Surveys team has released the largest-ever 2D color map of the universe. The 5.6-trillion-pixel map contains nearly 4 billion celestial objects, primarily stars and galaxies. ...
Astronomy
Aug 10, 2026
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Slow spin could explain why planets become hellish
Hundreds of Venus-like planets could soon help determine why some worlds become sweltering greenhouse hellscapes while others remain capable of supporting life. But before answering that question, scientists first need to ...
Astronomy
Aug 10, 2026
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Astronomers find a new object from the early universe using Webb data
Since it became operational in 2022, the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has released some truly breathtaking views of the cosmos. These images highlight how advancements since the days of the venerable Hubble Space Telescope ...
Astronomy
Aug 10, 2026
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Cosmic filaments help set first limits on dark matter's decay into gravitons
Composing some 85% of the universe's total mass, dark matter betrays its presence only through gravity, unlike ordinary matter. Yet through new research published in Physical Review D, a team led by David Dunsky of New York ...
Galactic spins carry fingerprints of the primordial universe
The origin of spin in spiral and elliptical galaxies has posed a long-standing puzzle for astronomers. One idea, known as tidal torque theory, proposes that galaxies' spins are an imprinted record of the early universe, imparted ...
Physicists trace solar outbursts that led to historic Mother's Day storms
On Mother's Day weekend in May 2024, Earth experienced its most powerful geomagnetic storm in two decades, spawning auroras—the ribbony bands of light in the nighttime skies in the Northern and Southern hemispheres—that may ...
Astronomy
Aug 7, 2026
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An ultramassive white dwarf half Earth's size may hold a rare oxygen-neon core
Astronomers have found evidence that one of the most massive white dwarfs known has an oxygen-neon core instead of the more common carbon-oxygen core. The finding is important because the composition of a white dwarf's core ...
Charting the galaxy: Milky Way Mapper survey releases latest all-sky spectra
The Sloan Digital Sky Survey V (SDSS-V) has announced its 20th public data release (DR20), delivering a dramatic expansion of the Milky Way Mapper (MWM) scientific survey—the most detailed spectroscopic map yet assembled ...
Astronomy
Aug 6, 2026
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