The formation of the Sun, the Solar System and the subsequent emergence of life on Earth may be a consequence of a collision between our galaxy, the Milky Way, and a smaller galaxy called Sagittarius, discovered in the 1990s ...
Astronomy
May 25, 2020
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2838
Black holes are an important part of how astrophysicists make sense of the universe—so important that scientists have been trying to build a census of all the black holes in the Milky Way galaxy.
Astronomy
Oct 31, 2019
36
8167
I'm going to ask you how long a day is on Earth, and you're going to get the haunting suspicion that this is a trap. Your instincts are right, it's a trap! The answer may surprise you.
Space Exploration
Nov 6, 2015
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84
The first images from ESA/NASA's Solar Orbiter are now available to the public, including the closest pictures ever taken of the Sun.
Space Exploration
Jul 17, 2020
4
1148
Through a computer-simulated study, astronomers at Lund University in Sweden show that it is highly likely that the so-called Planet 9 is an exoplanet. This would make it the first exoplanet to be discovered inside our own ...
Astronomy
May 31, 2016
35
1118
Just released first images from the National Science Foundation's Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope reveal unprecedented detail of the sun's surface and preview the world-class products to come from this preeminent 4-meter ...
Space Exploration
Jan 29, 2020
142
19518
In a previous article I investigated what would happen if the Earth stopped turning entirely, either locking to the sun or the background stars.
Space Exploration
Jul 11, 2016
0
21
If you thought Luke Skywalker's home planet, Tatooine, was a strange world with its two suns in the sky, imagine this: a planet where you'd either experience constant daylight or enjoy triple sunrises and sunsets each day, ...
Astronomy
Jul 7, 2016
6
3094
A new study disputes the prevailing hypothesis on why Mercury has a big core relative to its mantle (the layer between a planet's core and crust). For decades, scientists argued that hit-and-run collisions with other bodies ...
Planetary Sciences
Jul 2, 2021
74
1329
The universe is such a big place that it is easy to get baffled by the measurements that astronomers make. The size of UY Scuti, possibly one of the largest stars we have observed to date, is certainly baffling.
Astronomy
Feb 9, 2015
8
726
