An enormous comet—approximately 80 miles across, more than twice the width of Rhode Island—is heading our way at 22,000 miles per hour from the edge of the solar system. Fortunately, it will never get closer than 1 billion ...
Astronomy
Apr 12, 2022
7
1174
As comets approach the Sun, they release gas and dust known to astronomers as cometary activity. For comets passing near or inside Earth's orbit, this activity slows over successive orbits. University of Oklahoma astronomer ...
Astronomy
Mar 30, 2022
2
309
The number of sunspots on our sun typically ebbs and flows in a predictable 11-year cycle, but one unusual 70-year period when sunspots were incredibly rare has mystified scientists for 300 years. Now, a nearby sun-like star ...
Astronomy
Mar 24, 2022
1
973
In January 1999, scientists observed mysterious motions within a solar flare.
Astronomy
Jan 27, 2022
28
924
Astronomers spying on a stellar system located dozens of lightyears from Earth have, for the first time, observed a troubling fireworks show: A star, named EK Draconis, ejected a massive burst of energy and charged particles ...
Astronomy
Dec 9, 2021
5
5314
Astronomers have discovered the very first confirmed planetary system that resembles the expected fate of our solar system, when the Sun reaches the end of its life in about five billion years.
Astronomy
Oct 13, 2021
2
10852
Could solar storms knock out the global internet? Yes, but we don't know when or how it could happen. Mathematician Dr. Geoffrey Vasil has proposed a new understanding of the Sun's convection zone to help.
Astronomy
Aug 5, 2021
35
1055
New research led by NASA provides a closer look at a nearby star thought to resemble our young sun. The work allows scientists to better understand what our sun may have been like when it was young, and how it may have shaped ...
Astronomy
Aug 4, 2021
1
449
Scientists have used data from the Southwest Research Institute-led Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) mission to explain the presence of energetic heavy elements in galactic cosmic rays (GCRs). GCRs are composed of fast-moving ...
Astronomy
Jul 6, 2021
21
2562
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
