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Astronomy
We see objects whose light only arrives just now. But we see them as they were in the past: when that now-arriving light was first emitted.
Despite the Sun's high core temperatures, atomic nuclei repel each other too strongly to fuse together. Good thing for quantum physics!
It's not only the gravity from galaxies in a cluster that reveals dark matter, but the ejected, intracluster stars actually trace it out.
Did the Milky Way form by slowly accreting matter or by devouring its neighboring galaxies? At last, we're uncovering our own history.
"Carl faced his death with unflagging courage and never sought refuge in illusions."
Known as orphaned planets, rogue planets, or planets without parent stars, these "outliers" might be the most common type of planet overall.
Our galactic home in the cosmos — the Milky Way — is only one of trillions of galaxies within our Universe. Is one of them truly our "twin?"
When three wise men gifted baby Jesus with gold, frankincense, and myrrh, they had no idea one was made from colliding neutron stars.
There was a lot of hype and a lot of nonsense, but also some profoundly major advances. Here are the biggest ones you may have missed.
Sixty years ago, the Soviet Union was way ahead of the USA in the space race. Then one critical event changed everything.
It was barely a century ago that we thought the Milky Way encompassed the entirety of the Universe. Now? We're not even a special galaxy.
Even with just a momentary view of our galaxy right now, the data we collect enables us to reconstruct so much of our past history.
The closest known star that will soon undergo a core-collapse supernova is Betelgeuse, just 640 light-years away. Here's what we'll observe.
The Sombrero is the closest bright, massive, edge-on galaxy to us. JWST's new image, taken with MIRI, finally shows what's under its hat.
DESI has allowed astronomers to create an unprecedented 3D map of the Universe representing 20% of the entire sky.
In November 1974, astronomers used the radio telescope at Puerto Rico’s Arecibo Observatory to send a hello to the universe.
"I was stunned. Here in front of me was the original apparatus through which a new vision of the world was slowly and painfully brought to light."
There are a few small cosmic details that, if things were just a little different, wouldn't have allowed our existence to be possible.
Recent controversies bode ill for the effort to detect life on other planets by analyzing the gases in their atmospheres.
Astronomer Adam Frank asks: With so many extraordinary claims, why can't anybody produce the proof?
When we see pictures from Hubble or JWST, they show the Universe in a series of brilliant colors. But what do those colors really tell us?
The last naked-eye Milky Way supernova happened way back in 1604. With today's detectors, the next one could solve the dark matter mystery.
How did life on Earth begin? Is there life on other worlds? An answer to either question will reflect heavily on the other.
Since 1930, type Ia supernovae have been thought to arise from white dwarfs exceeding the Chandrasekhar mass limit. Here's why that's wrong.
The race to find dark matter could grow more complex with high-energy neutrino interference.
In astronomy, a star's initial mass determines its ultimate outcome in life. Unless, that is, a stellar companion alters the deal.
All the stars, stellar corpses, planets, and other large, massive objects take on spherical or spheroidal shapes. Why is that universal?
Why hasn’t matter fallen apart over billions of years? The mystery might start with protons.
The 5th brightest star in our night sky is young, blue, and apparently devoid of massive planets. New JWST observations deepen the mystery.
Mars and Earth were sister planets in many ways, with early similar conditions. Why did Mars die? The leading explanation isn't universal.