1–20 of 95 results
Most distant quasar

Astronomy Questions & Answers

What Is a Quasar?

A quasar is a supermassive black hole gorging on gas in the heart of a distant galaxy.

Astronomy Questions & Answers

How Many Planets Are In Our Solar System?

There are eight planets in the solar system: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune.

bennu activity

Science-based Q&A

What are Asteroids, Comets & Meteors?

Asteroids, comets, meteors — what’s the difference? Is a comet just an asteroid with a tail? And what makes a meteor different from the other two?

Science-based Q&A

The Kavli Foundation Q&A: The Extraterrestrial Next Door

Researchers discuss new signs of chemistry favorable to life at Mars, Europa, and Enceladus — plus how to probe for its presence with interplanetary missions.

Science-based Q&A

The Kavli Foundation Q&A: Astrochemistry and the Origin of Life

From serendipitous camping trips to forging international consensus on big-budget observatories, the 2018 Kavli Prize laureate discusses her personal and professional journey into the field of astrochemistry.

Science-based Q&A

The Kavli Foundation Q&A: How Will the TESS Mission Accelerate the Hunt for Livable Alien Worlds?

The just-launched Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) could soon provide the breakthrough identification of dozens of potentially habitable exoplanets right in our cosmic backyard

Astronomy Questions & Answers

The Kavli Foundation Q&A: A "Living Dead" Star Sheds Light on the Early Universe

A newfound star in a nearby galaxy appears to have cheated death by blowing up at least twice as a supernova. It could be a throwback to the first stars that ever formed.​

Earth's tilt and orbit

Science-based Q&A

Do the Sun and Moon Really Rise in the East?

"As sure as the Sun rises in the east . . ." Except it doesn't! Find out how Earth's tilt changes the location of sunrise (and sunset) throughout the year.

Low Sun, Long Shadows and Icy Atmospherics

Astronomy Questions & Answers

What is the Winter Solstice?

The moment the Sun reaches its southernmost point in the sky marks the December solstice, the official beginning of winter in the Northern Hemisphere (where it is called the winter solstice) and a time of great celebration in many northern cultures.

Astronomy Questions & Answers

The Kavli Foundation Q&A: A New Map of Dark Matter?

The prevailing view of the universe has just passed a rigorous new test, but the mysteries of dark matter and dark energy remain frustratingly unsolved.

Astronomy Questions & Answers

The Kavli Foundation Q&A: What's Life Like at the Remotest Telescopes?

From oxygen-thin mountaintops to barren deserts to the South Pole, many of the world’s most powerful telescopes are in distant, inhospitable environments. Three researchers share their adventures pursuing science at the farthest corners of the world.

Astronomy Questions & Answers

The Kavli Foundation Q&A: Do Globular Clusters Generate Black Holes?

Much to their surprise, scientists are finding dozens of black holes deep within densely packed collections of stars called globular clusters. Astrophysicists are using a record-breaking computer simulation to learn their secrets, including whether the clusters gave rise to recently observed ripples in space-time.

A Restless Supermassive Black Hole

Science-based Q&A

The Kavli Foundation Q&A: How Did the First Quasars Form?

Thanks to a record haul of new, ultra-distant quasars—powerhouses of light from the farthest reaches of the universe—astrophysicists can now piece together the rise of mighty objects in the early cosmos.

black hole illustration

The Black Hole Files with Camille Carlisle

What’s Inside a Black Hole?

What’s inside a black hole? Wormholes? Alternate universes? If you fell into a black hole, only one thing’s for sure: its tidal forces would kill you.

whirlpool

The Black Hole Files with Camille Carlisle

Black Hole Facts

Learn what a black hole is, what we mean by “singularity” and “ergosphere,” and why we think black holes are real.

Astronomy Questions & Answers

What Will Osiris-REX Discover at Asteroid Bennu?

Osiris-REX recently began a 2-year journey to the asteroid Bennu. The Kavli Foundation spoke with three experts about what the spacecraft may discover.

NGC 5972 and the ghost of quasars past

Astronomy Questions & Answers

The Kavli Foundation Q&A: How Do Galaxies Die?

All galaxies are fated to "die" and stop making stars. The reason may lie with the supermassive black hole lurking in their cores.

Gravitational Waves Detected

Astronomy Questions & Answers

The Kavli Foundation Q&A: How are gravitational waves detected?

Courtesy of The Kavli Foundation, read the conversation between two 2016 Kavli Prize laureates as they discuss the struggle to detect gravitational waves and how their discovery is changing our understanding of the universe.

Phases of the Moon

Moon

What are the Phases of the Moon?

The phases of the Moon are determined by the relative positions of the Moon, Earth, and Sun.

Neutron star collision

Astronomy Questions & Answers

The Kavli Foundation Q&A: How Did Nature's Heaviest Elements Form?

The Kavli Foundation hosted a Q&A with three astronomers to probe the recent discovery of hard-to-produce heavy elements in a nearby dwarf galaxy. The discovery sheds light on stellar histories and galactic evolution.

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