SUNSET: 
The Eventual Fate of Our Solar System
Have you ever wondered about the future of our solar system? Astronomers have predicted the effect of the Sun's expansion on its planets.
Casting Doubt on a Nearby Black Hole
New research has shown that the recently-discovered closest black hole to Earth might not be a black hole after all but a binary star.
Taking Stock of Backyard Worlds
Scientists have used the Spitzer Space Telescope to confirm seventy-five new substars uncovered by the citizen science project Backyard Worlds: Planet 9.
Will Radio Bursts Reveal Hidden Baryons?
Scientists are using radio emission from pulsars and fast radio bursts to probe the circumgalactic medium around the Milky Way.
Exploring Links Between Nearby Asteroids
In preparation for the launch of Destiny+, a new study reveals that two near-Earth asteroids may share the same parent.
Are We Watching a Planet Disintegrate?
Among the wealth of exoplanets we’ve discovered beyond our solar system, some are temperate, some less so. New observations have now revealed what may be a particularly inhospitable environment: a planet literally disintegrating as it orbits its host.
What Kinds of Black Hole Partners Merge?
New research on black hole mergers reveals that the black hole pairs tend to have similar masses — suggesting that they start out as massive stellar pairs.
Rescuing an Overlooked Planet
The Kepler False Positive Working Group has identified an Earth sized planet in the habitable zone of a M-dwarf star that was marked as a false positive.
A Detailed View of Our Second Interstellar Visitor
What do we know about the second object to visit us from another stellar system? Detailed Hubble images have given us plenty to consider!
Faint Repetitions of an Extragalactic Burst
New evidence deepens the mystery of fast radio bursts (FRBs), the brief flashes of radio emission stemming from unknown sources beyond our galaxy.
An Extreme Pulsar Seen in Gamma Rays
One of the fastest spinning radio pulsars known has now been detected to pulse in gamma rays, too. What can we learn from these new observations?
Are There More Stars Like Boyajian’s Star?
Remember KIC 8462852, better known as Boyajian’s star (or you may have seen it referred to as the “alien megastructure” star)? We still don’t have a definitive explanation for this source’s odd behavior — in part because we thought that Boyajian’s star was one-of-a-kind.
Planetary History Written in Saturn’s Rings
Saturn is subtly pulsing and oscillating — and those oscillations impose a pattern on its rings that could tell us about the planet’s history.
A Nearby Stellar Stream Gets Carded
The stellar stream Pisces–Eridanus may try to pass itself off as a billion years old, but scientists are calling its bluff.
An “Impossible” White Dwarf Identified in Kepler Data
Meet the white dwarf that defies all expectations.
Hubble Confirms Interstellar Buckyballs
From a jumble of confusing clues in Hubble observations of interstellar space, scientists have picked out evidence of a celebrity molecule: ionized Buckminsterfullerene, or buckyballs.
Dwarf Galaxy or Giant Globular Cluster?
AAS Nova brings us the story of a newly discovered cluster of stars. But the jury's out as to whether this group is a typical ancient stellar cluster or something more.
Taking Note of Molecules in Space
What do methylidyne, cyanamide, vinyl alcohol, and rugbyballene all have in common? They’re all molecules that have been detected in space — and they’re all included in a recent census of our universe’s chemical makeup.
Exploring the Escaping Atmosphere of HAT-P-11b
The atmospheres of planets close to their host stars live a tenuous existence. New observations from the Hubble Space Telescope show signs of a Neptune-like exoplanet’s atmosphere being eroded away.
Searching for Alien Needles in the Cosmic Haystack
Humanity’s search for signs of extraterrestrial intelligence has been underway, in one form or another, for decades. But how much searching have we really done?
