
Which of Kepler’s Stars Flare?
The habitability of distant exoplanets is dependent upon many factors — one of which is the activity of their host stars. To learn about which stars are most likely to flare, a recent study examines tens of thousands of stellar flares observed by Kepler. Need for a Broader Sample Most…

Analog of the Milky Way and the Magellanic Clouds
A hunt for merging dwarf galaxies has yielded an intriguing result: 180 million light-years away, a galaxy very similar to the Milky Way — with two dwarf-galaxy satellites just like our own Magellanic clouds

Little Eyes on Large Solar Motions
What can we learn from observations made with digital cameras mounted on ~10-cm telescopes? It turns out, a lot about the solar corona.

When a Star and a Binary Meet
What happens in the extreme environments of globular clusters when a star and a binary system meet? A team of scientists has new ideas about how these objects can deform, change their paths, spiral around each other, and merge.

Featured Image: The Cosmic Velocity Web
Have you ever considered the idea of a cosmic velocity web? Learn more about these intriguing visualizations from the study led by Daniel Pomarède.

How Do Earth-Sized, Short-Period Planets Form?
Matching theory to observation often requires creative detective work. In a new study, scientists have used a clever test to reveal clues about the birth of speedy, Earth-sized planets.

Globular Clusters for Faint Galaxies
The origin of ultra-diffuse galaxies (UDGs) has posed a long-standing mystery for astronomers. New observations of several of these faint giants with the Hubble Space Telescope are now lending support to one theory.

Discovery of a Free-Floating Double Planet?
An object previously identified as a free-floating, large Jupiter analog turns out to be two objects — each with the mass of a few Jupiters. This system is the lowest-mass binary we’ve ever discovered.

Exploring the Minispiral at the Milky Way’s Center
The region around Sgr A*, the 4-million-solar-mass black hole at the heart of our galaxy, is a complex and dynamic place. New Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) observations of the Milky Way’s center now reveal more about this harsh, inhospitable environment.

A Partly Cloudy Exoplanet
Direct imaging of exoplanets was once only possible for the brightest of planets orbiting the dimmest of stars — but new observations of the Jupiter-like exoplanet 51 Eridani b provide tantalizing clues about its atmosphere.

ASKAP Joins the Hunt for Mysterious Bursts
ASKAP, the Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder has only had a 3.4-day pilot survey and has already found a fast radio burst!