1–20 of 373 results
An artist’s impression of the collision of two black holes

The Black Hole Files with Camille Carlisle

Black Hole Rain

The planned LISA gravitational-wave detector might discover a shower of hundreds of small black holes falling in galactic centers.

group of people standing beneath huge telescope

People, Places, and Events

Travel Diary: Astronomical Adventures in the Canaries

The week of September’s new Moon, a passel of astro-enthused passengers explored one of the world’s premier observing locations.

series of images of blue Neptune with bright clouds appearing and disappearing over nearly 30 years

Solar System

Solar Cycle May Trigger Clouds on Neptune

Nearly 30 years of observations indicate that Neptune’s clouds and brightness vary with the Sun’s activity.

dark hole surrounded by hot disk of swirling gas and shooting out a jet from its rotation axis

Black Holes

Black Hole May Have Formed by Direct Collapse

Astronomers may have spotted a supermassive black hole in the early universe that formed when a gargantuan gas cloud imploded.

hot blue ball, one side brighter than the other

Stellar Science

A Jekyll-Hyde White Dwarf

The white dwarf J2033 seems to switch rapidly between two compositions.

hot and swollen star eating a planet much smaller than it

Exoplanets

Star Caught Swallowing a Planet

For the first time, astronomers have witnessed a star eat an exoplanet.

bright dot with stream with bright edges and mostly empty interior shooting out from it, with a zoom on the bright dot showing it's a ring

Black Holes

First Image of Black Hole Shadow and Jet Together

For the first time, astronomers have seen how the big plasma jet shot out by a supermassive black hole connects to the material falling into the black hole.

two glowing orange rings, one thick, one thin

Black Holes

The First Black Hole Image, Take Two

A new analysis of Event Horizon Telescope data sharpens our view of the glowing gas encircling the black hole.

cluster of various galaxies

Cosmology

The Universe Is Too Smooth By Half

Results from a complex new analysis support cosmologists’ suspicions that something is missing from our understanding of the universe.

swirl with many arms

Galaxies

Familiar Fluffy Triangulum Galaxy Has Hidden, Two-Armed Pattern

Astronomers have discovered that one of the Milky Way’s nearest galactic neighbors has dramatically changed its looks in the recent past.

Gravitational waves from GW190521

Black Holes

The Challenge of Weird Black Hole Mergers

When spacetime shivers last only a fraction of a second — as in the case of the massive-black-hole merger GW190521 — astronomers struggle to uncover their origins.

Orange ring around dark center, with a hot bubble circling it

Black Holes

Hotspot Zooms Around Our Galaxy’s Black Hole

Astronomers have detected a bubble of hot gas circling our galaxy’s central black hole soon after seeing a flare, suggesting both arose from the same process.

diffuse glow surrounding a bright core

The Black Hole Files with Camille Carlisle

Monstrous Black Holes Spin More Slowly — But Why?

X-ray observations add to growing evidence that the most massive black holes have a different past than their lightweight peers.

black hole surrounded by a glowing orange ring

The Black Hole Files with Camille Carlisle

Astronomers Unveil Image of the Milky Way’s Central Black Hole

Using a worldwide array of telescopes, the Event Horizon Telescope team has given us our first look at Sagittarius A*.

The merger of a black-hole binary

Black Holes

10 New Merger Events in Gravitational-Wave Data

An independent team has found additional black hole mergers in LIGO data.

Image of most distant galaxy candidate

Galaxies

Are These the Most Distant Galaxies Yet Seen?

Two fuzzy red objects in the early universe may be galaxies shining at us from only a few hundred million years after the Big Bang.

big, bright, bluish star surrounded by a disk and near a second big, bright bluish star

The Black Hole Files with Camille Carlisle

“Closest Black Hole” Doesn’t Exist, After All

Astronomers combined forces to confirm that a black hole proposed to lie a mere 1,000 light-years away isn’t really there.

a large flat purple and gold disc in front of an orange orb on a black background

Black Holes

Black Hole Spins Crookedly

Astronomers have found a black hole leaning decidedly askew in its orbit with a star.

a range of lines with blue dots on top and bottom creating a shape similar to a bird with spread wings. red and yellow dots run along the outline of the bottom half, all on a black background.

The Black Hole Files with Camille Carlisle

Third Gravitational-Wave Catalog Released

The latest results from LIGO, Virgo, and KAGRA bring several key revelations, including that black holes tend to come with certain masses.

Wright Mons on Pluto

Solar System

Plutonian Mounts Aren’t Ice Volcanoes

Careful study of data from the New Horizons mission indicates that an iconic, caldera-looking feature isn’t what it seems.

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