281–300 of 379 results

Celestial News & Events

The 2012 Leonid Meteor Shower

The annual Leonids should peak early Saturday morning. While they probably won't make a big impression this year, an absent Moon and the possibility of a second meteor peak next week raise the cool factor.

Galaxies

Cosmic Web Weeds Dwarf Galaxies

Astronomers have discovered an unexpected explanation for why they can only find a small fraction of the satellite galaxies the Milky Way is supposed to have.

Solar System

Great Red Spot Shrinking

Observations by amateur astronomers confirm that Jupiter's gargantuan storm is still tightening its waistline.

Cosmology

Fermi Detects Cosmic Fog

An international team has used the disappearance of high-energy photons to narrow in on the origin of the light suffusing the cosmos.

Black Holes

Beads on a Galaxy-Scale String

A new image from the Australia Telescope Compact Array shows a series of brilliant knots along the jet shooting from a supermassive black hole. While not the first sighting of a string of pearls gracing a galaxy's jet, the new image is a striking look at a mysterious phenomenon.

Exoplanets

Planet Found in Alpha Centauri System

Astronomers announced what might be the closest exoplanet to Earth, a roasted Earth-mass world whipping around the Sun-like star Alpha Centauri B.

Stellar Science

Star Draws Spiral

ALMA observations have revealed a spiral buried inside a shell surrounding the star R Sculptoris. While not the first of its kind discovered, the spiral does show that the star is hiding something.

stars orbiting black hole

Black Holes

Star Zips around Black Hole

Astronomers announced that they've successfully tracked a star that takes less than 12 years to whip around the Milky Way's central black hole. The star isn't so special on its own, but combined with other observations it might help unwrap the region's mysteries.

Professional Telescopes

Astronomers Approach Black Hole

The Event Horizon Telescope team has unmasked the heart of the jet-shooting galaxy M87, paving the way for astronomers to discover how black holes create their superpowered streamers.

Pluto system

Solar System

Pluto's Fake Moon

Astronomers think a small body in the Kuiper Belt might be temporarily spiraling around Pluto — well, that's what it would look like if you were standing on Pluto, anyway.

galactic haze

Galaxies

Milky Way Blew Bubbles

A careful analysis of Planck observations shows that there really is a mysterious haze emanating from the Milky Way’s core, mission team members say.

Cosmology

Universe is Still Missing its Lithium

New observations of the Small Magellanic Cloud have only heightened the mystery surrounding a decades-long cosmic conundrum: why does the universe have so much less lithium than astronomers think it should?

chemical structure of glycolaldehyde

Stellar Science

Space a Little Sweeter

Astronomers have detected a simple sugar called glycolaldehyde in the gas around two young stars. The ALMA observations that led to the discovery are impressive, but don’t jump on the “life” bandwagon just yet.

Cosmology

WISE Detects Blazing Black Holes

Astronomers using data from the WISE all-sky infrared survey have discovered a new class of luminous galaxies in the distant universe. These objects are rare, super-duper bright, and yet totally invisible in visible light.

Space Missions

NASA Keeps Focus on Mars

NASA announced this week that its next Discovery mission will follow Curiosity to the Red Planet, but the project — named InSight — has a much different assignment than the rover’s.

Fermi bubbles

Galaxies

Milky Way's Black Hole Once Active

Evidence continues to mount that our galaxy's supermassive black hole was not always the quiet neighbor it is now.

Solar System

Messenger Hits Eighth Birthday

NASA's emissary to Mercury just celebrated the eighth anniversary of its launch from Cape Canaveral in 2004. Here's a recap of some of the stuff we've learned about Mercury since Messenger arrived at the Iron Planet.

Galaxies

Star-Shredder's Brief Pulse

A supermassive black hole spotted last year as it ripped a star apart and spat out a jet had another surprise up its sleeve: a short-lived X-ray heartbeat seen only once before from a galaxy’s central beast.

Astronomy and Society

Miss a Sky Event? There's an App for That

Sky & Telescope has released its new SkyWeek Plus app, which combines all the good stuff of our regular SkyWeek app with new reminder and breaking-sky-news features.

Galaxies

Andromeda Galaxy’s Odd Double Core

A new study simulating stars as they orbit a black hole might provide the best explanation for how our nearest spiral galaxy neighbor grew its lopsided nucleus.

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