121–140 of 379 results
illo of a near-Earth asteroid

Solar System

A Basketball-Player-Sized Asteroid

Planetary scientists have pinpointed the size of a near-Earth asteroid to be a mere 2 meters, one of the smallest ever characterized.

FRB spectrum

Cosmology

Radio Bursts Herald Future Science

For the first time, astronomers have discovered a (potential) high-energy counterpart to a fast radio burst, and also used a different burst to probe the cosmic web.

Mars in UV

Space Missions

MAVEN’s Mars: in Ultraviolet

NASA’s youngest Mars orbiter has watched clouds grow and detected an ozone accumulation on the Red Planet.

crater appears on Moon

Solar System

Space Rocks Hit the Moon Often

Observations from NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter reveal that the Moon is being pockmarked by meteoroids at a higher rate that previously predicted.

convective M dwarf

Exoplanets

Proxima Centauri Has Sun-Like Cycle

Observations confirm that the closest star to our solar system has a regular magnetic cycle similar to our Sun.

Dione in front of Saturn

Solar System

Does Dione Have a Subsurface Ocean?

A new analysis suggests that a subsurface ocean might lie deep beneath the crust of Saturn’s moon Dione.

daily minor planet, classic view

Astronomy and Society

Daily Alert for Asteroid Flybys

A new e-digest from the International Astronomical Union’s Minor Planet Center gives the public a head’s up on passing asteroids.

M101

Galaxies

Why Galaxies Have Spiral Arms

Astronomers have found a unique trait of spiral arms that supports a longstanding idea about where these patterns come from.

illustration of Proxima Centauri b

Exoplanets

Exoplanet Found Around Proxima Centauri

Astronomers have discovered a planet in the habitable zone of the closest star to the Sun.

dwarf galaxy DDO 68

Cosmology

Of Dwarf Galaxies and Voids

Living in voids might be tangentially responsible for three small galaxies’ recent flurries of starbirth.

Ligeia Mare on Titan

Solar System

Titan’s Flooded Canyons

Cassini radar observations reveal a channel system on Saturn’s biggest moon, Titan, that is drowned in liquid methane.

superbubble in Milky Way

Milky Way

Cloud Punches Hole in Milky Way

An intergalactic cloud has slammed into the Milky Way Galaxy and left a big hole.

Ceres and its plain

Solar System

Missing Craters on Ceres

The dwarf planet has a paucity of big pockmarks because it has somehow erased them.

planet in triple-star system

Exoplanets

Exoplanet Found in Triple Star System

Astronomers have retracted the discovery of a giant planet with an exceptionally wide orbit in a young system of three suns.

bright spot on Ceres, enhanced color

Solar System

Ceres Bright Spot is Salty

Spectral observations by NASA’s Dawn spacecraft reveal that the dwarf planet’s mysterious beacon is made of salt.

Simulated galaxy from FIRE cosmological simulation

Galaxies

Missing Dwarf Galaxies Never Were

Astronomers may have solved the case of the Milky Way’s missing satellite galaxies. The solution? The galaxies never existed.

cosmic rain onto AGN

Galaxies

Clouds Rain Down on Black Hole

Astronomers have detected three cold gas clumps falling toward a galaxy's center — at odds with the prevailing idea for how black holes grow.

galaxy merger

Galaxies

How Dead Galaxies Stay Dead

A galaxy in the midst of a merger isn’t forming stars, even though it could. Astronomers think the galaxy’s central black hole might be the reason why.

blazar in IceCube field

Astronomy & Observing News

Where Big Bird Neutrino May Come From

Scientists might have found the source of an incredibly energetic particle that bored into the Antarctic ice sheet.

Black Holes

Did Fermi Detect LIGO’s Merging Black Holes?

NASA’s Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope might have detected a burst from the same merging black holes that emitted the gravitational waves LIGO detected.

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