SUNSET: 
Runaway Star Points to Stellar Nursery Free-for-all
The discovery of a runaway star in Hubble's image of the Orion Nebula suggests a stellar tussle ejected three stars 540 years ago.
Battlesteads Observatory Open Night
Visit Battlesteads Observatory for an evening of stargazing. Note that event start times are 20:30pm during winter and change to 21:00pm through the summer months.
Less Dark Matter in Young Galaxies?
A new study of six young, star-forming galaxies suggests they have less dark matter than expected. But the results may say more about galaxy evolution than about the nature of dark matter.
Swift Black Hole Winds May Shape Galaxy
Winds that charge away from supermassive black holes at a fraction of the speed of light have long been mysterious and even contentious. Now, new evidence sheds light on their origins.
Find New Worlds, Film an Eclipse & Do Some Citizen Science!
Hankering to discover new solar systems or understand our own? These citizen science projects and public data troves will help you fill your free time.
Scientists Recreate Space Weather of 400 Years Ago
Scientists are studying 400-year-old data to predict space weather in the coming decades — and it seems that future may hold fewer Northern Lights.
Black Hole Feeds on Star for a Decade
Unlucky stars serve as brilliant but short-lived snacks when they wander too close to supermassive black holes. But one such black hole is still gnawing on its stellar meal after a decade.
H0Li COW! Is Our Universe Expanding Faster Than We Thought?
Observations of lensed quasars suggest the universe is expanding more quickly than we thought. But they contradict what we know about the young universe.
Massive Stars Grow By Eating Finger Food
Astronomers don’t understand how the galaxy’s most massive stars form, but a new simulation sheds light on the process of stellar birth.
New Mass Estimate for the Milky Way
Astronomers have observed the motion of distant star clusters to measure our galaxy’s mass. The new estimate places the Milky Way in the lightweight class of galaxies.
Milky Way’s Black Hole Is Throwing Cosmic Spitballs
Every now and then, the Milky Way’s central, supermassive black hole tears apart a star and flings away some of its innards. Now astronomers think they know how to spot these cosmic spitballs.
1,000 Black Holes in Deepest-Ever X-ray Image
The Chandra X-ray Observatory has gazed at a small patch of sky for almost 12 weeks, revealing 1,008 X-ray-emitting sources — most of them supermassive black holes.
"Brightest Supernova Ever" or Shredded Star?
An incredible blaze of light discovered more than a year ago still has astronomers baffled as to its cause - and the answer may be contrary to recent headlines.
Does This Neutron Star Confirm an 80-Year-Old Quantum Prediction?
Scientists have been looking for decades to confirm a weird quantum effect first predicted in 1936. Have they finally found hard evidence for it?
Astronomers Discover Roundest Star
Asteroseismologists delving into the Kepler mission's data trove have found a star that appears to be more spherical than any natural object.
Runaway Black Hole Flees Behemoth Galaxy
Astronomers have spotted a supermassive black hole in a stripped-down galaxy racing away from a near-fatal close encounter in the center of a galaxy cluster.
ALMA Images Spiral Disk Around Baby Stars
Astronomers have imaged a third star embedded in the spiral disk around a pair of baby stars, the first direct evidence of a process of star formation known as disk fragmentation.
Astronomers Map Milky Way in Incredible Detail
Astronomers have mapped neutral atomic hydrogen, which profuses the space between stars, in unprecedented detail to create a beautiful radio-wavelength portrait of the Milky Way.
Brilliant X-ray Flashes from Faraway Black Holes?
Two sources tens of millions of light-years away have sent puzzling X-ray flares blazing our way. Now astronomers think they might have the answer: intermediate-mass black holes.
Did Ancient Explosions Rock Eta Carinae?
New observations suggest this unstable star let off some steam before its famous 19th century “Great Eruption” . . . but there’s more to the story than meets the eye.
