SUNSET: 
A Galaxy Hit-and-Run
Ripples found in the Milky Way’s disk reveal our galaxy survived an ancient hit-and-run. Now, astronomers might have caught the culprit.
Seeing Shadows of Ancient Galaxies
A new technique lets astronomers measure nearly invisible clouds of hydrogen gas from across the universe.
New Clues in Cooking up Planets and Stars
An early peak at a forming star system reveals tantalizing clues about its origin.
Telltale Shock Waves from Runaway Stars
Astronomers are now finding dozens of fast-moving runaway stars by searching for the bow shocks they create in interstellar gas and dust.
A Dusty Mystery Around AU Microscopii
Unexplained ripples have been found racing through a dusty disk.
Black Hole Too Big for its Breeches
A supermassive black hole in the early universe is at least 10 times too heavy for its host galaxy, raising questions about galaxy and black hole coevolution.
Best Evidence Yet That Black Holes Exist
A team of astronomers has found indirect evidence of a supermassive black hole’s event horizon, providing further proof that these wacky objects actually exist in nature.
A Star’s Closest Flyby to the Sun
A red dwarf and its brown dwarf companion buzzed through the outer Oort Cloud some 70,000 years ago, around the time when modern humans began migrating from Africa into Eurasia.
Do Atmospheres Spin Worlds to Habitability?
The best place to look for nearby Earth-size planets are around the smallest, coolest stars. New research shows that any exoplanets tightly circling their stars might have a better chance of being habitable than previously thought.
Watching a Quasar Shut Down
Over the course of ten years, a once-brilliant quasar seems to have stopped gobbling down nearby gas.
Breathtaking View of Icy Moon Europa
A newly processed image from NASA’s Galileo spacecraft shows Europa’s breathtaking beauty and tortured surface in greater detail than ever before.
Spotting Comet Dust Around Alien Suns
Have you ever spotted the glow of a “false dawn”? Now astronomers have spotted a similar zodiacal light around nine nearby stars.
Targeting Crisis Averted for New Horizons
NASA scientists have found three potential Kuiper belt objects in the nick of time, saving the Pluto-bound probe from missing out on half of its mission.
Citizen Scientists Probe Early Galaxies
New data collected by Galaxy Zoo show early galaxies with central bars, providing implications about how galaxies grow.
Calling All Amateur Astronomers
NASA’s Night Sky Network is conducting a new survey in order to better help the amateur astronomy community.
Do Exoplanets Transform Between Classes?
A new analysis suggests that hot super-Earths might be the skeletal remnants of hot Jupiters stripped of their atmospheres.
Black Hole Trio Questioned
New data shed light on last month’s exciting discovery of a black hole triplet — but they suggest instead that the threesome is really just a twosome.
Question Reopened: How do Galaxies Grow?
Evidence from observations sheds doubt on cosmic cannibalism as a source for galaxy growth, suggesting that instead galaxies grow by pulling in gas from the intergalactic medium.
Dwarf Galaxies Packed a Mighty Punch
Light from the puniest galaxies played a bigger role in shaping the early universe than previously thought.
New Radio Burst Deepens Mystery
A newly discovered radio burst places these ultrafast, ultrabright pulses on the cosmic map of unknown phenomena.
