The infant universe transforms from a featureless landscape to an intricate web in a new supercomputer simulation of the cosmos’s formative years. An animation from the simulation shows our universe…
Category: Astronomy
Here’s why some supermassive black holes blaze so brightly
For the first time, astronomers have observed how certain supermassive black holes launch jets of high-energy particles into space — and the process is shocking. Shock waves propagating along the…
These are our top space images of all time
We’ve never seen images of space as astounding as those from the James Webb Space Telescope, which shared its first cosmic vistas in July. The pictures have left us dazzled,…
Part of a lost, ancient star catalog has now been found
Fragments of a star catalog from the second century B.C. have turned up in a manuscript that had been erased and written over centuries later. A new analysis of the…
Astronomers have found the closest known black hole to Earth
The closest black hole yet found is just 1,560 light-years from Earth, a new study reports. The black hole, dubbed Gaia BH1, is about 10 times the mass of the…
Meet the BOAT, the brightest gamma-ray burst of all time
The brightest gamma-ray burst ever recorded recently lit up a distant galaxy — and astronomers have nicknamed it the BOAT, for Brightest of All Time. “We use the boat emoji…
Particles from space provide a new look inside cyclones
Particles raining down from space offer 3-D views inside swirling tropical storms. Muons created from cosmic rays that smash into Earth’s upper atmosphere have revealed the inner workings of cyclones…
Most stars may have much more time to form planets than previously thought
Good news for late bloomers: Planets may have millions of years more time to arise around most stars than previously thought. Planet-making disks around young stars typically last for 5…
For the first time, astronomers saw dust in space being pushed by starlight
A pair of stars in our galaxy is revealing how light pushes around matter. It’s the first time anyone has directly seen how the pressure of light from stars changes…
A 3-D model of the Cat’s Eye nebula shows rings sculpted by jets
Roughly 3,000 light-years from Earth sits one of the most complex and least understood nebulae, a whirling landscape of gas and dust left in the wake of a star’s death…
