By serendipity, scientists have photographed Venus’ surface from space for the first time. Though the planet’s rocky body is concealed beneath a thick veil of clouds, telescopes aboard NASA’s Parker…
Category: Astronomy
The James Webb Space Telescope has reached its new home at last
The James Webb Space Telescope has finally arrived at its new home. After a Christmas launch and a month of unfolding and assembling itself in space, the new space observatory…
An X-ray glow suggests black holes or neutron stars fuel weird cosmic ‘cows’
A brilliant blast from a galaxy 2 billion light-years away is the brightest cosmic “Cow” found yet. It’s the fifth known object in this new class of exploding stars and…
An early outburst portends a star’s imminent death
A star’s death usually comes without warning. But an early sign of one star’s imminent demise hints at what happens before some stellar explosions. In a last hurrah before exploding,…
Astronomers identified a second possible exomoon
Some of the same researchers who found the first purported exomoon now say that they’ve found another. Dubbed Kepler 1708 b i, the satellite has a radius about 2.6 times…
Two stars’ close encounter may explain a cosmic flare that has barely faded
A newborn star whizzing past another stellar youngster triggered a cosmic flare-up that began nearly a century ago and is still going strong today, researchers say. In late 1936, a…
Spacecraft in 2021 set their sights on Mars, asteroids and beyond
While a flurry of missions crowded around Mars this year, some lesser-explored parts of the solar system are about to get fresh eyes. Three countries visited the Red Planet in…
The Parker Solar Probe is the first spacecraft to visit the sun’s atmosphere
For the first time, a spacecraft has made contact with the sun. During a recent flyby, NASA’s Parker Solar Probe entered the sun’s atmosphere. “We have finally arrived,” Nicola Fox,…
The only known pulsar duo sheds new light on general relativity and more
The only known duo of pulsars has just revealed a one-of-a-kind heap of cosmic insights. For over 16 years, scientists have been observing the pair of pulsars, neutron stars that…
The cosmic ‘Cow’ may have produced a new neutron star or black hole
A cosmic flare-up called the Cow seems to have left behind a black hole or neutron star. When the flash was spotted in June 2018, astronomers debated its origins. Now,…
