Some asteroids can barely hold it together. Rather than solid lumps of rock, ‘rubble pile’ asteroids are loose collections of material, which can split apart as they rotate (SN: 3/16/20).…
Category: Astronomy
NASA’s exoplanet count surges past 5,000
It’s official: The number of planets known beyond our solar system has just passed 5,000. The exoplanet census surpassed this milestone with a recent batch of 60 confirmed exoplanets. These…
The universe’s background starlight is twice as bright as expected
Even when you remove the bright stars, the glowing dust and other nearby points of light from the inky, dark sky, a background glow remains. That glow comes from the…
Some of the sun’s iconic coronal loops may be illusions
Coronal loops, well-defined hot strands of plasma that arch out into the sun’s atmosphere, are iconic to the sun’s imagery. But many of the supposed coronal loops we see might…
Earth’s purported ‘nearest black hole’ isn’t a black hole
The nearest black hole to Earth isn’t a black hole at all. Instead, what scientists thought was a stellar triplet — two stars and a black hole — is actually…
A new image captures enormous gas rings encircling an aging red star
Huge rings of gas surround a large red star named V Hydrae, new images show, signaling its eventual transformation into a much smaller and bluer star. “It’s definitely going through…
Astronomers may not have found a sign of the universe’s first stars after all
A new study casts a haze over a hint of the universe’s first glimmers of starlight. In 2018, researchers claimed that a subtle signature in radio waves from early in…
How Russia’s war in Ukraine hinders space research and exploration
Space exploration may seem like a faraway endeavor from Earth’s surface, but events on the ground ripple into space. The Russian war on Ukraine is no exception. From a rocket…
A fast radio burst’s unlikely source may be a cluster of old stars
In a galaxy not so far away, astronomers have located a surprising source of a mysterious, rapid radio signal. The signal, a repeating fast radio burst, or FRB, was observed…
A rare collision of dead stars can bring a new one to life
Like a phoenix, some stars may burst to life covered in “ash,” rising from the remains of stars that had previously passed on. Two newfound fireballs that burn hundreds of…
