Nearest millisecond pulsar has radius of 11.4 kilometers and is 1.4x as heavy as the sun

The nearest millisecond pulsar, PSR J0437-4715, has a radius of 11.4 kilometers and a mass 1.4 times that of the Sun. This is the result of precision measurements made by…

Engineers build optical elements for the Coronagraph Instrument of the Roman Space Telescope

Artist’s impression of the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope. The actively cooled primary mirror has a diameter of 2.4 metres. It is a copy of the primary mirror of the…

Here’s how AI Is changing NASA’s Mars rover science

PIXL, the white instrument at top left, is one of several science tools located on the end of the robotic arm aboard NASA’s Perseverance rover. The Mars rover’s left navcam…

Slow-spinning radio neutron star breaks all the rules

No other radio-emitting neutron star, out of the more than 3000 discovered so far, has been discovered rotating so slowly. The results are published today in Nature Astronomy. Lead author…

Observatory gears up to detect thousands of elusive brown dwarfs, unlocking Milky Way mysteries

Artist’s illustration of brown dwarfs surrounding the Milky Way. Credit: RubinObs/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/J. da Silva One could argue that brown dwarfs don’t get the love they deserve. Sometimes referred to as “failed…

At the last second: Sunrise III launches successfully

From the stratosphere, the balloon-borne solar observatory has a clear view of the sun. After a series of weather-related aborts since the end of May, the Sunrise III balloon-borne solar…

Analysis of NASA InSight data suggests Mars hit by meteoroids more often than thought

NASA’s Mars InSight Lander may be resting on the Red Planet in retirement, but data from the robotic explorer is still leading to seismic discoveries on Earth. Mars may be…

Nearby exoplanet could be first known ocean world: Webb telescope

An artist’s illustration of an planet — though not LHS 1140 b — outside the Solar System. A planet relatively close to Earth could be the first ever detected with…

Webb Space Telescope’s latest cosmic shot shows pair of intertwined galaxies glowing in infrared

In this photo provided by NASA and the Space Telescope Science Institute, two interacting galaxies are captured by the Webb Space Telescope in the infrared. Scientists say the neighboring galaxies,…

Iron meteorites hint that our infant solar system was more doughnut than dartboard

Four and a half billion years ago, our solar system was a cloud of gas and dust swirling around the sun, until gas began to condense and accrete along with…