Astronomy

  1. A snapshot of a collapsing star spewing jets, colored red and green, outward against the backdrop of space
    Astronomy

    A simulation of a dying star shows how it could create gravitational waves

    Massive jets and an expanding cocoon of debris from a collapsing star could be a source of never-before-seen ripples in spacetime.

    By Lisa Grossman
  2. illustration of a black hole
    Astronomy

    Weird black holes may hold secrets of the early universe

    Big black holes in little galaxies, rogue black holes and other behemoths could offer clues to cosmic evolution.

    By Ashley Yeager
  3. An illustration of a reddish planet with swirling patterns depicting its radiation field
    Astronomy

    The first radiation belt outside the solar system has been spotted

    Encircling a Jupiter-sized body about 18 light-years from Earth, the radiation belt is 10 million times as bright as the ones around Jupiter.

    By Lisa Grossman
  4. An image showing multiple galaxies and stars in deep space. An inset closeup shows the supernova Refsdal as a bright smudge
    Astronomy

    A reappearing supernova offers a new measure of the universe’s expansion

    Supernova Refsdal blew up once but burst into view at least five times. The timing of its appearances provides clues to how fast the universe is growing.

    By James R. Riordon
  5. An image of the inner Fomalhaut disk.
    Astronomy

    The James Webb telescope revealed surprise asteroids in the Fomalhaut star system

    New images of Fomalhaut confirm that an alleged planet is probably just dust while also revealing a new asteroid belt and a “Great Dust Cloud.”

    By James R. Riordon
  6. A photo of stars with Galaxy IC 5249 in the center with a green oval around it.
    Astronomy

    A streak of light may not be a black hole fleeing its galaxy after all

    A suspicious trail of starlight may just be a spiral galaxy seen edge on, not stars that formed in the wake of a runaway supermassive black hole.

    By Liz Kruesi
  7. An illustration of a giant orange star eating a much smaller red planet and a giant burst of bright white dust expanding outward from the tiny planet.
    Astronomy

    For the first time, astrophysicists have caught a star eating a planet

    A burst of light and a cloud of dust are signs that a star 12,000 light-years away swallowed a planet up to 10 times the mass of Jupiter.

    By James R. Riordon
  8. The young star cluster NGC 346, shown as wispy clouds of dust and gas amidst a brilliant starry landscape
    Space

    Rocky planets might have been able to form in the early universe

    The James Webb telescope spied planet-building material around young stars in a nearby galaxy whose chemical makeup matches that of the early cosmos.

    By Allison Gasparini
  9. An illustration of the Milky Way with two bubbles shown in blue and purple coming from the center of the galaxy.
    Astronomy

    Cosmic antimatter hints at origins of huge bubbles in our galaxy’s center

    An excess of positrons in Earth’s vicinity supports the idea that the Fermi bubbles were burped by the Milky Way’s supermassive black hole long ago.

    By Lisa Grossman
  10. An ultraviolet composite image of Saturn. The planet is seen in shades of blue with a white band towards the center at at the top.
    Planetary Science

    Saturn’s icy rings are probably heating its atmosphere, giving it an ultraviolet glow

    Detecting similar emission from a distant world could help astronomers find other planets that boast bright and beautiful rings.

    By Ken Croswell
  11. Two photos of the same black hole in M87 side by side. The image on the left is the original and appears to be a fuzzy black center with a ring of orange around it. The image on the right is similar but clearly a dark circle in the middle with an orange ring around it.
    Astronomy

    The first black hole portrait got sharper thanks to machine learning

    A machine learning technique filled in data gaps in the image of M87’s black hole, resulting in a thinner ring.

    By Emily Conover
  12. A photo of a dark room with a projector screen showing a film about the origin of a star cluster. The outlines of people and stars are on the screen frozen while stars light up the ceiling.
    Science & Society

    The Smithsonian’s ‘Lights Out’ inspires visitors to save the fading night sky

    The exhibition examines how light pollution harms astronomy, ecosystems and human cultures. But it also offers hope.

    By McKenzie Prillaman