Astronomy

  1. A telescope image of a long stream of cold cosmic gas seen as a blue line coming off a big purple circle on a dark background.
    Astronomy

    A stream of cold gas is unexpectedly feeding the far-off Anthill Galaxy

    The finding suggests that early galaxies might have gained more of their bulk from streams of cold gas instead of in violent galaxy collisions.

    By Lisa Grossman
  2. illustration of two merging neutron stars in blue
    Astronomy

    A neutron star collision may have emitted a fast radio burst

    Astronomers spotted both a fast radio burst and gravitational waves from a cosmic smashup in the same part of the sky and at about the same time.

    By Lisa Grossman
  3. An illustration of an orange planet with dark orange and red spots scattered across its surface.
    Astronomy

    The biggest planet orbiting TRAPPIST-1 doesn’t appear to have an atmosphere

    TRAPPIST-1b is hotter than astronomers expected, suggesting there’s no atmosphere to transport heat around the planet.

    By Sid Perkins
  4. A collection of lens set up in front of a drawn portrait of Christiaan Huygens.
    Astronomy

    The mystery of Christiaan Huygens’ flawed telescopes may have been solved

    The discovery of Saturn’s largest moon, Titan, may have come despite its discoverer, Christiaan Huygens, needing eyeglasses.

    By Emily Conover
  5. An illustration of a black hole.
    Astronomy

    A runaway black hole has been spotted fleeing a distant galaxy

    A bright streak stretching away from a remote galaxy might be the light from stolen gas and new stars caught in the wake of an escaping black hole.

    By Lisa Grossman
  6. An image from the James Webb Space Telecope showing face-on spiral galaxy, NGC 628, with its whorls of colored gas and dust, pockmarked with dark areas.
    Astronomy

    Newborn stars sculpt their galaxies in new James Webb telescope images

    Dark voids riddle the galaxies’ faces, highlighting previously invisible details about how new stars alter their locales.

    By Lisa Grossman
  7. A simulation image of filaments and clusters shown in blue lines and pink dots.
    Cosmology

    Astronomers spotted shock waves shaking the web of the universe for the first time

    Studying these elusive shock waves could give scientists a better look at the mysterious magnetic fields that permeate the cosmic web.

    By Elise Cutts
  8. A view of the Earth from space with several white dots, representing Starlink satellites, forming a ring around it.
    Astronomy

    Half of all active satellites are now from SpaceX. Here’s why that may be a problem

    Of the roughly 7,300 active satellites in Earth orbit, about 3,600 are part of SpaceX’s growing fleet of Starlink internet satellites.

    By Lisa Grossman
  9. the Rosette Nebula, shown as a dense cloud of red, yellow, orange and blue, with bright white spots
    Astronomy

    The Milky Way may be spawning many more stars than astronomers had thought

    Glowing radioactive debris from massive stars indicates our galaxy mints 10 to 20 new stars a year — double to quadruple the standard number.

    By Ken Croswell
  10. Six images from the James Webb Space Telescope with three on top and three on the bottom. Each shows a different bright, red, dot that is a galaxy.
    Astronomy

    The James Webb telescope found six galaxies that may be too hefty for their age

    The galaxies formed in the universe’s first 700 million years and may be up to 100 times more massive than predicted.

    By Lisa Grossman
  11. An illustration of the James Webb Space Telescope deployed in space.
    Astronomy

    The James Webb telescope spotted the earliest known ‘quenched’ galaxy

    A galaxy dubbed GS-9209 ceased forming stars more than 12.5 billion years ago after a 200-million-year-long sprint.

    By Lisa Grossman
  12. An illustration of the dwarf planet Quaoar.
    Astronomy

    The Kuiper Belt’s dwarf planet Quaoar hosts an impossible ring

    Quaoar’s ring lies outside the Roche limit, an imaginary line beyond which rings aren’t thought to be stable.

    By Lisa Grossman