Oct 8, 2024
Comets are small objects in our solar system made of ice and dust. As they get closer to the Sun in their orbits, the ices turn into gas and give off a glow that can be seen in telescopes. With luck, that glow brightens to the point where a comet can be seen with the unaided eye. Some, like Halley's Comet, return on...
Oct 1, 2024
Exoplanets are planets that orbit stars outside our solar system. We've been finding potential exoplanets more often since the Kepler and TESS spacecraft were launched. But confirming these planets takes time, and telescope time is limited. To speed up the process, amateur astronomers are using their own telescopes....
Sep 24, 2024
In the quest to find life beyond Earth, icy worlds within our solar system are full of potential. Europa, one of Jupiter's four largest (Galilean) moons, is one possible target because of the vast ocean beneath its icy shell. That ocean, heated by the push and pull of Jupiter, could contain life. The Europa Clipper...
Sep 17, 2024
There are supermassive black holes. There are stellar mass black holes. And based on the idea that galaxies evolve as they merge, there should be black holes in between -- intermediate mass black holes. However, finding these middle-of-the-road beasts has been difficult. Now, a new paper in Nature identifies the first...
Sep 10, 2024
When a star at its life's end explodes, a debris cloud expands away from the now-dead star. The debris forms intricate and amazing structures in the expanding cloud and can cause the formation of a variety of molecules. Using the James Webb Space Telescope, scientists have collected information regarding Cassiopeia A...