Atmospheres in the TRAPPIST-1 System Should be Long Gone
When the TRAPPIST-1 system was discovered, astronomers were elated to find seven Earth-sized worlds, three in the star's habitable zone.…
Astronomers are Getting Really Good at Weighing Baby Supermassive Black Holes
In the 1970s, astronomers deduced that the persistent radio source coming from the center of our galaxy was actually a…
Half the Entire Sky, Seen in X-Rays
There's an old trope in science fiction about someone suddenly getting X-ray vision and looking through solid objects. It turns…
A Super-Earth (and Possible Earth-Sized) Exoplanet Found in the Habitable Zone
Astronomers have found a new Super-Earth orbiting an M-dwarf (red dwarf) star about 137 light-years away. The planet is named…
How Dangerous are Kilonovae?
Neutron stars' collisions create powerful explosions, a type of gamma-ray burst known as a kilonova. What would it be like…
An Astronaut Controls a Robotic Dog From Orbit
Swedish astronaut Marcus Wandt took control of a series of robots in Germany while on board the International Space Station,…
Japan Moon Lander Sleeps After Sending Science — Will It Wake Up Again?
After a few days of wakefulness, Japan's SLIM moon lander has gone dormant once more at the start of a…
Space Junk is Going to be a Problem for Vera Rubin
The Vera Rubin Observatory (VRO) is different than other large telescopes, and that difference makes it more vulnerable to space…
Asteroid Ryugu Contained Bonus Comet Particles
On December 5th, 2020, Japan's Hayabusa2 mission successfully returned samples it had collected from the Near-Earth Asteroid (NEA) 162173 Ryugu…
Giant Star Seen 150 Days Before it Exploded as a Supernova
Supernovae are relatively rare. It might not seem like it, but that's because they're so bright we can see them…