The Milky Way’s Supermassive Black Hole had a Burst of Activity 200 Years Ago. We Just Saw the Echo.
We in the Milky Way Galaxy are pretty lucky to have a fairly quiet central supermassive black hole in Sgr…
The Most Intense Lightning Ever Seen Came From Last Year's Tonga Volcano Eruption
The enormous undersea volcano that erupted in Tonga last year was record-breaking in many regards. It generated the highest-ever recorded…
Parker Solar Probe Makes a Surprising Discovery About the Source of the Geminid Meteor Shower
NASA's Parker Solar Probe happened to follow a trajectory that brought it close to a cloud of gas and dust…
A New Mission Will Grab Dead Satellites and Push Them Into the Atmosphere to Burn Up
Plenty of news stories have focused on the danger posed by Kessler syndrome. In this condition, space is made inaccessible…
Astronomers Find a White Dwarf Pulsar
When astronomers talk about the "end states" of stellar evolution, several categories come to mind: black holes, neutron stars/pulsars, and…
JWST Glimpses the Cosmic Dawn of the Universe
Thanks to the JWST, galaxies that existed during the Cosmic Dawn have been observed for the first time!
The Suspense is Killing Us. The Next Planet in the TRAPPIST System Gets the JWST Treatment
The TRAPPIST-1 system is easily the most exciting collection of exoplanets ever discovered by astronomers. The system contains seven rocky…
An Unfortunate Planet is Undergoing “Extreme Evaporation,” Melting Under the Extreme Heat From its Star
Astronomers have known something strange is happening at the star FU Ori for decades. The star brightened dramatically about 85…
Can We Predict if a System Will Have Giant Planets?
Prediction is one of the hallmarks of scientific endeavors. Scientists pride themselves on being able to predict physical realities based…
The Evidence is Building that Dark Matter is Made of Axions
There's some potentially big news on the hunt for dark matter. Astronomers may have a handle on what makes this…