China will begin constructing its space station in 2021
The Chinese space agency is building a brand new space station, and they're going about it in a suitably impressive…
Supermassive Black Holes Grew by Consuming Gas and Entire Stars
Where do they come from, those beguiling singularities that flummox astrophysicists—and the rest of us. Sure, we understand the processes…
Interstellar Oumuamua Was a Dark Hydrogen Iceberg
When Canadian astronomer Robert Weryk discovered `Oumuamua passing through our Solar System with the Pan-STARRS telescope, in October 2017, it…
Finally! Mars InSight’s Mole is Now Underground
It looks like the InSight Lander's Mole instrument is making some progress. After months of perseverance, the team operating the…
Hubble Looked as Far Back in Time as it Could, and Still Couldn’t See the First Generation of Stars in the Universe
Astronomers don’t know exactly when the first stars formed in the Universe because they haven’t been observed yet. And now,…
A New Test Confirms Dark Energy and the Expansion of the Universe
Our measurements of dark energy give contradictory results. A new study confirms dark energy, but suggests it is more strange…
Weekly Space Hangout: June 3, 2020 — Paul Sutter and How to Die in Space
https://youtu.be/_Qv1VDHMttc This week we are VERY excited to welcome our good friend Paul M. Sutter back to the WSH. Longtime…
Astronomers Find the Source of the Huge Bubbles of Gas Flowing Out of the Milky Way, Still No Idea What Caused Them
There's an unusual paradox hampering research into parts of the Milky Way. Dense gas blocks observations of the galactic core,…
Spying a Rare ‘Ring of Fire’ Around Venus at Inferior Conjunction
Amazing things happen in the day-to-day sky, often unseen and unwitnessed in our normal routine. Just such a ‘non-event’ happened…
Evidence that Mars Used to Have a Ring
Mars only has two moons: Phobos and Deimos. They're strange, for moons, little more than lumpy, potato-shaped chunks of rock.…