Astronomers Measure the Mass of the Milky Way by Calculating How Hard it is to Escape
Several techniques have been developed to measure the mass of the Milky Way, providing a range of estimates. In a…
NASA’s Juno Probe Makes Another Close Flyby of Io
The Juno spacecraft has revealed some fascinating things about Jupiter since it began exploring the system on July 4th, 2016.…
NASA is One Step Closer to Deploying Fission Reactors on the Moon
What's the most important thing you need to live and work on the Moon? Power. For NASA's upcoming Artemis program,…
The JWST Discovers a Galaxy That Shouldn’t Exist
Astronomers working with the JWST found a dwarf galaxy they weren't looking for. It's about 98 million years away, has…
How Could Laser-Driven Lightsails Remain Stable?
How can we send spacecraft to other star systems? One proposed by Breakthrough Foundation is the Starshot, which uses high-powered…
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…