Astronomy
Planets Don’t Wait for Their Star to Form First
It looks like we may have to update our theories on how stars and planets form in new solar systems.…
Time Flies. NASA Releases a Mosaic of TESS’ View of the Northern Sky After Two Years of Operation
NASA's TESS planet-finding spacecraft completed its primary mission about 3 months ago. TESS's (Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite) job was to…
Astronomers Will Be Able to Use the World’s Biggest Radio Telescope to Search for Signals from Extraterrestrial Civilizations
Back in April, we reported on how a collaboration between the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the Breakthrough Listen Initiative, and…
7% of the Stars in the Milky Way’s Center Came From a Single Globular Cluster That Got Too Close and Was Broken Up
The heart of the Milky Way can be a mysterious place. A gigantic black hole resides there, and it's surrounded…
The Air Leak on the International Space Station is Worse Than Previously Believed
The crew aboard the ISS have managed to narrow the search for the leak, which NASA and Roscosmos both insist…
Here’s a Clever Idea, Looking for the Shadows of Trees On Exoplanets to Detect Multicellular Life
That's the kind of headline that can leave us scratching our heads. How can you see tree shadows on other…
The Carina Nebula. Seen With and Without Adaptive Optics
Ever wonder how modern astronomical observatories take such clear images of distant objects? Advances in mirror design have allowed for…
Those are Exoplanets. You’re Looking at Actual Exoplanets 63 Light-Years Away!
By combining two exoplanet detection methods for the first time ever, the GRAVITY collaboration has confirmed the existence of a…
What Decides the Shape of Planetary Nebulae? Whatever’s Orbiting a Star When it Dies
Planetary nebulae are some of the most beautiful objects in the galaxy, spanning a variety of shapes and sizes. They're…
Beyond “Fermi’s Paradox” XI: What is the Transcension Hypothesis
Could it be that the reason we haven't heard from any aliens is because they transcended and aren't interested in…