Astronomy
Diamond Pinpricks: Gorgeous Shot Of Star Group That Once Baffled Astronomers
Is this group of stars belonging to one generation, or more? That's one of the things that was puzzling astronomers…
James Webb Space Telescope’s Pathfinder Mirror Backplane Arrives at NASA Goddard for Critical Assembly Testing
The central piece of the “pathfinder” backplane that will hold all the mirrors for NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST)…
NASA’S NuSTAR Catches a Black Hole Bending Light, Space, and Time
NASA’s Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR) has captured a spectacular event: a supermassive black hole’s gravity tugging on nearby X-ray…
A Spectacular Dawn Conjunction of Venus and Jupiter Set For August 18th
“What are those two bright stars in the morning sky?” About once a year we can be assured that we’ll…
Can Radio Waves Lead to Exomoons?
I firmly believe that our next greatest discovery will be detecting an exomoon in orbit around a distant exoplanet. Although…
How did Supermassive Black Holes Grow so Massive so Quickly?
Black holes one billion times the Sun’s mass or more lie at the heart of many galaxies, driving their evolution.…
Help a Universe Today Writer Share Stories About Our Search For Earth-like Planets
Since 1995, astronomers have detected thousands of worlds orbiting nearby stars, sparking a race to find the one that most…
How Big is the Universe?
The Universe is big, but how big is it? That all depends on whether the Universe is finite or infinite.…
Watch This Weekend’s Near-‘Supermoon’ Set From The Space Station
With the full Moon approaching just a little bit closer than Earth to usual, a cosmonaut on the International Space…
ISEE-3 Completes Lunar Flyby, Begins a Citizen Science Program
The journey began on August 12, 1978 from Cape Canaveral on a Delta II launch vehicle. Now after 36 years…