Astronomy
A Secret Solar Eclipse from Outer Space
Call it the eclipse nobody saw. NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) got its own private solar eclipse showing from its…
Behind the Scenes: The “Making Of” the First Brown Dwarf Surface Map
By now, you will probably have heard that astronomers have produced the first global weather map for a brown dwarf.…
Stormy with a Chance of Molten Iron Rain: First Ever Map of Exotic Weather on Brown Dwarfs
Think the weather is nasty this winter here on Earth? Try vacationing on the brown dwarf Luhman 16B sometime. Two…
What Is The Future Of Our Sun?
Who knows what the future holds for our Sun? Dr. Mark Morris, a professor of astronomy at UCLA sure knows.…
Greedy Galaxies Gobbled Gas, Stalling Star Formation Billions Of Years Ago
Like millionaires that burn through their cash too quickly, astronomers have found one factor behind why compact elliptical galaxies stopped…
NEOWISE Spots Mars-Crossing Comet
One of the big ticket astronomical events of 2014 will be the close passage of Comet C/2013 A1 Siding Spring past…
What Fuels The Engine Of A Supermassive Black Hole?
If you could get a good look at the environment around a supermassive black hole -- which is a black…
How to See Planet Mercury at its Best in 2014
There’s an often told anecdote that astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus never spied Mercury. And while this tale is almost certainly apocryphal,…
How to Not Die While Stargazing in the Cold
Bitter cold lies ahead for many skywatchers in the U.S. and Canada in the coming week as the polar vortex…
Cloudy Weather Led To ‘Fluke’ M82 Supernova Discovery
In a rare example of cloudy weather helping astronomy rather than hurting it, the team that found M82's new supernova…