Forget steel, forget diamond and even forget graphene – “nuclear pasta” may be the strongest material in the universe. This strange substance is formed in the intense pressures inside neutron stars, and researchers have now run computer simulations to test just how strong it is.
Continue Reading
Pluto was demoted from planet status to dwarf planet in 2006. But a new study suggests it should be resurrected as a planet, since the definition the object failed to meet was not based on precedents set in scientific literature.
Continue Reading
Astronomers have released one of the most comprehensive photos snapped by the Hubble Space Telescope, combining ultraviolet, infrared and visible light into one image that shows thousands of galaxies spread across space and time.
Continue Reading
With surface temperatures of up to 4,327° C (7,820° F), exoplanet KELT-9b is hotter than many stars – and, according to a new discovery, hot enough to vaporize heavy metals. Researchers have now detected iron and titanium vapor in KELT-9b’s atmosphere.
Continue Reading
An international team of astronomers has detected the most distant radio galaxy ever observed. By measuring the redshift of its light, the researchers determined that the object is about 12 billion light-years away, which dates it back to when the universe itself was just a kid.
Continue Reading
A brown dwarf was recently downgraded to planet status (albeit a huge one), and now astronomers have discovered that it generates an enormous magnetic field, which could provide a new tool in the search for exoplanets.
Continue Reading
In the 1830s, astronomers noticed that the star Eta Carinae seemed to go supernova, but it strangely survived the explosion. Thanks to the weirdness of space, modern astronomers have discovered that Eta Carinae’s outburst may have been the star violently cannibalizing a sibling.
Continue Reading
Discoveries that back up Einstein’s theory of general relativity are still being made. The latest comes from the Max Planck Institute, where astronomers have watched how the supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way pulls and stretches the light from a star as it makes its closest pass.
Continue Reading
Running since 2009, the Insight Astronomy Photographer of the Year is one of the world’s most exciting astrophotography competitions with a grand prize of £10,000. Ahead of the winners announced in October the shortlisted photographs deliver a spectacularly mind-bending array of images.
Continue Reading
By their nature, stars burn bright – so when they start dimming and fading, scientists pay attention. Now, astronomers have observed a strangely-twinkling star and found that it might be the result of a collision between proto-planets orbiting it, and the star gobbling up the remains.
Continue Reading
See the stories that matter in your inbox every morning