Astronomy

Astronomers are celebrating the 4th of July weekend by releasing a new image of some cosmic fireworks. The spectacular shot is made up of a mosaic of radio and infrared images, showing a cluster of young stars exploding into life.

A team of scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy believe that unusually large, cool surface spots are the most likely explanation for the recent dimming of the red giant star Betelgeuse that raised fears it was going supernova.

The night sky is a beautiful canvas for photography, and the Milky Way is the star (pun intended) of the show. The latest edition of the annual Milky Way Photographer of the Year features absolutely stunning shots of our home galaxy and planet.

The Hubble Space Telescope has captured a striking sight in the Serpens Nebula – a huge shadow in the shape of a bat. Now, follow-up observations have shown that it appears to be flapping its wings, which may be the influence of a nearby planet.

The LIGO-Virgo collaboration has reported a very strange gravitational wave signal. This signal appears to have come from a black hole swallowing some unknown object, with a mass that sits in a range thought to be empty.

Given how big the universe is, chances are tiny that Earth is the only planet with life. But how would we find others? A new NASA grant has been awarded to try and do so by hunting for signs of advanced alien civilizations, or "technosignatures."

Astronomers investigating gamma ray emissions have discovered that certain active galaxies are giving off bursts in regular patterns. This, the team says, could be an indication of galaxies harboring two supermassive black holes in their centers.

A newly released map shows our home galaxy in a new light. The eROSITA telescope has scanned the entire sky in X-rays, painting a colorful portrait that reveals large-scale structures and hundreds of thousands of previously unknown X-ray sources.

There’s invisible, undetectable stuff all around us, and we call it dark matter. There’s plenty of evidence that this stuff is very real, but what exactly is dark matter? How do we know it’s there? And how are scientists looking for it?

Supernovae are some of the most energetic events in the universe, and the resulting nebulas are a favorite for stargazers. To better understand the physics behind them, researchers at Georgia Tech have created a “supernova machine” in the lab.

Astronomers at NASA and ESA have discovered the youngest pulsar known. This celestial child is a mere 240 years old, and its birth would have been visible on Earth at the time as a supernova. This little star is known as Swift J1818.0−1607.

Turns out the Red Planet is a little more green than we thought. The ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO) has detected a tinge of green in the atmosphere, making it the first time this aurora-like glow has been spotted around a planet other than Earth.