stars
Scientists using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) of radio telescopes have spotted the first snow line in a distant, infant solar system for the first. The findings reveal more about solar systems in general, and how frozen molecules could speed up the formation of planets.
Deep in a dark cloud, some 10,000 light-years away, a monster so large it will be the biggest of its kind in the Milky Way is being born, and it's teaching scientists a thing or two about how stars form.
In an effort to better understand the sun, NASA launched the new IRIS (short for Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph) spacecraft Thursday, June 27. IRIS will point a telescope at the sun and attempt to understand how the sun creates such volatile energy.
A team of University of California Irvine (UCI) scientists has uncovered the cosmic equivalent of an elephant smaller than a mouse: a dwarf galaxy so small it only contains around 1,000 stars.
While NASA's Kepler spacecraft usually grabs all the planet-hunting headlines, today it's the European Space Observatory's (ESO) Very Large Telescope. The ESO is reporting that it has directly observed the smallest planet outside of solar system, a mere 300 light-years away from us.
Two rare stellar alignments over the next few years will give planet hunters a rare chance at exploring Proxima Centauri, the nearest star to our sun. NASA plans to pull out the big guns, and utilize the Hubble Space Telescope in an effort to locate Earth-sized planets around the relatively close red dwarf star.
Neutron stars, cosmic objects so dense they are only surpassed by black holes, have been known to suddenly increase their rotations in what astronomers dub a "glitch" due to superfluids within the star. In a rare reversal, scientists have a observed a special highly-magnetized neutron star - known as a magnetar - hitting the brakes
Despite the fact that Earth-like planets in habitable zones are being identified at a faster and faster rate, there's still no confirmation that life exists or could exist on any of them. One scientist is arguing that's because we need to think outside the box more.
Scientists scanning the heavens have come across a rather unique and rare phenomenon - a galaxy that essentially has the maximum efficiency rate in star creation.
Supernovae, one of the most powerful pieces of artistry in the heavens, have long been shrouded in mystery despite their relatively bright nature. A new study published in the Astrophysical Journal states that we knew even less about them than we thought - there are three types of supernovae, not just two.
Scientists from the Herschel space observatory have found some of the youngest stars to have ever been observed by man. The insights gained by looking at these "protostars" should help scientists better understand star formation, and consequently, the life cycle of our very own sun.
NASA's Kepler mission, whose goal is to search for and study habitable planets, has identified a rather tiny planet of significance recently: Kepler-37b is smallest planet we know of outside our solar system orbiting around a star similar to our sun.
How young is young? Most of our answers would be double-digit ages, but not in the cosmic scheme of things. NASA scientists are now cautiously stating that they might have found the youngest black hole in our galaxy, and it's only 1,000 years old.
The latest image from NASA's Chandra X-Ray Observatory shows one heck of a light show a mere thousand light years from Earth.
