Odd event could be explained by a star being ripped apart by a black hole.
Academic rigour, journalistic flair
Articles on Astronomy
Displaying 1 - 20 of 434 articles
The moon's far side looks redder than its near side. An expert explains what the actual colour is.
Moonlight will spoil some of the big meteor showers this year, but still plenty of others to see. So here's your guide on when and where to look to catch nature's fireworks.
If we didn't correct for gravitational effects on the Earth's orbit, the winter solstice would shift backwards by a day every 72 years.
A black hole is an object with such a strong gravitational pull that nothing, not even light, can escape from it.
The comet 46P/Wirtanen is just 1.2km in size but it should be visible in the night sky this Saturday as it makes a close approach to Earth this year. And don't forget the Geminids meteor shower.
A bright comet visible in December provides an excellent viewing opportunity for night sky lovers – even potentially with the naked eye.
Expect a spectacular display of 120 or more meteors per hour – some of them brightly coloured.
More ripples in space-time have been detected from merging pairs of black holes, one of which was the most massive and distant gravitational-wave source ever observed.
We will never see 'Oumuamua again, and we may never know exactly what it is. But with the right kind of media coverage it could inspire some kids to take up a career in science.
A number of surrounding galaxies are slowly being devoured by the most luminous object in the sky.
The new planet is believed to be orbiting Barnard's Star, a red dwarf that's not visible to the naked eye but one of the closest stars to our Solar System.
Astronomers have suspected them for ages –now a team as finally spotted a 'fountain' in a galaxy far, far away.
The Gaia satellite has uncovered the remains of a galaxy buried deep in the Milky Way.
Are there stars other than the Sun that might explode soon close to us? Yes, there are! As long as by 'soon' we mean within a million years.
Astronomers think they've identified which galaxy was the source of a blast radio energy, over in a fraction of a second. And it's much closer to us than the others detected, so far.
There are lots of places where it's much, much hotter than the Sun. And the amazing thing is that this heat also makes new atoms - tiny particles that have made their way long ago from stars to us.
From sun dials to atomic clocks, we still don't have a perfect time measuring device.
Merging supermassive black holes would emit gravitational waves, allowing scientists to detect them.
Whether you call it Planet X or Planet Nine, talk of another planet lurking in our Solar system won't go away. So what does the discovery of a new object – nicknamed "The Goblin" – add to the debate?
Job Board
Where experts find jobs
-
Lecturer (Level B)
-
Senior Research Fellow
-
Lecturer/Senior Lecturer (Landscape Architecture)
-
Project Manager / Research Fellow
-
Senior Lecturer In Clinical Medicine
Top contributors
-
Tanya Hill is a Friend of The Conversation.Honorary Fellow of the University of Melbourne and Senior Curator (Astronomy), Museums Victoria
-
Professor (Astrophysics), University of Southern Queensland
-
Associate professor in astronomy, Monash University
-
Professor of Astrophysics, University of Sydney
-
Associate Professor and Research Fellow, Swinburne University of Technology
-
Senior Research Fellow, Monash University
-
Director, Dunlap Institute for Astronomy and Astrophysics, University of Toronto
-
Associate professor, University of Western Australia
-
John Curtin Distinguished Professor (Radio Astronomy), Curtin University
-
Tara Murphy is a Friend of The Conversation.
Associate Professor and ARC Future Fellow, University of Sydney
-
Lecturer in Astronomy, Nottingham Trent University
-
PhD Candidate, University of Southern Queensland
-
Professor, School of Computing, Engineering, & Maths, Western Sydney University
-
ARC Laureate Fellow, Swinburne University of Technology., Swinburne University of Technology
-
Professor of Planetary Geosciences, The Open University
