Nasa/Swift/Cruz deWilde
Analysis of two major cosmic blasts deepens the mystery of where the universe’s ‘heavy’ elements come from.
A bright Eta Aquariid meteor photobombed this photo of comet C/2020 F8 (SWAN) in May 2020.
Jonti Horner
The Eta Aquariid meteor shower peaks each year in early May, but this year it should be particularly good, thanks to dark skies and extra activity.
Pons–Brooks visible from Utah, March 9 2024.
James Peirce/Flickr
If you look carefully at the night sky, you may spot this fuzzy visitor with the naked eye – but binoculars will help.
Gamma-ray bursts, as shown in this illustration, come from powerful astronomical events.
NASA, ESA and M. Kornmesser
Where specialized algorithms fail to classify star-borne pulses, human volunteers with just a little training can step in.
Medieval scholars linked celestial occurrences, such as Halley’s comet, to events at home, such as the arrival of William the Conqueror in England.
DIT Archive/Alamy
Medieval scholars connected celestial events to changes that happened on the ground, such as the overthrow of the king.
Massive dying stars emit large amounts of radiation.
NASA/ESA/Hubble SM4 ERO Team via AP
Some ancient texts record what were likely dying stars, faintly visible from Earth. If close enough, these events can disturb telescopes and even damage the ozone layer.
NASA/CXC/M.Weiss
There are several ways in which stars can destroy and swallow their own planets.
We wouldn’t be able to see them directly, but they could be out there.
ESA/Webb, NASA & CSA, A. Martel
We may be able to find traces of dark matter star explosions.
All sky view of the Milky Way taken by the European Space Agency’s Gaia space observatory.
(ESA/Gaia/DPAC)
Floating crystals can pause the stellar aging process, providing a final energy source to otherwise dead stars.
Discs giving birth to new planets, seen by the Very Large Telescope.
ESO/C. Ginski, A. Garufi, P.-G. Valegård et al.
Astronomers have spotted a surprisingly diverse set of planet-forming disks.
NASA, ESA, Joseph Olmsted (STScI)
The discovery raises big questions about widely accepted models of galaxy formation.
Merlin74 / Shutterstock
The extreme object could tell us more about the environment around black holes.
UCLAN
The observation could fill in gaps in our knowledge about planet formation.
Stargazers in Bourke, New South Wales, Australia.
David Trood/Getty Images
People have been looking up at the stars for thousands of years. Here’s where to start if you want to learn more about the night sky – from spotting easy-to-find constellations to using the best apps.
This age old question has been dubbed Olbers’ paradox.
John Moore via Getty Images News
An astronomer explains why space looks so dark despite containing 200 billion trillion stars.
A visualisation of the huge, glowing planetary body produced by a planetary collision.
Mark Garlick
The discovery provides a way to study the birth of an entirely new planet in real time.
Astronomers can estimate ages for stars outside the Solar System, but not planets.
Corbis Historical via Getty Images
Measuring the ages of planets and stars is tricky. An observational astrophysicist describes the subtle clues that provide good estimates for how old different space objects are.
The Herschel Museum in Bath, England, has a new display of a handwritten draft of Caroline Herschel’s memoirs.
Internet Archive Book Images via Wikimedia Commons
Astronomer Caroline Herschel’s work discovering and cataloging astronomical objects in the 18th century is still used in the field today, but she didn’t always get her due credit.
Shutterstock
Black holes are known for pulling in all kinds of stuff – including light. Here’s how that actually works.
Composite: Chuck Carter / Gregg Hallinan (Caltech) and Philippe Donn (Pexels)
Astronomers have detected the coldest star ever found to emit radio waves using the Australian SKA Pathfinder telescope.