It takes something as stupendous as the merger between two black holes to generate detectable gravitational waves. Here’s how such incredible cosmic objects form.
The search for new objects, including new planets, in our solar system has turned up some interesting finds. There have been a few failures over the years too.
The Murchison Widefield Array sits in remote Western Australia far from noisy civilisation so it can help us understand the universe by tuning into radio waves from the distant cosmos.
The public outing of a number of high profile scientists in sexual harassment cases shows the current system of protecting women isn’t working. But there is a solution.
Extragalactic astrophysicists want to know how and why galaxies stop forming stars, change their shape and fade away. With help from citizen scientists, they’re figuring it out.
Tanya Hill, Museums Victoria Research Institute et Jonti Horner, University of Southern Queensland
Scientists say they have evidence that the solar system has an extra planet, bigger than Earth and way beyond Pluto. So how come we never knew this before?
The laws of physics dictate that to pick out ever fainter objects from space and see them more sharply, we’re going to need a bigger telescope. And that means we need massive mirrors.
It’s no easy task to find a meteorite that’s just been seen flashing across the sky. But it helps if you have an automatic network of “eyes” on the night sky.
From the high-speed journey to Jupiter to solar eclipses, meteor showers and planetary alignments visible in the skies above – add these space highlights to your 2016 calendar.
Dawn’s mission director and chief engineer describes his ‘dream come true’ job – and how the new data coming back from Ceres could unlock some of the secrets of the earliest days of our solar system.
Darkness is precious to astronomers, but it’s also good for everybody. We should ensure we preserve the dark by using the latest technologies responsibly.