Astronomers have discovered the first dormant black hole outside of the Milky Way. These black holes are not absorbing matter from a nearby star, making them incredibly hard to find.
Adriana Errico, University of Southern Queensland; Brad Carter, University of Southern Queensland, and Jonti Horner, University of Southern Queensland
The unusual planetary system has a host star orbited by two giants. One has an incredible odd route around its star. And the other (unlike our own gas giants) is hellishly hot.
TRAPPIST-1e is a rocky exoplanet in the habitable zone of a star 40 light-years from Earth and may have water and clouds, as depicted in this artist’s impression.
NASA/JPL-Caltech/Wikimedia Commons
Life on Earth has dramatically changed the chemistry of the planet. Astronomers will measure light that bounces off distant planets to look for similar clues that they host life.
NASA released five new images from the James Webb Space Telescope, revealing incredible details of ancient galaxies, stars and the presence of water in the atmosphere of a distant planet.
A star forming region in the Milky Way.
NASA, ESA, CSA, and STScI
Even experts were not prepared for the crispness of the new images from the James Webb space telescope.
The mirror on the James Webb Space Telescope is fully aligned and producing incredibly sharp images, like this test image of a star.
NASA/STScI via Flickr
It has taken eight months to test and calibrate all of the instruments and modes of the James Webb Space Telescope. A scientist on the team explains what it took to get Webb up and running.
Gaia mapping the stars of the Milky Way.
ESA/ATG medialab; background: ESO/S. Brunier
Astronomers studying fast radio bursts recently discovered one that repeats, has a persistent radio signal and originated in a galaxy much closer than it should have.
Scientists expect the Voyager spacecraft to outlive Earth by at least a trillion years.
NASA/JPL-CalTech
A professor of religion and science explains different views on immortality, from the religious perspective of President Jimmy Carter to the scientific, secular take of Carl Sagan.
This image shows Sagittarius A*, the black hole at the center of the Milky Way galaxy.
EHT Collaboration
Sagittarius A* is a massive black hole at the center of the Milky Way. Now that astronomers have imaged it, they can begin to learn more about black holes within other galaxies across the universe.
It’s long been a mystery how black holes form, now astronomers are on the verge of cracking it.
Some stars travel at high speeds through the universe and sometimes leave spectacular clouds of dust and gas in their wake.
NASA, ESA and R. Sahai (NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory)
Hypervelocity stars were discovered only 15 years ago and are the closest things in existence to real shooting stars. They travel at millions of miles per hour, so fast that they can escape from galaxies.
James Webb Space Telescope mirrors undergoing cryogenic testing.
Ball Aerospace/Shutterstock
Most of what we know about planets outside our Solar System relates to gas-giant planets. A new study has identified and characterised a smaller exoplanet.
A composite image of the data collected by the ALMA telescope in Chile, showing spiral galaxies in the Virgo Cluster.
ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO)/S. Dagnello (NRAO)/T. Brown (VERTICO)
Studying the extreme environment of the Virgo Cluster — which comprises thousands of galaxies — helps us learn what factors can affect and start or stop star formation.
Flouride is created by Wolf–Rayet stars, here seen in the Milky Way by the Hubble Space Telescope.
Nasa/Judy Schmidt