The only place in the Universe where we know life exists is on Earth. However, with billions of other star systems in the universe, it may not be the best place for life. In a new study, astronomers modeled the … Read More
NASA’s NICER instrument reveals that neutron stars are not as simple as we thought. Pulsars are the lighthouses of the universe. These tiny, compact objects are neutron stars — the remnants of once-massive stars — that spin rapidly, beaming radiation … Read More
About 4.6 billion years ago, a giant shapeless cloud full of dust and gas condensed in one place due to the irresistible force of gravity. This is how the Moon, the Sun and all the planets in our system are … Read More
During the peak of the Perseids meteor shower last month, numerous streaks of light raced across the night sky. Every year in mid- to late-August, Earth’s orbit intersects with the debris trail left by Comet Swift-Tuttle, resulting in a spectacular … Read More
On August 28, 1859, the Carrington event began with a massive ejection of a solar coronal mass that struck the Earth’s magnetosphere and caused the most powerful geomagnetic storm in history. They called it a solar superstorm. Solar activity, with … Read More
Imaged by the Gemini Observatory in Hawaii, the galaxies NGC 5394 (the smaller one, on the right) and NGC 5395 (the larger one, on the left) are in the middle of colliding over the span of millions of years. It … Read More