NASA’s latest image of the Milky Way is two decades in the making. The dramatic view of the heart of the galaxy combines 370 observations taken over a period of 20 years and features billions of stars. “What we see in the … Read More
PDS 70 is a 370-light-year-distance star that is almost 6 million years old and has a mass roughly three-quarters that of the Sun. Two years ago astronomers spotted what they thought might be a moon-forming disk around PDS 70b, its … Read More
On a clear winter night, it’s difficult to miss Orion the Hunter, who holds his shield in one hand and stretches his other arm high into the sky. Betelgeuse, a bright red dot on Orion’s shoulder, has captivated sky gazers … Read More
Scientists have unambiguously confirmed the collision of a black hole and a neutron star for the first time: the fateful moment when two extreme objects collide in an event so massive that its ripples across the cosmos can still be … Read More
A ghostly “hand” reaching through the cosmos has just revealed new information about massive stars’ violent deaths. The spectacular structure is the ejecta from a core-collapse supernova, which astronomers have been able to observe as it blasts into space at … Read More
Jupiter is a secretive swirl of coffee and cream. We’re only beginning to understand the stories that lie beneath its undulating cloud bands. Juno, NASA’s spacecraft, has played a crucial role in solving these mysteries. The probe’s JunoCam has been … Read More