A state-of-the-art telescope nearly 25 years in the making will finally reveal its first images on Monday, June 23, and you can watch the event in realtime. The Vera C. Rubin Observatory, perched atop a mountain in the Chilean Andes, boasts the largest digital camera ever built for astronomy. The telescope, overseen by the National […]
These Two Galaxy Clusters Are About to Smash Into Each Other—Again
Roughly 2.8 billion light-years from Earth, two galaxy clusters are engaged in a cosmic tussle. These enormous structures last collided about a billion years ago, but now, it appears they’re going back for round two. The galaxy clusters involved in this scuffle are part of a larger system—a “combined” galaxy cluster—called PSZ2 G181. In a […]
Researchers Claim Ancient Chinese Star Catalog Is the Oldest of Its Kind—But Not Everyone’s Convinced
Humans have been stargazing for thousands—possibly hundreds of thousands of years. Ancient people around the globe looked to the heavens for physical and spiritual guidance. Dozens and dozens of generations later, their descendants are now arguing over which civilization created the oldest known visual star catalog in the world. Researchers from the Chinese Academy of […]
New Minor Planet Spotted Past Pluto, One of the Largest Distant Objects in the Solar System
There’s a new frozen oddball orbiting the Sun, and it’s not your average space rock. It’s a planet—a minor one, to be fair—but one of the largest yet discovered and with an orbit around the Sun that puts our own planet’s orbit to shame. The minor world is dubbed 2017 OF201; the International Astronomical Union’s […]
Rare Exoplanet Orbits Two Stars at a Wild 90-Degree Angle
In 2018, astronomers discovered a pair of brown dwarf stars orbiting each other in a rare system known as an eclipsing binary. Further observations show that the binary, named 2M1510, is even more unique than previously believed. Researchers are reporting the discovery of an exoplanet, named 2M1510 (AB) b, orbiting its host star at an […]
The Star Set to Explode Totally Flaked. Here’s What to Expect Next
Sky watchers were disappointed last night when a binary star system didn’t erupt in a nova explosion that was predicted to take place on Thursday. But fear not, the famous blaze star is still due for its recurring nova to erupt any day now. The binary star system T Coronae Borealis (T CrB), also known […]
Saturn’s Famous Rings Will Disappear From View This Weekend
Saturn will temporarily lose its iconic look from our viewpoint on Earth, appearing as a pale, yellow sphere without its swirling rings shrouding the gas giant. The billions of rocky and icy chunks swirling around Saturn will disappear from our viewpoint on Sunday, March 23 as the thin edges of the planet’s rings are aimed […]
Webb Telescope Captures First Direct Evidence of Carbon Dioxide on an Exoplanet
NASA’s Webb Space Telescope has captured direct images of carbon dioxide in a planet beyond our solar system for the first time. The images feature HR 8799, a multiplanet system 130 light-years from Earth. The discovery not only reveals a chemical compound essential on Earth for processes including photosynthesis and the carbon cycle, but also […]
Astronomers Just Created the Most Detailed 3D Map of Cosmic Dust Yet
Astronomers at the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy just constructed a detailed, three-dimensional map of the cosmic dust in our galaxy. The map makes use of 130 million spectra from the European Space Agency’s Gaia mission to reveal properties of the dust, which clouds the cosmos between our world and just about everything else in […]
Shockingly Tiny Galaxy Near Andromeda Is Just One-Millionth the Size of the Milky Way
A group of astronomers has discovered the smallest, dimmest satellite galaxy bordering the Milky Way’s nearest galactic neighbor, the Andromeda Galaxy. The itsy-bitsy satellite galaxy is named Andromeda XXXV and sits about 3 million light-years from Earth. The discovery of the galaxy gives astronomers a useful comparative tool for studying satellite galaxies on the outskirts […]