This article was updated at 9:00 a.m. ET on Friday, July 11, to include new information. After defending his PhD thesis on modeling interstellar objects on Monday, June 30, Matthew Hopkins intended to take some well-deserved time off. It would appear the universe had other plans for him. The very next day, the Atlas Terrestrial-impact […]
The Milky Way Might Not Smash Into the Andromeda Galaxy After All, New Simulation Indicates
For over a decade, researchers have suggested a high possibility of our Milky Way galaxy smashing into neighboring galaxy Andromeda around 5 billion years from now. The collision would merge the two galaxies into a single (very creatively named) “Milkomeda”—but new research now indicates that this is less likely than previously assumed. Integrating new data […]
Scientists Are Creeping Closer to Colorized Black Hole Images
Black holes are infamous for being invisible. But thanks to a new technique from the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) team, we’re about to start seeing them in color. Astronomers have figured out a way to observe the radio sky in multiple frequencies at once, allowing them to create full-color images of supermassive black holes. The […]
Most Detailed Simulation of Magnetic Turbulence in Space Is Surprisingly Beautiful
A new simulation of the galaxy’s magnetic turbulence shakes up how we think about—and visualize—the astrophysical environments. The model was developed by James Beattie, a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Toronto’s Canadian Institute for Theoretical Astrophysics and Princeton University, and collaborators from the U.S., Australia, and Europe. Described in a recent paper in Nature […]
Rogue Pulsar Snaps Galactic Bone in Milky Way’s Spine
A galactic filament that stretches across 230 light-years in the Milky Way has suffered from a strange kink that has distorted its magnetic field, appearing as a fracture in a massive bone. New X-ray images captured by the Chandra Observatory may have finally helped astronomers diagnose its ailment, naming a fast-spinning neutron star as the […]
Webb Telescope Reveals Astronomers Got It All Wrong About This Dying Planet
Astronomers using NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope just gave a cosmic mystery a serious plot twist. The event in question—a sudden brightening from a star about 12,000 light-years away—was initially chalked up to the star swelling into a red giant and engulfing a nearby planet, a typical tale in some star systems. But not this […]
Astronaut’s Remarkable Image Captures Milky Way Beyond Earth’s Horizon
An astronaut recently captured an image of Earth from the International Space Station that offers an entirely different view of our world and what lies beyond. Astronaut Don Pettit captured the image when the ISS was about 265 miles above the Pacific Ocean on January 29, 2025. The image was taken just before sunrise, so […]