There are a lot of ways for dead stars to blow their tops. Astronomers discovered this explosive diversity when they assessed 3,628 exploding white dwarfs during a next-generation sky survey conducted using the Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF) between March 2018 and December 2020. That means that this dataset of nearby supernovas is several times larger … Read more
Astronomers have uncovered a treasure trove of feeding black holes at the heart of dwarf galaxies — small, faint galaxies containing thousands to several billions of stars but very little gas. The discovery, made with the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI), contains several “missing link” intermediate-mass black holes. This is both the largest sample of … Read more
Dark energy, the mysterious force that’s driving the accelerating expansion of the universe, may not actually exist, scientists say. Their research has brought into question one of the cornerstones of modern cosmology. In a new study, published Dec. 19, 2024 in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, the researchers analyzed data from … Read more
Enjoy this short video by Marcy Curran on the zodiacal light around the March equinox. We hope you enjoy it! Zodiacal light around March equinox The moon has waned now and left the evening sky dark for seeing the zodiacal light! This eerie cone of light can be found in the west, just as evening … Read more
The Euclid space telescope has, by chance, discovered its first Einstein ring, and it is absolutely stunning. Beyond its aesthetic appeal, this perfectly circular Einstein ring has allowed researchers to “weigh” the dark matter at the heart of a galaxy almost 600 million light-years away. The European Space Agency (ESA) spacecraft, which launched in July … Read more
White dwarfs are giving up more of their secrets, with the discovery that the hotter they are, the puffier their outer layers are. While this finding may sound immaterial, understanding the structure of white dwarfs could ultimately prove key in discovering what mysterious dark matter is made from. White dwarfs are the core remains of … Read more
Of all the planets in our solar system, Saturn is by far the mooniest. And that’s saying a lot. Sure, we’re here in our corner with our single friend, The Moon™, but Neptune wanders the universe with 16 known companions, Uranus boasts 28 of its own, and there are a whopping 95 moons in the … Read more
Scientists have discovered seven more “dark comets,” and analysis of this haul suggests that the puzzling planetoids are divided into two distinct families, further deepening the mystery of why these objects look like asteroids but behave like comets. Of late, the dividing line between asteroids and comets has become blurred. There are “main-belt comets,” also … Read more