Scientists just measured the spin of one of the most massive black holes in the known universe, and it may just confirm a dark and violent theory for how the most massive black holes reach their enor… [+3514 chars]
A Solar and Heliospheric Observatory image shows Region 486 that unleashed a record flare last week ... [+] (lower left) November 18, 2003 on the sun. The spot itself cannot yet be seen but large, ho… [+7183 chars]
Award-winning astronomers are willing to dig deeper into the Milky Way through Sagittarius A* (Sgr A*) is a supermassive black hole that is at the center of the Milky Way. Its stars, S2 S29, S38, and… [+2852 chars]
With a $24 billion budget and dozens of active, high-profile missions, it's not surprising that NASA is the most visible of the dozens of government space agencies in the world. But China's space pro… [+4724 chars]
An enormous comet that is twice the size of Mount Everest has entered the inner part of our solar system and is about to pass through Earth in July. Comet C/2017 K2 (PANSTARRS), called K2 for short,… [+1912 chars]
The picture shows Galileo showing a cardinal one of his drawings of the Moon, obtained using his telescope. Another cardinal is looking through the telescope. He looks interested in what he is seein… [+3883 chars]
A team of researchers at the Harbin Institute of Technology, in China, working with a colleague in the U.S., has developed a new kind of aerogel for use in flexible thermal insulation material applic… [+2624 chars]
The Milky Way’s largest star is slowly dying, and all astronomers can do is watch. Of course, even if we could get to VY Canis Majoris, there isn’t much we could do to stop the death of a star. In th… [+2867 chars]
A unique ultra-faint dwarf galaxy has been discovered in the outer fringes of the Andromeda Galaxy ... [+] thanks to the sharp eyes of an amateur astronomer examining archival data from the US Depart… [+3048 chars]
The fossil record tells us about ancient life through the preserved remains of body parts like bones, teeth and turtle shells. But how to study the history of soft tissues and organs, which can decay… [+3797 chars]
Its nice to have a feel-good story every once in a while, so heres one to hold off the existential dread: the Earth isnt likely to get flung off into deep space for at least 100,000 years. In fact, a… [+3602 chars]
Magnetars are some of the most fascinating astronomical objects. One teaspoon of the stuff they are made out of would weigh almost one billion tons, and they have magnetic fields that are hundreds of… [+4013 chars]
