Using the same technique that led to Neptune's discovery in 1846, astronomers have found a previously hidden planet by observing its pull on a neighboring world.
HD 10180 might host a nine-planet solar system. Though slightly larger and brighter than our sun, this star might comfort human visitors with its familiar yellow glow.
Since December 2010, over 35,000 volunteers have used the crowdsourcing power of Zooniverse to uncover thousands of giant gas bubbles in our Milky Way galaxy.
Chris Crockett got his Ph.D. in astronomy from UCLA in 2011 and worked at Lowell Observatory and the U.S. Naval Observatory. He then realized he enjoyed talking about astronomy a lot more than actually doing it. After being awarded a Mass Media Fellowship in 2013 by the American Association for the Advancement of Science, he spent a summer writing for Scientific American, then went on to become the staff astronomy writer at Science News from 2014 - 2017. These days, he freelances, focusing on stories about astronomy, planetary science, and physics. His work has appeared in Science News, Scientific American, Smithsonian Magazine, Knowable, Sky & Telescope, and the American Physical Society's online magazine Physics.