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IAU approves 86 more star names
"These professional astronomers are claiming the exclusive right to give 'approved' names to the stars. But the stars - and the sky - belong to all of us."
December 15, 2017
Juno probes depths of Jupiter’s Great Red Spot
Juno spacecraft data show the Great Red Spot - nearly 1.5 Earths wide - with roots penetrating some 200 miles (300 km) into Jupiter's atmosphere.
December 14, 2017
How to see rock-comet 3200 Phaethon
You can't see 3200 Phaethon - parent of the Geminid meteor shower and a strange asteroid-comet hybrid - with the eye alone. But backyard telescopes can pick it up. Charts and more here.
December 13, 2017
Astronomers chart galaxy orbits in our Local Supercluster
"For the first time, we are not only visualizing the detailed structure of our Local Supercluster of galaxies, but we are also seeing how the structure developed over the history of the universe."
December 12, 2017
Giant black hole at cosmic dawn
Meet J1342+0928, now the most distant quasar yet known, containing the most-distant-yet supermassive black hole. Both exist at a time just 690 million years after the Big Bang.
December 6, 2017
Are alien microbes hitching a ride on the International Space Station?
Russian cosmonaut Anton Shkaplerov found the bacteria in samples swabbed from outside surfaces of ISS. They weren't present at launch. Where did they come from?
December 5, 2017
Voyager 1 fires thrusters after 37 years
Now, the Voyager team is able to use a set of 4 backup thrusters, dormant since 1980. The team says it'll extend the life of Voyager 1 - the fastest and farthest craft from Earth - by several more years.
December 4, 2017
Supermassive black holes photobomb Andromeda galaxy
Astronomers thought J0045+41 was 2 orbiting stars, part of the nearby Andromeda galaxy. New work shows it's 1,000 times more distant, possibly the most tightly coupled pair of supermassive black holes yet seen.
December 2, 2017
Pulsars were discovered 50 years ago
In 1967, while helping analyze data from a new telescope, Cambridge student Jocelyn Bell observed a bit of "scruff" - the first evidence of a pulsar. The discovery changed our view of the universe.
November 30, 2017
