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Astronomy TOP STORY

Explosion of Monster Star Requires New Supernova Mechanism

SN2016iet

Scientists have announced the discovery of the most massive star ever known to be destroyed by a supernova explosion, challenging known models of how massive stars die and providing insight into the death of the first stars in the universe.

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Astronomy TOP STORIES

Finding A Cosmic Fog Within Shattered Intergalactic Pancakes

Mars Imaged by Hubble

To understand the most ordinary matter in the universe -- and the extraordinary things that happen to it -- a Yale-led team of astronomers took a deep dive into the cosmic fog.

Simulations Uncover Why Some Supernova Explosions Produce So Much Manganese And Nickel

Researchers have found white dwarf stars with masses close to the maximum stable mass (called the Chandrasekhar mass) are likely to produce large amounts of manganese, iron, and nickel after it orbits another star and explodes as Type Ia supernovae.

Hubble Catches Two Galaxies Interacting

The pair of strange, luminescent creatures at play in this image are actually galaxies -- realms of millions upon millions of stars.

Virtual Universe Machine Sheds Light On Galaxy Evolution

How do galaxies such as our Milky Way come into existence?

Dark Matter May Be Older Than the Big Bang

Dark matter, which researchers believe make up about 80% of the universe's mass, is one of the most elusive mysteries in modern physics.

Previously Unknown Ancient Massive Galaxies

Astronomers used the combined power of multiple astronomical observatories around the world and in space to discover a treasure-trove of previously unknown ancient massive galaxies.

Outbursts Of Hot Wind Detected Close To A Black Hole

An international team of astrophysicists from Southampton, Oxford and South Africa have detected a very hot, dense outflowing wind close to a black hole at least 25,000 light-years from Earth.

Mapping The Milky Way In Three Dimensions

By measuring the distance from our sun to thousands of individual pulsating stars scattered across the Milky Way, researchers have charted our Galaxy on a larger scale than ever before.

Gaia Observes Europa Eclipsing A Distant Star

On 31 March 2017, Jupiter's moon Europa passed in front of a background star - a rare event that was captured for the first time by ground-based telescopes thanks to data provided by ESA's Gaia spacecraft.

A Peek at the Birth of the Universe with New Radio Telescope

The Square Kilometre Array (SKA) is set to become the largest radio telescope on Earth.

Production Sites of Stars Are Rare

Astronomers using the Nobeyama Radio Observatory (NRO) 45-meter telescope found that high-density gas, the material for stars, accounts for only 3% of the total mass of gas distributed in the Milky Way.

Hubble Spots a Stunning Spiral Galaxy

Galaxies come in many shapes and sizes. One of the key galaxy types we see in the universe is the spiral galaxy, as demonstrated in an especially beautiful way by the subject of this Hubble Space Telescope image, NGC 2985.

Astronomers Map Vast Void In Our Cosmic Neighborhood

An astronomer from the University of Hawaii Institute for Astronomy and an international team published a new study that reveals more of the vast cosmic structure surrounding our Milky Way galaxy.

The Early Days of the Milky Way Revealed

The universe 13,000 million years ago was very different from the universe we know today.

Interstellar Iron Isn't Missing, It's Just Hiding In Plain Sight

Astrophysicists know that iron (chemical symbol: Fe) is one of the most abundant elements in the universe, after lightweight elements such as hydrogen, carbon and oxygen.

Massive Stars Grow Same Way As Light Stars, Just Bigger

Astronomers obtained the first detailed face-on view of a gaseous disk feeding the growth of a massive baby star.

Two Supermassive Black Holes Are On A Collision Course

Each black hole's mass is more than 800 million times that of our sun. As the two gradually draw closer together in a death spiral, they will begin sending gravitational waves rippling through space-time.