Astronomy
The Mystery of the Vanishing Star
A star 3,000 light years away pulled off the ultimate disappearing act, dimming by 97% for eight months before mysteriously returning to full brightness. This unexpected vanishing trick has finally been solved by astronomers who discovered a massive dust disk and a hidden companion star orchestrating one of the rarest eclipsing events ever observed, a one in a million phenomenon that won't happen again until 2068.
High-Mass Stars Are Fed By Elongated Streamers Of Gas
Stars with eight or more stellar masses are termed high-mass stars. There are questions around how these stars can become so massive, since as they form they lose mass through stellar winds and radiation. New research shows that elongated streams of gas that feed these stars explains their high masses.
Could Exoplanets Help in the Search for Dark Matter?
According to a recent study by a team from the University of California, Riverside, exoplanets could be used by astronomers to investigate Dark Matter - the mysterious mass that makes up 85% of matter in the Universe.
The Exposed Core Of This Supernova Is A Headscratcher
For the first time, astrophysicists have spotted a supernova right before it explodes. This is a rare glimpse inside a massive star before it meets its doom. The star was stripped down to its core, and the observations confirm theories that show stars have onion-like layers.
The Great Filter Part 2: We’ve Made It Through
Now versions of the Great Filter argument had been around for decades (just like Fermi was not the first person to ask where everybody is), but the most comprehensive form of the argument comes from Robin Hanson in 1996.
Researchers Pinpoint A Non-Repeating FRB To Within A Few Light Years
Fast radio bursts (FRBs) are some of the most powerful signals in the universe. They can emit as much power in a few milliseconds as our Sun does in several days. Despite their strength, we still don’t have a definitive answer to what causes them. That is partly because, at least for the ones that only happen once, they are really hard to point down. But a new extension to the Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment (CHIME) might provide the resolution needed to determine where non-repeating FRBs come from - and its first discovery was one of the brightest FRBs of all time, which helped researchers track it with an unprecedented level of precision, as described in a new paper in The Astrophysical Journal Letters.
A Promising New Method for Detecting Supernovae at Record Speed
A new study led by the Institute of Space Sciences (ICE-CSIC) in Barcelona presents a new method and protocol for detecting supernovae within days. Their findings are crucial to astronomers hoping to learn more about these powerful events and the life cycles of stars.
New Study Rocks Jupiter's Giant Impact Theory
Scientists thought they had Jupiter figured out until NASA's Juno spacecraft peered inside our Solar System’s largest planet and discovered something completely unexpected. Jupiter doesn't have the solid, well defined core that researchers had imagined, instead, Jupiter's core is mysteriously fuzzy and blurred, defying everything we thought we knew about how giant planets form. Now, powerful computer simulations are overturning the leading theory about how this strange structure came to be, suggesting that Jupiter's secrets run deeper than anyone realised.
Space Rocks Tell Tale of Shared Ancient Past
Asteroids floating through our Solar System are debris left over from when our planetary neighbourhood formed 4.6 billion years ago. Scientists study these ancient fragments as time capsules that reveal secrets about our Solar System's earliest days. Now, new research has uncovered a surprising connection between two completely different types of asteroids that may actually share the same dramatic origin story.
Roman Space Telescope Joins Earth's Asteroid Defence Team
When NASA's Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope launches in October 2026, it won't just be peering into the distant universe to study dark energy and exoplanets. This powerful observatory will also serve as Earth's newest guardian, helping scientists track and understand potentially dangerous asteroids and comets that could threaten our planet.
