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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.

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.

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.

Weather apps regularly differ in their predictions for the same location – why is it so hard to predict local forecasts, and where can we get the best weather information?

Weather apps regularly differ in their predictions for the same location – why is it so hard to predict local forecasts, and where can we get the best weather information?

AI can transfer strange qualities through seemingly unrelated training—from a love of owls to something more dangerous

Superluminal velocities are common but illusory

Hurricane forecasts have made huge leaps since Katrina hit 20 years ago, but that progress is threatened by Trump administration cuts to research

Two decades after Katrina, we revisit the storm and discuss the evolution of hurricane preparedness since then.

Newly released SpaceX footage gives us great looks at the final moments of Starship's epic Flight 10 test on Aug. 26, which ended with an Indian Ocean splashdown.

The New Scientist Book Club has just finished reading Alex Foster's sci-fi novel “Circular Motion”. We liked it – but there were calls for a bit more science in this slice of science fiction

The New Scientist Book Club has just finished reading Alex Foster's sci-fi novel “Circular Motion”. We liked it – but there were calls for a bit more science in this slice of science fiction

The New Scientist Book Club is currently reading Ursula K. Le Guin's classic science fiction novel "The Dispossessed". Here, her son Theo Downes-Le Guin considers the artistic process behind it – and why it still resonates today

The New Scientist Book Club is currently reading Ursula K. Le Guin's classic science fiction novel "The Dispossessed". Here, her son Theo Downes-Le Guin considers the artistic process behind it – and why it still resonates today

The New Scientist Book Club is currently reading Ursula K. Le Guin’s classic novel The Dispossessed. In this extract from its opening, we get our first glimpse of the planet Anarres

The New Scientist Book Club is currently reading Ursula K. Le Guin’s classic novel The Dispossessed. In this extract from its opening, we get our first glimpse of the planet Anarres

Jupiter, Venus, and Mercury continue at dawn. The evening Moon meets Saturn while Fomalhaut looks on. Saturn's own biggest moon casts its shadow onto the planet, for one of the last times for 15 years.

The post This Week's Sky at a Glance, August 29 – September 7 appeared first on Sky & Telescope.

For this new Picture of the Month feature, the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope has provided a fantastic new view of IRAS 04302+2247, a planet-forming disc located about 525 light-years away in a dark cloud within the Taurus star-forming region. With Webb, researchers can study the properties and growth of dust grains within protoplanetary discs like this one, shedding light on the earliest stages of planet formation.

On September 2nd, Sky & Telescope will launch subscription access to our online articles. Subscribe to get full digital access to the website and magazine!

The post Sky & Telescope Announces Subscription Access to Website appeared first on Sky & Telescope.