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As stars age, they expand. That’s bad news for planets orbiting close to their stars, according to a new study published in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society this month. The study suggests that planets closest to their stars, especially those that orbit their stars in just 12 days or less, are at a higher risk of being sent to their doom by their aging suns.

Insects have been travelling to space since 1947, but now they might become dinner for astronauts on missions to the Moon and Mars. A new European Space Agency study explores whether crickets and mealworms could provide sustainable protein for future space explorers, with research showing many species handle microgravity surprisingly well, even completing entire life cycles in orbit. Is it possible that these tiny creatures could become essential for humanity's expansion beyond Earth.

Two black hole collisions detected just a month apart last autumn are challenging our understanding of how they form. One merger features a black hole spinning backwards against its orbit while the other involves one of the fastest rotating black holes ever detected. These unusual properties suggest both are “second generation" black holes, products of earlier collisions formed in violent stellar environments. The precision measurements have also tested Einstein's general relativity changing not only our understanding of black holes but also our understanding of the cosmos.

When massive stars explode as supernovae, the powerful blast can send planets off into space where they drift as rogue or free-floating planets. But what happens to their moons? Can their natural satellites stay bound to these planets, and could tidal heating be a viable source of energy to fuel life on these moons?

Sky & Telescope's Chile tour offered magnificent views of the southern sky, professional observatories, and one of the world’s most remarkable deserts.

The post Astronomy Heaven: Sky & Telescope Tours Chile appeared first on Sky & Telescope.

'Wake up and ask yourself, 'Is what I'm doing helping us get back to the moon?' … If it's not, stop doing it.'

It was the 114th Falcon 9 mission of 2025 already.

"This shows how effective the approach of 'Discover with Subaru Telescope, explore with James Webb' can be."

The new finding may solve an "astrophysics mystery that has stood for nearly half a century."

"Sometimes it's the extreme objects that help us understand what's happening in the average ones."

These celestial wonders can tell us a lot about the state of the atmosphere at home on Earth as well as on other planets.

Phases of ice that exist naturally only on frozen moons could be detected using infrared spectroscopy, according to new laboratory experiments.

The beams hint at the true scale of the massive star that spawned them.

"Capturing another satellite like this in an Earth-observation image is extremely rare."

Though NGC 7456 looks like a modest spiral galaxy, new Hubble and XMM-Newton observations reveal a bustling system with star-forming regions and an active core.

"The idea was for our payload to get us just up to the potential biosignature designation and have the rest of the story told by instruments here on Earth."

Liftoff is scheduled for 11:54 a.m. ET today (Sept. 11).

SpaceX promises a step change in performance for cell phone users around the world.

"This forces us to rethink the starting conditions for our planet’s water system."

Depending on where you smack a planet-threatening asteroid, it might ricochet back to Earth.