Some exoplanets could see Earth from far, far away
Three decades after Cornell astronomer Carl Sagan suggested that Voyager 1 snap Earth's picture from billions of miles away. Now, two astronomers offer another unique...
Scientists find evidence of collision with dwarf galaxy in Milky Way galaxy
Nearly 3 billion years ago, a dwarf galaxy plunged into the center of the Milky Way and was ripped apart by the gravitational forces...
Our Milky Way galaxy has a clumpy halo
The Milky Way galaxy is in the recycling business. University of Iowa astronomers have determined our galaxy is surrounded by a clumpy halo of hot...
Supermassive black holes need the right ingredients to fire stuff into space
Researchers may have figured out why some supermassive black holes launch powerful beams of material, or jets, away from them, while others don’t. Scientists have...
This supergiant red star smaller and closer to Earth than first thought
It may be another 100,000 years until the giant red star Betelgeuse dies in a fiery explosion, according to a new study by an...
Lunar magnetic shield may have helped our planet develop life
Four-and-a-half billion years ago, Earth’s surface was a menacing, hot mess. Long before the emergence of life, temperatures were scorching, and the air was...
Scientists detect a star being ripped apart by supermassive black hole
Astronomers have spotted a rare phenomenon - a star being ripped apart by a supermassive black hole in a process called "spaghettification". The event, known...
Fossil carbon burned by asteroid impact may have killed all dinosaurs
An asteroid impact 66 million years ago may have released trillions of pounds of partially burned fossil carbon into Earth’s upper atmosphere as a...
Scientists record last moments of a star devoured by supermassive black hole
A rare blast of light, emitted by a star as it is sucked in by a supermassive black hole, has been spotted by scientists...
Our Solar System has a second plane where objects orbit the Sun
Almost all the objects orbiting the sun live in a particular plane, called the ecliptic plane. But a recent analysis of long-period comets reveals a...