Astronomers measure the mass of a lone white dwarf for the first time
Astronomers using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope have for the first time directly measured the mass of a single, isolated white dwarf – the surviving...
Astronomers observe light bending around an isolated white dwarf
Astronomers have directly measured the mass of a dead star using an effect known as gravitational microlensing, first predicted by Einstein in his General...
Astronomers detect a one-in-ten-billion binary star system
Astronomers using the SMARTS 1.5-meter Telescope at Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Chile have uncovered the first example of a phenomenally rare type of...
Scientists release newly accurate map of all the matter in the universe
Sometimes to know what the matter is, you have to find it first.
When the universe began, matter was flung outward and gradually formed the...
Astronomers find 25 fast radio bursts that repeat on a regular basis
Like Gravitational Waves (GWs) and Gamma-Ray Bursts (GRBs), Fast Radio Bursts (FRBs) are one of the most powerful and mysterious astronomical phenomena today.
These transient...
Volcano-like rupture could have caused magnetar slowdown
Star’s sudden slowdown allows for test of ‘anti-glitch’ theory.
On Oct. 5, 2020, the rapidly rotating corpse of a long-dead star about 30,000 light years...
Souped up Hall thrusters might get people to Mars
Running more propellant through a Hall thruster might power a crewed mission to Mars, experiments suggest.
It was believed that Hall thrusters, an efficient kind...
NASA’s Fermi detects first gamma-ray eclipses from spider star systems
Scientists have discovered the first gamma-ray eclipses from a special type of binary star system using data from NASA’s Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope.
Scientists discover origins of icy building blocks of life
In a new study, scientists have discovered ice in deeper regions of such a molecular cloud than ever before.
How a 3 cm glass sphere could help understand space weather
UCLA researchers reproduced the gravity that exists on or near stars and other planets inside of a 3 cm glass sphere.