Never-Before-Seen Molecule: Webb Reveals a “Hot Saturn” Exoplanet Atmosphere
New Webb Space Telescope observations of WASP-39 b reveal a never-before-seen molecule in the atmosphere of a planet — sulfur dioxide — among other details….
Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics News
Supernova Explosions Reveal Precise Details of Dark Energy and Dark Matter
An analysis of more than two decades’ worth of supernova explosions convincingly boosts modern cosmological theories and reinvigorates efforts to answer fundamental questions. A powerful…
Black Hole Lights Up Years After Ripping Star to Shreds – “We’ve Never Seen Anything Like This Before”
A small star was ripped to shreds in October 2018 when it wandered too close to a black hole in a galaxy located 665 million…
Astronomers Uncover New Evidence of Baby Planet in the Making
A new technique has been developed by astronomers to identify small planets hidden in protoplanetary disks. According to astronomers and astrophysicists, planets are born in…
Cosmic Mystery Solved: Missing Carbon Monoxide Was Hiding in the Ice
Astronomers frequently observe carbon monoxide (CO) in planetary nurseries. Because the compound is ultra-bright and extremely common in protoplanetary disks — regions of dust and…
A Giant Planet Microlensing Event
Over 5,000 exoplanets have been detected to date, with more than 90% of them found by using the transit or radial velocity techniques. Of the…
Scientists Have Spotted the Farthest Galaxy Ever – It May Be Home to the Oldest Stars in the Universe
Shining only ~300 million years after the Big Bang, it may be home to the oldest stars in the universe, or a supermassive black hole….
Searching for Planet Nine: What Is Lurking in the Outer Reaches of Our Solar System?
The Solar System has eight planets. In 2006, astronomers reclassified Pluto as a dwarf planet, the same class as contains Eris, Sedna, Quaoar, Ceres, and…
Mission Critical: Giant Magellan Telescope Ranked a National Priority
The U.S. Extremely Large Telescope Program, which includes the Giant Magellan Telescope, was ranked mission critical by the 2020 Decadal Survey on Astronomy and Astrophysics….
Dark Cosmic Filaments: The Magnetic Field in Milky Way “Bones”
Star formation in the Milky Way primarily occurs in long, dense filaments of gas and dust that stretch along the spiral arms. Dubbed “bones” because…
In 1999 Mysterious Finger-Like Features Were Spotted on the Sun – Now Scientists Have an Explanation
In January 1999, scientists observed mysterious motions within a solar flare. Unlike typical flares that showed bright energy erupting outwards from the Sun, this solar…
Earth Is Surrounded by 1,000-Light-Year Wide Bubble – Source of All Nearby, Young Stars
The Earth sits in a 1,000-light-year-wide void surrounded by thousands of young stars — but how did those stars form? In a paper appearing today…
Astronomers Discover Four Enormous Bubbles Caused by Giant Black Holes
Scientists have found four enormous cavities, or bubbles, at the center of a galaxy cluster using NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory. This unusual set of features…
Infrared Dark Clouds With Massive Young Stars Early in Formation
Infrared dark clouds (IRDCs) are dark patches of cold dust and gas seen in the sky against the bright diffuse infrared glow of warm dust…
Our Milky Way Galaxy’s Most Recent Major Collision
One of the characteristic features of modern cosmology is its description of how galaxies evolve: via a hierarchical process of colliding and merging with other…
Finding Exoplanets in Debris Disks
Debris disks around main-sequence stars are tenuous belts of dust thought to be produced when asteroids or other planetesimals collide and fragment. They are common:…
Spacecraft Enters the Sun’s Blistering Hot Corona for the First Time in History
An instrument made by scientists and engineers at the Center for Astrophysics has helped verify that — for the first time in history — a…
Mysterious Dusty Object Discovered by Astronomers Using NASA’s TESS Planet Hunter
The Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite, TESS, was launched in 2018 with the goal of discovering small planets around the Sun’s nearest neighbor stars. TESS has…
