From a scientific point of view, the 2010s have been a tremendously fruitful decade. Our knowledge of exoplanets — planets that orbit stars beyond our own — exploded, yielding thousands of new discoveries and an unparalleled understanding of what’s out there. The Planck satellite and our large-scale structure surveys pinned down dark energy, while improved […]
The Biggest Alien Planet Discoveries of 2019
As 2019 comes to a close, it’s time to review some of the biggest space science stories of the year. From a world with three suns in its sky to lots of possibly habitable real estate, the past year has seen some incredible exoplanet discoveries. Here are 10 of the most memorable. Related: The Greatest […]
What’s Happening To Betelgeuse? Observers Report It’s Unusually Faint
Orion climbs the southeastern sky last night (Dec. 22) around 8 o’clock. The three bright stars in a row form a the familiar asterism called Orion’s Belt. Betelgeuse is arrowed. Bob King Betelgeuse in Orion is one of the brightest stars in the sky. The 10th brightest if you check the list, but that’s only […]
Christmas Week Starts With Biology Research Aboard Orbiting Lab
The SpaceX Dragon and Northrop Grumman Cygnus cargo ships are pictured attached to the station as the orbital complex flew above the Laccadive Sea south of India. The six Expedition 61 crewmembers aboard the International Space Station started Christmas week exploring how weightlessness affects biology. The orbital residents also focused on housekeeping and lab maintenance […]
The top 5 astronomy stories for 2019
It’s been an interesting year for astronomy news. I could start every year-end article with that line. The sheer number of telescopes and spacecraft poking and prodding the Universe practically guarantees that we’ll see a few breakthroughs — or at least significant jumps — every few months in one field or another. As I went […]
Radio Telescope Array Maps Star Formation in Galaxies at 'Cosmic Noon'
Most stars in the universe formed between 8 billion and 11 billion years ago, during an era astronomers have nicknamed “cosmic noon.” By studying galaxies billions of light-years away, researchers hope to learn about star formation during that time. Telescopes that see the universe in visible light — the kind we see with our naked […]
CHEOPS Enters the Game
The Egyptian monarch Khufu was the second pharaoh of the Fourth Dynasty, which dates him back to the earlier years of the Old Kingdom period around the 26th century BC. I mention this figure, about which all too little is known, because his name is a link between the great monuments of an early culture […]
When galaxies collide, you get… a heron?
Boy oh boy, do I love me a good galaxy collision. Galaxies are collections of billions (or, for big ones, hundreds of billions) of stars, sometimes with lots of gas and dust, surrounded by a halo of invisible dark matter. On the whole they’re pretty big, tens or hundreds of thousands of light years across. […]
ESA’s CHEOPS Just Launched. We’re About to Learn a LOT More About Exoplanets
The CHEOPS mission is underway. On December 18th, the exoplanet-studying spacecraft launched from Europe’s Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana aboard a Soyuz-Fregat rocket. Initial signals from CHEOPS show that the launch was a success. CHEOPS stands for the Characterizing Exoplanet Satellite. It’s a partnership between ESA and Switzerland, with 10 other EU states contributing. Its […]
100,000 Supernovae Exploded Near the Core of the Milky Way
Thanks to the latest generation of sophisticated telescopes, astronomers are learning things a great deal about our Universe. The improved resolution and observational power of these instruments also allow astronomers to address previously unanswered questions. Many of these telescopes can be found in the Atacama Desert in Chile, where atmospheric interference is minimal and the […]