
How Many Rogue Planets Roam the Milky Way?
According to new simulations, many, even most, planets get ejected from their star early in their history
How Many Rogue Planets Roam the Milky Way?
According to new simulations, many, even most, planets get ejected from their star early in their history
What’s on the Milky Way’s Far Side?
With radio and infrared telescopes, astronomers can pierce the dusty veil of our galaxy and map its farthest reaches
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JWST Spies a Giant Space Hamburger—and Maybe Planetary Origins, Too
It’s neither fast nor food, but a spectacular object called HH 30 looks appetizing for astronomers in a new image from the James Webb Space Telescope
Do We Live in a Special Part of the Universe?
According to a tenet scientists call the cosmological principle, our place in space is in no way exceptional. But recent observations could overturn this long-held assumption
An Earth-Rocking Cosmic Explosion Turns 20
Twenty years ago today a magnetar’s epic tantrum made our planet ring like a bell from tens of thousands of light-years away
What’s in a (Star’s) Name?
With billions of stars in the Milky Way, some nomenclature standardization is necessary
What’s Inside Our Galaxy’s Darkest Place?
Barnard 68 is often mistaken for a hole in space, but it’s actually a dense, opaque cloud of dust—for now
Fastest Known Planetary System Might Have Been Pushed by Our Galaxy’s Supermassive Black Hole
This blazingly fast star is shooting through the Milky Way with a planet in tow
Treat or Trick? Astronomical Objects Are Beautiful—And Creepy
If you’ve ever seen faces in clouds, these heavenly entities will leave you haunted
Will the Milky Way and Andromeda Galaxies Ever Collide?
Andromeda and the Milky Way may collide, or they may safely swing past each other. Time will tell
The Wow! Signal Might Not Have Been Aliens—But a Weird Cosmic Outburst
A new explanation for the Wow! signal suggests it was a chance detection of a furious flare crashing into a hydrogen cloud. But some researchers doubt that this idea has truly cracked the case
How Do Stars Really Die?
There’s more than one way for a star to die. Some go with a whimper, and some go with a very, very big bang