Software Updates: The Latest from the Astropy Project
Most astronomy research requires writing code. Recently, one of the most popular packages of the most popular programming language got a major update.
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Deciphering the Cryptic Mystery of Buried Ancient Lava Flows
Can radar observations of our lunar neighbor help us uncover hidden regions of ancient lava flows?
Bright Galaxies Blowing Bubbles
Astrobites reports on an investigation of ultraviolet-bright galaxies during the epoch of reionization.
Featured Image: An Asteroid-Impact Test on Earth
NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) spacecraft will slam into an asteroid today. Back home on Earth, researchers carried out an impact experiment of their own.
Models Help Us Hunt for Hidden Stellar Remnants
Black holes, neutron stars, and white dwarfs sometimes announce their presence when they accrete matter from a stellar companion, but many more may be hiding quietly in binary systems across the Milky Way.
Simulating a Plateauing Supernova
Can models explain why supernova SN 2021yja took a detour as it dimmed, staying the same brightness for weeks before fading again?
Filaments in the Firmament Fend Off Fiery Fury
Astrobites reports on a clash between supermassive black hole jets and gaseous filaments laced with magnetic fields.
Testing a New Way to Make Mars’s Moons
Did Mars’s two small moons form when a larger moon split in two? New simulations put this theory to the test.
How (S)low Can You Go: Pulsar Edition
What causes some pulsars to spin much slower than others? Could it have to do with accretion from their birth environment?
Beginnings of a Branch
The Sagittarius stellar stream is split into two branches: why is that, and where did the stars in each branch come from?
Searching for Planets That Formed a Long Time Ago in a Galaxy Not So Far Away
Astrobites reports on a search for planets within the Milky Way that may have originated outside our galaxy.
Featured Image: Ice in the Shadow of Mercury’s Craters
Modeling of spacecraft images suggests that a permanently shadowed crater on Mercury could contain a thick layer of water ice.