Insights from MU69’s (Lack of) Craters
Predictions of crater counts on 2014 MU69’s surface were made in December, before the New Horizons flyby. Will they prove correct? And what can we learn from them?
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Can Magnetic Fields Help Planetesimals Form?
The inner regions of protoplanetary disks have strong magnetic fields. What effect does the presence of a magnetic field have on planet formation?
Dwarf Galaxy or Giant Globular Cluster?
You might think that we’d already discovered all the large clusters of stars orbiting our galaxy. Surprisingly, there are still detections to be made — though we’re not always sure what we’re looking at.
Where’s Lucy Going? Studying Asteroid Mission Targets
Astrobites reports on work preparing for Lucy, a new mission that will fly by multiple asteroids near Jupiter in the late 2020s.
Featured Image: Tracking Motions of Local Galaxies
Gaia measurements of thousands of stars are helping us to pin down the motions (and future collisions!) of the galaxies around us.
Citizen Scientists Find an Unexpected Planet
In the era of big data, we often rely on computers to do sorting, searching, and analyzing. Sometimes, however, there’s just no substitute for the human eye and brain.
When Stellar and Black-Hole Binaries Meet
You might think that a passing star getting ripped apart by a supermassive black hole sounds like more than enough drama. But let’s take this a step further…
Seeing Double: Binary Stars in Dwarf Galaxies
Astrobites reports on why two (stars) aren’t always better than one — especially when you’re trying to track down dark matter in tiny galaxies.
AAS Publishing News: What Should Astronomers Do With Their Software?
In today’s world of astronomy research, software is centrally integrated into nearly everything we do. Isn’t it time we develop a consistent system for citing and preserving it?
Update on the Search for Planets with TESS
Here are some recent discoveries by NASA’s newest planet-hunting spacecraft, TESS, which launched last year.
The Hunt for Enormous Early Stars
The collapse of enormous stars in our early universe may have given birth to the first supermassive black holes. But can we spot these early giants?
Traits of Accreting Galaxies
Astrobites reports on the MaNGA survey’s exploration of galaxies that may have recently accreted gas.