The Fate of Unstable Circumbinary Planets
What happens to Tattooine-like planets in unstable orbits around a binary star system? A new study determines if they crash, are ejected, or are captured.
Highlights RSS
Dark-Matter Halos of Tenuous Galaxies
A new study provides key information to help us understand where ultra-diffuse galaxies — galaxies as large as giants, but as faint as dwarfs — come from.
Waiting for Shadows from the Distant Solar System
How can we hope to measure the hundreds of thousands of objects in our distant solar system? A team of astronomers is harnessing citizen science to begin to tackle this problem!
How to Spot a Disrupted Galactic Satellite
It’s hard to spot satellites of our galaxy that have been torn apart during their orbits! But, using a clever technique, a team of scientists has recently found one.
What’s the Kepler Spacecraft Been Up To?
Despite equipment failure in 2013, the Kepler spacecraft is still discovering planet candidates! A recent study reports on the K2 mission’s first year of observations.
Featured Image: Orbiting Stars Share an Envelope
This beautiful series of snapshots from a simulation shows what happens when two stars in a binary system become enclosed in the same stellar envelope.
Disrupted Stars in Unusual Galaxies
Tidal disruption events occur when a star passes a little too close to a supermassive black hole, getting torn apart in the process. Does this happen more frequently in an unusual type of galaxy?
Where to Look for Habitability
Where should we hunt for potentially habitable planets? A recent study has generated a catalog of the habitable zones around nearby stars.
Galactic Teamwork Makes Distant Bubbles
What generated the radiation that reionized our universe? The recent discovery of multiple distant galaxies offers evidence for how this process occurred.
Finding Distances to Type Ia Supernovae
What if Type Ia supernovae aren’t as consistent as we thought? A recent study investigates the dependence of these “standard candles” on the metallicity of their environment.
Sizing Up Red-Giant Twins
A pair of red-giant twins may be a key to weighing stars using starquakes in their interiors.
Disintegrating Planetary Bodies Around a White Dwarf
A recent study shows that WD 1145+017, a white dwarf surrounded by disintegrating planetary bodies, has evolved dramatically since its discovery last year.