Mystery of a Dimming White Dwarf
An isolated white dwarf was recently discovered to dim periodically, prompting a search for the cause of its variability.
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Watching the Sun to Improve Exoplanet Detection
Looking for “wobbling” stars is a useful way to detect exoplanets, but stellar noise prevents us from reaching the precision needed to find Earth-twin planets. The key to solving this problem may be to examine our own star.
The Hunt for Missing Dwarf Galaxies
The recent discovery of 158 previously undetected dwarf galaxies in the Fornax cluster may help to solve a long-standing puzzle in galaxy formation and evolution.
Featured Image: Spitzer Galaxies
Spitzer has recently taken beautiful infrared images of 2352 nearby galaxies, as a part of the Spitzer Survey of Stellar Structure in Galaxies (S4G).
Grumblings from an Awakening Black Hole
In June of this year, the black hole V404 Cygni woke up after nearly three decades of sleep. Now we’re getting the first descriptions of what we’ve learned from its awakening!
Eruptions from the Sun
Recent analysis of a powerful solar outburst — captured on video by several Sun-monitoring spacecraft — may help us to understand how it was launched.
Comet 67P’s Pitted Surface
The surface of comet 67P Churyumov–Gerasimenko is covered in active pits — some measuring hundreds of meters both wide and deep! But what processes caused these pits to form?
Orbit of a Giant and a Dwarf
The subgiant and white dwarf of the Procyon binary system orbit each other with a tiny angular separation, creating a distinct challenge for astronomers to observe. Two decades of Hubble observations have now finally revealed some of its secrets.
Measuring a Black Hole’s Mass with Robotic Telescopes
Who needs humans? Robotic observations have been used to measure the mass of a supermassive black hole at the center of an active galaxy.
Discovery in the Galactic Bulge
A new study has discovered a population of very young stars in a thin disk through the galactic center, providing clues to the star formation history of the Milky Way over the last 100 million years.
Masquerading as a Merger
Dual active galactic nuclei are often produced when two galaxies collide, but they’re difficult to identify because the nuclei are so close together. Now, a team of authors has found a new way of confirming these objects.
Testing for the Presence of a Planet
The T Tauri star PTFO 8-8695 has been suspected of harboring a close-in giant planet, but a recent study has cast doubt on this theory.