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.
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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.
A Software Solution for Tracking Down Gravitational Wave Sources
Researchers explore a new way to schedule observations in the hopes that we can make the most of limited telescope time when a new gravitational wave signal is detected.
Simulations Suggest Magnetic Fields Made the First Stars Form Solo
Were the first stars in the universe all massive, or did low-mass stars form in their midst? New research suggests that magnetic fields might have been the deciding factor.
Welcome to AAS Media Fellow Ben Cassese and Farewell to Haley Wahl
Please join us in saying farewell to our 2021–2022 AAS Media Fellow and welcoming our new Fellow to the team!