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Categories: Space: Structures and Features, Space: The Solar System

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The star Betelgeuse appears as a brilliant, ruby-red, twinkling spot of light in the upper right shoulder of the winter constellation Orion the Hunter. But when viewed close up, astronomers know it as a seething monster with a 400-day-long heartbeat of regular pulsations. This aging star is classified as a supergiant because it has swelled up to an astonishing diameter of approximately 1 billion miles. If placed at the center of our solar system it would reach out to the orbit of Jupiter. The star's ultimate fate is to explode as a supernova.

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NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope confirms one supernova remnant as a launch site for some of our galaxy's highest-energy protons.

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Just milliseconds after the universe's Big Bang, chaos reigned. Atomic nuclei fused and broke apart in hot, frenzied motion. Incredibly strong pressure waves built up and squeezed matter so tightly together that black holes formed, which astrophysicists call primordial black holes. Did primordial black holes help or hinder formation of the universe's first stars, eventually born about 100 million years later?

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Researchers discover the first definitive proof that the Moon inherited indigenous noble gases from the Earth's mantle. The discovery represents a significant piece of the puzzle towards understanding how the Moon and, potentially, the Earth and other celestial bodies were formed.

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Using new simulations, astrophysicists discovered that star formation is a self-regulatory process. In other words, stars themselves set their own masses. This helps explain why stars formed in disparate environments still have similar masses.

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Scientists using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) to study planet formation have made the first-ever detection of gas in a circumplanetary disk. What's more, the detection also suggests the presence of a very young exoplanet.

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According to the standard model of cosmology, the vast majority of galaxies are surrounded by a halo of dark matter particles. This halo is invisible, but its mass exerts a strong gravitational pull on galaxies in the vicinity. A new study challenges this view of the Universe. The results suggest that the dwarf galaxies of Earth's second closest galaxy cluster -- known as the Fornax Cluster -- are free of such dark matter halos.

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Scientists have recorded millimeter-wavelength light from a fiery explosion caused by the merger of a neutron star with another star. The team also confirmed this flash of light to be one of the most energetic short-duration gamma-ray bursts ever observed, leaving behind one of the most luminous afterglows on record.

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Using Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) radiation instead of visible light allows scientists to determine the distribution of dark matter several billion years earlier than previously possible.

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A super-Earth planet has been found near the habitable zone of a red dwarf star only 37 light-years from the Earth. This is the first discovery by a new instrument on the Subaru Telescope and offers a chance to investigate the possibility of life on planets around nearby stars. With such a successful first result, we can expect that the Subaru Telescope will discover more, potentially even better, candidates for habitable planets around red dwarfs.

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A team led by planetary scientists has discovered shady locations within pits on the moon that always hover around a comfortable 63 degrees Fahrenheit. The pits, and caves to which they may lead, would make safer, more thermally stable base camps for lunar exploration and long-term habitation than the rest of the moon's surface, which heats up to 260 degrees during the day and drops to 280 degrees below zero at night.

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Supermassive black holes with varying light signatures are actually in different stages of the life cycle.

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Millisecond pulsars spin far more rapidly than expected for a collapsed star. The best chance to study these neutron stars is to find a black widow system where the pulsar has evaporated and eaten much of its companion star. The Keck I telescope was just able to capture spectra of one such companion, allowing astronomers to weigh its pulsar. It's the heaviest found to date, and perhaps near the upper limit for a neutron star.

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Planetary scientists have an answer to a mystery that's puzzled the Mars research community since NASA's Curiosity rover discovered a mineral called tridymite in Gale Crater in 2016.

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About three years ago, a team of astronomers went looking for the universe's missing mass, better known as dark matter, in the heart of an atom. Their expedition didn't lead them to dark matter, but they still found something that had never been seen before, something that defied explanation. Well, at least an explanation that everyone could agree on.

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Astronomers have analyzed archive data for powerful cosmic explosions from the deaths of stars and found a new way to measure distances in the distant Universe.

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A team of astronomers has developed a method that will allow them to 'see' through the fog of the early Universe and detect light from the first stars and galaxies.

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Because it's bigger, Jupiter ought to have larger, more spectacular rings than Saturn has. But new research shows Jupiter's massive moons prevent that vision from lighting up the night sky.

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Using data collected over two decades ago, scientists have compiled the first complete map of hydrogen abundances on the Moon's surface. The map identifies two types of lunar materials containing enhanced hydrogen and corroborates previous ideas about lunar hydrogen and water, including findings that water likely played a role in the Moon's original magma-ocean formation and solidification.

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In recent years, a large number of exoplanets have been found around single 'normal' stars. New research shows that there may be exceptions to this trend. Researchers suggest a new way of detecting dim bodies, including planets, orbiting exotic binary stars known as Cataclysmic Variables (CVs).