Starship Asterisk*

Mercury

by Ken Croswell

The star is losing mass as it transforms into a white dwarf star.

Link: Science News

Mercury

by Ken Croswell

Strange giant planets known as hot Jupiters, which orbit close to their suns, got kicked onto their peculiar paths by nearby planets and stars, a new study finds.

Link: Science News

Mercury

by Nikk Ogasa

NASA’s Parker Solar Probe got a glimpse of the terrain during a couple of flybys.

Link: Science News

Mercury

by Ken Croswell New observations now allow the seemingly impossible: measuring the speeds of some stars along the line of sight without ascertaining their Doppler shifts. The new method can deliver 1 kilometer-per-second accuracy for some of our nearest neighbors, including Proxima Centauri, Barnard...

Mercury

by Lisa Grossman

Saltwater spray could come from pockets of watery mush in the moon’s icy shell.

Link: Science News

Mercury

by Ken Croswell

A newborn star whizzing past another stellar youngster triggered a cosmic flare-up that began nearly a century ago and is still going strong today, researchers say.

The star is named FU Orionis.

Link: Science News

Mercury

by Ken Croswell

Remarkable new observations are revealing the starry landscape of our galactic neighborhood and our place within it.

See the second figure for the new Milky Way map; downloading it gives the sharpest version.

Link: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

Mercury

by Ken Croswell

The catch: We have to wait until about 2037 for the answer.

Link: Science News

Mercury

by Ken Croswell

The motions of nearby stars reveal the boundary between red dwarfs and brown dwarfs: a surface temperature of 1500 to 1700 Kelvin.

Link: Science News

Mercury

by Lisa Grossman

Six months ago, the craft starting sending back never-before-seen views of the Red Planet.

Link: Science News

Mercury

Now published in Nature Astronomy

Mercury

by Ken Croswell

A frigid planetary nursery could account for the gas giant's peculiar atmospheric composition.

Link: Science News

Mercury

by Ken Croswell

The surprising discovery may reveal how misaligned planets arise.

Link: Science News

Mercury

by Lisa Grossman

The discovery is a "big deal" if real, but needs to be confirmed.

Link: Science News

Mercury

by Lisa Grossman

Two missions will explore the history of the planet's water and habitability.

Link: Science News

Mercury

A Study of Earth's Crust Hints That Supernovae Aren't Gold Mines

by Emily Conover

Link: Science News

Mercury

by Ken Croswell

A wave in one of the rings reveals the size and composition of the planet’s core.

Link: Science News

Mercury

by Ken Croswell

As Voyagers 1 and 2 continue their epic journeys through interstellar space, they're resolving past controversies and even helping to spark a new one: the true shape of the heliosphere.

Link: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

Mercury

by Sid Perkins

These micrometeorites come from both comets and asteroids.

Link: Science News

Mercury

by Emily Conover

The most massive known neutron star has a surprisingly large diameter.

Link: Science News

Mercury

You're very welcome!

Here is a 12-minute radio interview about this discovery: The New John Batchelor Show

Mercury

by Ken Croswell

The most oxygen-poor star-forming galaxy ever found hints that the first galaxies to arise after the universe's birth glittered with supermassive stars that left behind big black holes.

Link: Science News

Mercury

by Emily Conover

White dwarf stars could go supernova in response to nuclear fission caused by uranium crystals.

Link: Science News

Mercury

From the Knowable Magazine article: Despite the controversy, everyone agrees on the basics: The sun consists mainly of hydrogen and helium, the two lightest elements. It generates energy at its center through nuclear reactions that convert hydrogen into helium. But because of [Martin] Asplund’s work...

Mercury

by Ken Croswell

Spanning 1.2 million light-years, the entity broadcasts a never-before-seen pattern of radio waves.

Link: Science News

Starship Asterisk*

Search found 68 matches

New Image Shows Huge Rings Encircling an Aging Red Star

How Hot Jupiters Get Their Weirdly Tight Orbits

First Visible-Light Space Images of Venus's Surface

Astronomers Uncover New Way to Measure the Speeds of Stars

Enceladus' Plumes Might Not Come from an Ocean

Two Stars' Close Encounter May Explain a Flare That Lasted 85 Years

A New Map of the Milky Way Galaxy

A Supernova's Delayed Appearance Could Pin Down Hubble Constant

Here's How Cool a Star Can Be and Still Achieve Success

See the Most Intriguing Photos from NASA's Perseverance Rover

Re: Saturn's Core Is Spread Over More Than Half Its Diameter

A Shadowy Birthplace for Jupiter

Most Wrong-Way Worlds Are On Polar Orbits

An Arc of Galaxies 3 Billion Light-Years Long

NASA Will Be Heading Back to Venus

Re: Tracing Gold's Cosmic Origin Story

Saturn's Core Is Spread Over More Than Half Its Diameter

Voyager Still Breaking Barriers Decades After Launch

Earth Sweeps Up 5,200 Tons of Dust a Year

Neutron Stars May Not Be as Squishy as We Thought

Re: A Record-Breaking Galaxy May Contain Superstars' Shrapnel

A Record-Breaking Galaxy May Contain Superstars' Shrapnel

Uranium Snowflakes Could Make White Dwarf Stars Explode

Re: We Don't Know What the Sun is Made of

"USS Jellyfish" Emits Strange Radio Waves from Galaxy Cluster