At just 25, Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin applied quantum physics to a treasure trove of astronomical observations to show that stars are mostly hydrogen and helium.

"As the large and bright discs are the easiest to observe, our previous view of the birth site of planets was biased." Astronomers have discovered that the flattened clouds of gas and dust around ...

This video shows the habitable zone around the star HD 20794 (in green) and the trajectory of the three planets in the system. Thirty years after the discovery of the first exoplanet, we detected more ...

On 1 January 1925, US astronomer Henry Norris Russell made a startling announcement to the American Astronomical Society in Washington DC: observations by fellow astronomer Edwin Hubble showed that ...

The first images from the Vera C. Rubin Observatory showed off a breathtaking preview of its capabilities — capturing millions of stars and galaxies light-years from Earth, along with thousands of ...

Flux–temperature diagram from time-resolved spectroscopy of all 15 X-ray bursts of 4U 1820–30. Credit: The Astrophysical Journal (2024). DOI: 10.3847/1538-4357/ad794e A new study by DTU Space ...

Curious Kids is a series for children of all ages. If you have a question you’d like an expert to answer, send it to curiouskidsus@theconversation.com. Why is space so dark despite all of the stars in ...

When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. A simulation of early star formation shows 3D-rendered gas clumps as yellow and red blobs, ...

Massive stars have always puzzled scientists—how do they grow so quickly despite fierce radiation pushing material away? New high-resolution ALMA observations suggest that instead of relying solely on ...

A distant flicker of light from a star can reveal more than you might expect. In fact, a brief, subtle brightening in the sky has helped scientists uncover something astonishing: planets much like ...

"In these environments of neutron stars, the magnetic fields are really at the limits of what the universe can produce." When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate ...