astronomy

Let's consider an example with an imaginary planet. In this solar system, the planet completes one orbit around its sun in 8.6 solar days, instead of 365 days, as the Earth does. (I'm using a shorter year because it magnifies the…

Gamma rays from this supernova remnant have been seen by telescopes since 2007, but exceptionally energetic light wasn’t detected until 2020, when it was picked up by the HAWC Observatory in Mexico, piquing the interest of scientists…

MELBOURNE: We often think of astronomy as a visual science with beautiful images of the universe. However, astronomers use a wide range of analysis tools beyond images to understand nature at a deeper level. Data sonification is the…

In 1963, the mathematician Roy Kerr found a solution to Einstein’s equations that precisely described the spacetime outside what we now call a rotating black hole. (The term wouldn’t be coined for a few more years.) In the nearly six…

All eyes will be on the moon as the Artemis mission’s inaugural launch blasts toward our lunar neighbor in a couple of weeks, but the rocket won’t be the only new craft heading to space. After NASA’s Orion capsule separates from the…

At the end of 2020, planetary scientist Marek Slipski found himself glued to his computer, spending countless hours—more than he’d like to admit, he says—poring over image after image of the Martian atmosphere: zooming in, adjusting the…

On the eve of this new era of moon landings, a slew of fresh studies of PSRs have revealed that these shadowed regions are even stranger than scientists imagined. What will we find lurking in the shadows?“I don’t know what we’re going to…

For Neeraj Ladia, ‘astro gazing’ or gazing into outer space has been the greatest mystery for humans. “You are amazed to see the movements in the sky, fantasise about the magical twinkling existence. Astro gazing has brought me to a…