Artist's impression of the V404 Cygni black hole jet.
Credit: G Perez Diaz IAC
They are nature's very own Death Star beams -- ultra-powerful jets of energy that shoot out from the vicinity of black holes like deadly rays from...
Total solar eclipse corona.
Credit: © Kenneth Keifer / Fotolia
Researchers have pinpointed the date of what could be the oldest solar eclipse yet recorded. The event, which occurred on 30 October 1207 BC, is mentioned in the Bible, and...
Earth from space.
Credit: © Vadimsadovski / Fotolia
Humans have so profoundly altered Earth that, some scientists argue, our current geologic epoch requires a new name: the Anthropocene. But defining the precise start of the era is tricky. Would it begin...
This illustration shows the seething hot planet Kepler-13Ab that circles very close to its host star, Kepler-13A. In the background is the star's binary companion, Kepler-13B, and the third member of the multiple-star system is the orange dwarf star...
An artist’s conception of a view from within the Exocomet system KIC 3542116.
Credit: Danielle Futselaar
Scientists from MIT and other institutions, working closely with amateur astronomers, have spotted the dusty tails of six exocomets -- comets outside our solar system...
This is a plot of what the sea ice distribution could look like on a synchronously rotating ocean world. The star is off to the right, blue is where there is open ocean, and white is where there is...
The Marius Hills Skylight, as observed by the Japanese SELENE/Kaguya research team.
Credit: NASA/Goddard/Arizona State University
A study published in Geophysical Research Letters confirms the existence of a large open lava tube in the Marius Hills region of the moon, which...
A type Ia supernova detected within a day after exploding: This image was taken with Hyper Suprime-Cam mounted on the Subaru Telescope.
Credit: University of Tokyo / NAOJ
Some stars end their lives with a huge explosion called a supernova. The...
An artist's illustration of a possible ninth planet in our solar system, hovering at the edge of our solar system. Neptune's orbit is shown as a bright ring around the Sun.
Credit: ESO/Tom Ruen/nagualdesign
It might be lingering bashfully on the...
Left: Light from a laser pointer is shaped into a wide and stable output using a beam-shaping diffuser. A carefully designed pattern is precisely molded into plastic polymers or directly into a glass substrate, creating micro-structures on the surface...
Comparison between the stellar (top) and molecular hydrogen (bottom) distribution in very gas-rich galaxies three billion years younger than the Milky Way. Optical data is from the Sloan Digital Survey whereas molecular hydrogen maps have been obtained using the...
