Collaborate Disseminate
The universe is awash with strange radio signals, but astronomers have now detected a really bizarre one that repeats every hour, cycling through three different states. While they have some ideas about its origin it can’t be explained by our current u… Continue reading Radio signal from space repeats every hour, defying explanation
Sometime this year, the night sky will get a brand new ‘star’ that will be visible with the naked eye, even in the city. The celestial light show will be the result of an explosive interaction between two neighboring stars that occurs every 80 years.Co… Continue reading Bright new ‘North star’ will soon burst into view – here’s how to see it
In a few billion years the Sun will destroy the solar system’s inner planets – and if it’s lucky it might get a big cool scar to brag about. That’s what happened to a white dwarf that astronomers have just found, which seems to have a bizarre metal sca… Continue reading Metal scar found on world-destroying star after its reign of terror
The ingredients in stars are usually pretty evenly mixed throughout, but now astronomers have discovered a bizarre star with two distinct faces, each made of a different element, which defies explanation.Continue ReadingCategory: Space, ScienceTags: As… Continue reading Bizarre two-faced white dwarf star defies explanation
Thanks to the vast distances between objects in our galaxy, astronomers often have to wait months or years to observe how celestial bodies like stars and planets move around each other. Recently though, astrophysicists at Northwestern University and th… Continue reading A year in a day: Ultracool dwarf star system breaks record
It’s easy to forget our place in the universe, but planets have been born, lived and died long before Earth even existed. Now astronomers have detected the ruins of ancient planets around two unusual white dwarf stars, including an Earth-like world tha… Continue reading 10-billion-year-old ruins of Earth-like planet found around nearby star
As mysterious as fast radio bursts (FRBs) are, they’re now so common that they’re at risk of becoming mundane. But a newly discovered signal deepens the mystery with a few oddities – it hails from an unexpected region of space, and its pulses are about… Continue reading Ultra-fast radio burst could usher in whole new class of space signals
German astronomers have discovered a new type of star, and exactly how these weird white dwarfs came to be remains a mystery. The stars are covered in a layer of “ash” that’s usually produced by burning helium, indicating they may have formed through c… Continue reading Astronomers discover new type of star with puzzling origins
Supernovae usually appear suddenly in the sky, but now astronomers have spotted one in advance. The telltale sign is a star with a “teardrop” shape, as it gets stretched out by the gravitational pull of a companion.Continue ReadingCategory: Space, Scie… Continue reading Teardrop-shaped star is driving another to go supernova
Astronomers have discovered the smallest but most massive white dwarf ever found: the tiny star is only about the size of our Moon, but packs in more mass than the Sun. That means it’s approaching the theoretical limit of what’s possible without explod… Continue reading Smallest, densest white dwarf ever packs 1.3 Suns into the Moon