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Astronomy

This year's top ten titles explore the cosmos, fear and cleanliness alongside narratives about owls, fish and eels.

The Ten Best Science Books of 2020

New titles explore the mysterious lives of eels, the science of fear and our connections to the stars

The Blue Ring Nebula is invisible to the human eye, but telescopes can measure the ultraviolet light, which is shown here in blue.

New Research

Astronomers Crack the Case of the Blue Ring Nebula

The source of the dazzling display puzzled scientists for more than a decade

Teams of engineers looked for remedies to help save the telescope, but repairs would be too risky for a construction team to safely undertake.

After Suffering Irreparable Damage, It’s Lights Out for the Arecibo Observatory’s Iconic Telescope

The 1,000-foot telescope has been a pillar for astronomical research, leading to some of the cosmos’ most exciting discoveries

The spinning magnetar transferred a remarkable amount of energy to the debris created by the collision, heating the material up and generating a bright glow.

In a First, Astronomers Witnessed the Birth of a Supermassive Magnetar Following a Glorious Kilonova

The scientists originally thought that the cosmic crash would create a black hole

This illustration depicts a star (in the foreground) experiencing spaghettification as it's sucked in by a supermassive black hole (in the background) during a 'tidal disruption event'.

New Research

Astronomers Capture Best View Yet of a Black Hole Spaghettifying a Star

The star was compressed and stretched out like a long noodle and when the ends collided, half of its mass ejected into space

The contributions of the three Nobel laureates proved that black holes exist and unveiled the nature of these supermassive objects.

Trending Today

Three Scientists Awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics for Breakthrough Black Hole Discoveries

These Nobel laureates helped discover and describe the mysterious cosmic voids in our universe

The Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope is name after NASA's first chief of astronomy.

How NASA’s New Telescope Will Help Astronomers Discover Free-Floating Worlds

The Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope will be able to detect small, distant planets without stars

On Earth, most people are familiar with ultraviolet radiation’s harmful effects on our skin, but in space, astronauts are also subjected to galactic cosmic rays, accelerated solar particles, neutrons and gamma rays.

New Research

Moonwalking Humans Get Blasted With 200 Times the Radiation Experienced on Earth

The new findings will inform how much shielding future astronauts will need to safely explore the moon

European authorities recovered 200 rare books, including valuable first editions of works by Galileo Galilei and Isaac Newton, last week.

Stolen First Editions by Galileo, Newton Discovered Beneath Floor in Romania

Authorities have recovered 200 rare books pilfered in a 2017 London heist

A split image showing an active Sun during solar maximum (on the left, taken in 2014) and a quiet Sun during solar minimum (on the right, taken in 2019).

A New Solar Cycle Promises Calm Space Weather

Experts say the sun’s next decade will likely feature a low number of events like solar flares that can disrupt power grids and satellites

A new study suggests the Nebra Sky Disc is 1,000 years younger than previously assumed.

New Research

Is This Ancient Map of the Cosmos Younger Than Previously Thought?

A controversial new analysis of the Nebra Sky Disc suggests the artifact dates to the Iron Age, not the Bronze Age

A lower resolution copy of a 3,200 megapixel image of Romanesco broccoli. The photo was taken by a camera being built to help the Vera Rubin Observatory's telescope study space.

Scientists Tested Out the World’s Largest Digital Camera on a Piece of Broccoli

Soon, it’ll photograph the cosmos. But first, scientists used it to snap a highly-detailed picture of an ordinary vegetable

This month's selections include A Traitor to His Species, The Tsarina's Lost Treasure and The Daughters of Yalta.

Books of the Month

Catherine the Great’s Lost Treasure, the Rise of Animal Rights and Other New Books to Read

These five September releases may have been lost in the news cycle

This illustration depicts what Andromeda's gaseous halo might look like if it were visible to humans on Earth. At three times the size of the Big Dipper, the halo would be "easily the biggest feature on the nighttime sky," per the NASA statement.

Andromeda’s Halo of Gases Is Bumping Up Against Our Own, Scientists Say

Researchers using NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope mapped the gaseous halo that surrounds the Andromeda Galaxy

An artist's rendering of the Parker Solar Probe and Solar Orbiter

How Three New Tools Will Revolutionize Our Understanding of the Sun

Two spacecrafts and a telescope are set to jumpstart a new age of solar astronomy

In the background, an image taken from the Northern Hemisphere of Comet NEOWISE on July 18, 2020. Inset, the Hubble Space Telescope's most recent snapshot of NEOWISE, taken on August 8 as it careens away from Earth.

Hubble Snapshots Reveal That Comet Neowise Survived Its Trip Around the Sun

A close-up taken in August shows the 11,000-mile-wide cloud of dust and gas that shrouds the comet

Here, scientists at the Goddard Geophysical and Astronomical Observatory use the visible, green wavelength of light to shoot lasers at the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter. The laser facility at the Université Côte d’Azur in Grasse, France, developed a new technique that uses infrared light, which is invisible to the human eye, to beam laser light to the Moon.

Scientists Shot Lasers at a Lunar Orbiter for a Decade. Then, One Bounced Back

The success might help scientists troubleshoot problems with a data-collection project that dates back to the Apollo era

US satellite SpaceX Starlink 5 is seen in the night passing above Denmark, on April 21, 2020.

How Will Amazon’s Planned Satellite Megaconstellation Impact the Night Sky?

The company plans to launch 3,236 satellites, but astronomers are worried about possible ramifications

To understand the ozone's composition, scientists analyzed sunlight that filtered through the Earth's atmosphere and reflected off the moon.

Scientists Use Moon as Mirror in Hunt for Extraterrestrial Life

The Hubble Telescope captured reflections of ultraviolet light to test for ozone layers

New research posits that Johannes Vermeer painted View of Delft in September 1659 or 1658.

Art Meets Science

Astronomy Offers Fresh Look at Vermeer’s ‘View of Delft’

Analysis of sunlight and shadows suggests the Dutch masterpiece portrays the city around 8 a.m. in early September 1659 or 1658

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