A carbon-lite atmosphere could be a sign of water and life on other terrestrial planets, MIT study finds
A low carbon abundance in planetary atmospheres, which the James Webb Space Telescope can detect, could be a signature of habitability.
Bright flash leads astronomers to a heavy-metal factory 900 million light years away
Using multiple observatories, astronomers directly detect tellurium in two merging neutron stars.
3 Questions: A bigger, better space-ripple detector
The MIT-led Cosmic Explorer project aims to detect gravitational waves from the earliest universe.
Newly discovered planet has longest orbit yet detected by the TESS mission
The frosty gas giant was discovered in a system that also hosts a warm Jupiter.
A telescope’s last view
Astronomers discover the last three planets the Kepler telescope observed before going dark.
In a first, astronomers spot a star swallowing a planet
Earth will meet a similar fate in 5 billion years.
Astronomers detect the closest example yet of a black hole devouring a star
The event was spotted in infrared data — also a first — suggesting further searches in this band could turn up more such bursts.
Scientists map gusty winds in a far-off neutron star system
The 2D map of this “disk wind” may reveal clues to galaxy formation.
Study: Without more data, a black hole’s origins can be “spun” in any direction
Current measurements of black holes are not enough to nail down how the invisible giants form in the universe, researchers say.
Astronomers find a “cataclysmic” pair of stars with the shortest orbit yet
The stars circle each other every 51 minutes, confirming a decades-old prediction.
Search reveals eight new sources of black hole echoes
The findings will help scientists trace a black hole’s evolution as it feeds on stellar material.
Look! Up in the sky! Is it a planet? Nope, just a star
Among thousands of known exoplanets, MIT astronomers flag three that are actually stars.
TESS discovers a planet the size of Mars but with the makeup of Mercury
The boiling new world, which zips around its star at ultraclose range, is among the lightest exoplanets found to date.
One year on this giant, blistering hot planet is just 16 hours long
A newly discovered “ultrahot Jupiter” has the shortest orbit of any known gas giant.
Supermassive black holes devour gas just like their petite counterparts
Regardless of size, all black holes experience similar accretion cycles, a new study finds.