Astronomy

Black holes get fat on tasty, tasty stars

We already know that black holes swallow stars — and entire solar systems — but what effect does a stellar diet have on black holes? A new study suggests that eating stars is what turns baby black holes into supermassive black holes. University of Utah physics and astronomy Professor Ben Bromley led a study to…

io9 Lauren Davis

Everything you need to know to catch this weekend’s Lyrid meteor shower

This year’s Lyrid meteor shower is expected to peak between midnight and dawn on Saturday night/Sunday morning. That means two things. One: it’s the weekend, which means you have no excuse not to stay up. Two: it’s a new Moon, which means for the first time in almost nine months, stargazers will have a chance…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez

This beautifully composed space footage will 100% give you chills

Trust us. Stop what you’re doing, set aside two minutes of your time, full-screen this bad boy and just watch. Listen. Think about the fact that the “video” you see here was, in fact, carefully pieced together from thousands of individual photographs captured during NASA’s Cassini and Voyager missions. Let the carefully selected mix of…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez

10 Summer Vacations You Could Be Taking — In Space

Who wants to take a summer vacation in same old places all the time? Sometimes you just need to pack your space suit, and head out to parts unknown in an effort to take in space summers. But don’t go unprepared! Take a look at ten places to head when summering off-word. 10. Mercury’s Summer,…

io9 Esther Inglis-Arkell

A Mind-Breakingly Massive Image of 25,000 Stars Being Born

Images of deep space are serenely beautiful. So much so that it’s easy to forget just how immensely violent and massive everything is out there. Over at the Bad Astronomy Blog, Phil Plait shares an incredible image of the Carina Nebula, a window into the heart of the Milky Way: It’s got it all: stars…

Space & Spaceflight Kyle Wagner

We officially have no idea what causes ultra-powerful cosmic rays

Cosmic rays generate the most energetic particles in the universe, utterly dwarfing anything we can generate in particle accelerators. Astrophysicists thought these cosmic rays were created in powerful gamma-ray bursts. Turns out they were completely, utterly wrong. So now what? A non-result doesn’t usually mean that much. But Antarctica’s IceCube Neutrino Observatory has failed to…

io9 Alasdair Wilkins

Is James Cameron’s next big venture asteroid-mining?

James Cameron, Google founders Larry Page and Eric Schmidt, and Ross Perot, Jr. are just a few of the big names backing a brand new space exploration company called Planetary Resources, that next Tuesday will “unveil a new space venture with a mission to help ensure humanity’s prosperity.” According to the press release: [Planetary Resources]…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez

New cosmic survey might mean serious trouble for dark matter

Dark matter makes up approximately 83% of the matter in the universe. We need it to explain why galaxy clusters hold together. All available evidence suggests it’s very real. So why is there almost none of it around the Sun? That’s the troublesome result from a new survey conducted by the European Southern Observatory. The…

io9 Alasdair Wilkins

The most detailed picture yet of a star nursery birthing new suns

On April 24, 1990, the Hubble Space Telescope was lifted into low Earth orbit and promptly turned its attention to the depths of space. Today, over 10,000 publications and almost 22 years later, Hubble continues to change the way we see and understand our Universe with images that are truly awesome in every sense of…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez

Runaway planets find new homes around distant stars

After spending an eternity rocketing through the interstellar void, rogue planets can sometimes end their travels and find new solar systems to call home. But these adoptive parent stars aren’t all that welcoming of their new planets. As illustrated in the artist’s conception up top, these planets would likely take up orbit at distance that…

io9 Alasdair Wilkins

This is the most spectacular solar flare we’ve seen in ages

Earlier this afternoon, magnetic fields on the Sun’s northeastern limb exploded in an arcing jet of roiling plasma, producing what is hands down one of the most spectacular solar explosions we’ve seen in years. Featured here are two videos of the blast, captured by NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory when the explosion occurred around 17:45 UT…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez

When black holes shoot their jets directly at Earth

Blazars are a special kind of black hole – the kind with jets that are pointing right towards us! They’re white hot and heading our way, but the only way we can spot them is with cool infrared telescopes. Take a look at the black holes that blaze. The Wide-Field Infrared Survey Explorer, or WISE,…

io9 Esther Inglis-Arkell

The Unicorn Constellation is just as beautiful as you’d expect

When your constellation is actually named after a unicorn, there are certain expectations of beauty and grandeur you’ve just got to live up to. And this particular star-forming region inside the constellation Monoceros most definitely delivers on that promise. The star-forming region NGC 2264 is more than just a pretty jumble of colors – it’s…

io9 Alasdair Wilkins

The asteroid that killed the dinosaurs might have created life in other solar systems

Exogenesis is the theory that the building blocks for life came from elsewhere in the universe. The trouble is it doesn’t explain where those building blocks came from in the first place. But new calculations suggest one intriguing source: Earth. Obviously, we’re not talking about life arriving on Earth from other worlds here – the…

io9 Alasdair Wilkins

Auroras spotted on Uranus for the first time

Outside of Earth, we’ve seen auroras on Jupiter and Saturn, but never on Uranus. Now, for the first time, the Hubble Space Telescope has photographed two auroral storms, each as large as the Earth. NASA’s Voyager 2 probe detected signals of auroral activity when it passed by Uranus in 1986, but astronomers have never been…

io9 Lauren Davis

What you need to know about North Korea’s failed rocket launch

North Korea launched a multistage rocket Friday morning in an act of international defiance, after being asked repeatedly by the U.N., U.S., Russia, Japan, and others to stand down. The spacecraft exploded less than two minutes after liftoff. Minutes later, fragments of the failed rocket were bobbing in the Yellow Sea. What does this mean…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez

What’s In a Number: Unravelling a Multiversal Paradox

“Since there is an infinite number of alternative universes, there must be one in which there isn’t an infinite number of alternative universes. Perhaps this is the one.” This seemingly paradoxical observation comes from a reader of New Scientist, via Sally Adee — an editor at the magazine and regular contributor at Last Word on…

io9 Richard Panek - Last Word On Nothing

Two Earth-sized planets hold together the massive ring around this star

If Saturn was a star, it might well be Fomalhaut. Much like our neighboring gas giant, this star is surrounded by a gigantic ring of dust. The disc gets its sharp, ring-like structure from two planets, one on either side. The star Fomalhaut is about twice the mass of our Sun, and that extra size…

io9 Alasdair Wilkins

Find out where you can celebrate Yuri’s Night!

Tonight is Yuri’s Night! The night space enthusiasts around world celebrate 51 years of human space exploration by recognizing the anniversary of cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin’s historic flight into space (as well as the 31st anniversary of the very first Shuttle launch). The flagship festivities will take place tonight in Los Angeles, but celebrations are scheduled…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez

Don’t Forget To Pack This Highly-Detailed Moon Globe For Your Next Lunar Vacation

Space tourism is just getting under way, but before we know it spending a weekend on the moon will be commonplace. (If you have a kabillion dollars.) So in addition to warm socks, you’ll want to make sure you pack Sky & Telescope’s new detailed Moon Globe if you’re planning to explore. https://gizmodo.com/space-x-ceo-on-the-daily-show-lets-colonize-mars-5901020 Previous moon…

Tech News Andrew Liszewski

Black holes get fat on tasty, tasty stars

Everything you need to know to catch this weekend’s Lyrid meteor shower

This beautifully composed space footage will 100% give you chills

10 Summer Vacations You Could Be Taking — In Space

A Mind-Breakingly Massive Image of 25,000 Stars Being Born

We officially have no idea what causes ultra-powerful cosmic rays

Is James Cameron’s next big venture asteroid-mining?

New cosmic survey might mean serious trouble for dark matter

The most detailed picture yet of a star nursery birthing new suns

Runaway planets find new homes around distant stars

This is the most spectacular solar flare we’ve seen in ages

When black holes shoot their jets directly at Earth

The Unicorn Constellation is just as beautiful as you’d expect

The asteroid that killed the dinosaurs might have created life in other solar systems

Auroras spotted on Uranus for the first time

What you need to know about North Korea’s failed rocket launch

What’s In a Number: Unravelling a Multiversal Paradox

Two Earth-sized planets hold together the massive ring around this star

Find out where you can celebrate Yuri’s Night!

Don’t Forget To Pack This Highly-Detailed Moon Globe For Your Next Lunar Vacation

Trump Says He’ll Sign Order to Pay TSA

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