Why Scientists Tried to Measure All of the Starlight That Ever Shone
Astronomers this week announced that they’d attempted to measure all of the starlight in the universe.
Astronomers Have Stumbled Upon One of the Most Ancient Stars in the Universe
A tiny star located about 1,590 light-years from Earth could be as old as 13.53 billion years, making it one of the…
This 'Born-Again' Nebula Appears to Be Inside Out
When some stars get old, they eject gas and dust, forming a cloud of electrically charged material in space called a…
AC Lung, Space Stairs, 3D Guns and the Quietest Place on Earth: Best Gizmodo Stories of the Week
August 2018 rolled in with a bang, literally, as explosions rocked Caracas, Venezuela on Saturday during a speech by…
NASA's Sun Probe Set to Launch Next Week on Its Journey to Hell
Next week, NASA is scheduled to send human technology closer to a star than ever before. What they learn could change…
People Can't Find the Stars They Paid to Name—and They're Calling Astronomers for Tech Support
Professional astronomers are busy people. Some are mapping distant galaxies, others are listening for aliens, and more…
Astronomers Have Captured First Direct Evidence of an Exoplanet Being Born
At this point, we’ve spotted several thousand exoplanets—there’s nothing super exciting anymore about finding a distant…
Detection of Diamond Dust Around Distant Stars Solves Decades-Long Mystery
For years, astronomers have struggled to understand the source of anomalous microwave emissions coming from various…
NASA's New Exoplanet Hunter Releases Incredible First Image
On the way to its final orbit around Earth, NASA’s planet-hunting Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) has…
Hints of the First Stars Seen in 13-Billion-Year-Old Oxygen
Scientists have spotted 13-billion-year-old oxygen in a distant galaxy—a signal of stars forming during the universe’s…
Our Galaxy Was Walloped by a Neighbor in Its Not-So-Distant Past, New Analysis Suggests
Space is a chaotic, ever-changing place. But that’s not limited to exploding stars and colliding black holes. Even our…
Incredible New View of the Milky Way Is the Largest Star Map Ever
The European Space Agency’s Gaia spacecraft team has dropped its long-awaited trove of data about 1.7 billion stars.…
This Is How Stars Would Look Over NYC If It Weren't So Freaking Light Polluted
I can count on one hand the number of times I’ve seen the Little Dipper—the 2003 blackout, a family trip to the Grand…
A Visiting Star Jostled Our Solar System 70,000 Years Ago
Around the same time our ancestors left Africa, a dim red dwarf star came to within 0.8 light-years of our Sun, marking…
Could the Weirdness of Quantum Physics Produce a New Kind of Star?
It would be silly to think that scientists and astronomers have spotted all of the different kinds of weird things that…
Take a Star-Studded River Rafting Trip Through the Grand Canyon
Officially on the bucket list: Rafting down the Grand Canyon and camping out on its rocky banks under a night sky…
NASA Wants to Fly Your Name Into the Sun
The fine folks at NASA are sending a spacecraft to the Sun, and they want to send a little piece of you along with it.…
Scientists Observe Red Giant Waking Up Neutron Star in a Flash
Neutron stars aren’t the twinkle-twinkle kind you typically see in the night sky. They’re stellar corpses, and…
Scientists Discover Long-Sought Evidence of First Stars Forming
When you sweep across the FM radio band, you don’t always hear music—mostly, you hear static. Lots of this ambient…
Amateur Astronomer Spots Supernova Right as It Begins
Amateur astronomer Victor Buso was testing his camera-telescope setup in Argentina back in September 2016, pointing his…