Astronomy, features and articles | Educational Science

Feb 7, 2024

Star-killing 'black hole wind' spotted in a distant galaxy could explain a major mystery at the Milky Way's center

A temperamental black hole is helping scientists learn more about how galaxies evolve. In a new study published Feb. 1 in The Astrophysical Journal Letters, researchers describe how an outburst from a distant black hole changed its galactic landscape — and how similar activity may have shaped our own galaxy....

Feb 13, 2024

Einstein's predictions mean rare 'gravitational lasers' could exist throughout the universe, new paper claims

Among his many theoretical insights, Albert Einstein predicted the existence of two phenomena in our universe that have since been proved: gravitational waves and the stimulated emission of radiation. New research has found that these effects can sometimes combine into rare and exotic gravitational lasers — possibly leading to a...

Mar 4, 2024

Astronomers find heaviest black hole pair in the universe, and they've been trapped in an endless duel for 3 billion years

Astronomers have spotted the heaviest black hole pair ever seen — a duo weighing the equivalent of 28 billion suns. The black holes' combined mass is so great that they refuse to collide and merge. The black hole binary, embedded inside the fossil galaxy B2 0402+379, consists of two enormous...

Mar 8, 2024

'Baby quasars' spotted by James Webb telescope could transform our understanding of monster black holes

A cluster of faint, red dots lurking in the farthest reaches of the universe could change our understanding of how supermassive black holes (SMBHs) form. The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) coincidentally spotted the specks, which astronomers say are actually baby quasars, while studying an unrelated faraway quasar called J1148+5251....

Mar 15, 2023

60,000-mile-tall 'plasma waterfall' snapped showering the sun with impossibly fast fire

An astrophotographer has snapped a stunning shot of an enormous wall of plasma falling down toward the solar surface at impossibly fast speeds after being spat out near the sun's south pole. Eduardo Schaberger Poupeau, who is based near Rafaela in Argentina, captured the striking image on March 9 using...

Mar 23, 2023

Enormous 'hole' in the sun's atmosphere will trigger stunning auroras Friday

A massive hole larger than 20 Earths has opened in the sun's atmosphere and will soon batter our planet with charged solar particles. Luckily, this sun shower is harmless; the greatest impact will be dazzling auroras pushed to lower latitudes than usual Friday (March 24), according to the National Oceanic...

Mar 24, 2023

Most powerful solar storm in 6 years caused auroras all over the US. And nobody saw it coming.

The strongest solar storm to hit Earth for six years sparked stunning auroras across the U.S., with intense light displays appearing as far south as Alabama and Northern California. Yet no one saw it coming. The March 24 solar storm was the result of a stealth coronal mass ejection (CME)...

Apr 5, 2023

Sun's fiery surface revealed in amazing composite of 90,000 images

The fiery surface of the sun is the star of an incredible new photograph created by a pair of astrophotographers. To make the image, Andrew McCarthy and Jason Guenzel used their own photographs, including one snapped by Guenzel during the 2017 total solar eclipse, as well as data from the...

Apr 13, 2023

Solar flares created in the lab for 1st time

Solar flares are enormous plumes of superheated plasma ejected by the sun. These massive plumes are so large, they could engulf our planet several times over. But for the first time, researchers have created mini solar flares in a laboratory that are small enough to fit inside your lunchbox. Solar...

Apr 18, 2023

A very rare 'hybrid' solar eclipse will take place Thursday, here's how to watch

A rare hybrid solar eclipse is set to give viewers the show of a lifetime next week, as the moon blocks out the sun over Australia, East Timor and the eastern Indonesian islands. On April 20, skywatchers in the region will see the moon's shadow pass in front of the...

Apr 25, 2023

I watched the moon 'take a bite of the sun' in a rare hybrid solar eclipse last week. Here's what I saw from Australia.

From the deck of a cruise ship off the coast of Australia, I witnessed a rare hybrid-total solar eclipse — the first of its kind in a decade. The celestial show was dazzling, with a colossal corona — or the sun's glowing outer atmosphere — temporarily visible from behind the...

Apr 28, 2023

Photographers capture the exact moment a gargantuan storm blasts out of the sun during a total solar eclipse

A group of astrophotographers captured a breathtaking image of the recent hybrid eclipse, which was visible in the skies above Australia last week. The image mainly shows off the ghostly filaments of the sun's corona, or outer atmosphere, but it also caught a faint glimpse of an eruption of magnetized...

May 3, 2023

Gargantuan 'superflare' from distant star may have launched one of the strongest solar storms ever seen

Scientists scoping out a star system in the constellation Orion have witnessed one of the most gargantuan and powerful stellar flares ever seen. Dubbed a superflare, the enormous blast of stellar radiation is 10 times more massive than anything ever witnessed erupting from the sun, according to new research published...

May 16, 2023

Solar 'superflares' millions of times stronger than anything today may have sparked life on Earth

Life on Earth could have been sparked by enormous superflares from a hyperactive young sun, a new study suggests. By firing charged particles found in the solar wind at a concoction of gases present in Earth's early atmosphere, scientists found that the combined ingredients form significant quantities of amino acids...

Jun 1, 2023

Shining rainbow rings around the sun photographed in Finland. What caused them?

Something was in the air recently when a photographer in Finland snapped a stunning shot of concentric rainbow-colored rings around the sun. And it turns out that something was pollen. Mikko Peussa captured the eye-catching images on May 30 near his home in Turku. The multicolored rings are called pollen...