Astronomy, features and articles | Educational Science

Dec 12, 2023

Humans could use black holes as batteries, physics paper claims. Here's how.

The gravitational pull from black holes is so strong that nothing can escape its grasp. So could we ever harness the gargantuan power of black holes as a source of energy? In a new study, scientists propose two ways to use black holes as energy sources someday. They predicted processes...

Dec 21, 2023

Atom-size black holes from the dawn of time could be devouring stars from the inside out, new research suggests

A small number of primordial black holes that went speeding through the universe just moments after the Big Bang may have been captured by stars — and these ancient black holes may still lurk in those stars' hearts today, new research theorizes. Detecting these hypothetical black holes — which would...

Dec 27, 2023

Turbulent 1st moments of a black hole's life captured in new simulations

Astronomers have figured out how some dying stars kick baby black holes out of the womb — and it's not pretty. These rare black holes get a significant kick when their parent stars die in a cataclysmic explosion, rocketing the newborn gravitational gluttons out at incredible speeds, a new study...

Jan 16, 2024

Tiny black holes from the dawn of time may be altering our planet's orbit, new study suggests

Some of the universe's oldest black holes swoop past our cosmic neighborhood at least once every decade, moving planets in their wake, a new study suggests. And if scientists can detect them, it would provide the first proof that these black holes exist as dark matter. Black holes, regions of...

Jan 17, 2024

James Webb telescope discovers the oldest, most distant black hole in the universe

Editor's note: An earlier version of this article was published on Dec. 17, 2023. The article was updated to reflect that the study has been published in the peer-reviewed journal Nature. The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has spotted the oldest black hole ever seen, an ancient monster with the...

Jan 18, 2024

Gory simulation reconstructs the violent clash between a monster black hole and a doomed star

Scientists have used a sophisticated simulation to reconstruct the brutal death of a star that wandered too close to a supermassive black hole and was shredded to bits. The team, led by researchers from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem's Racah Institute of Physics, retold the entire story of this so-called...

Mar 21, 2022

Sulfur from dino-killing asteroid caused way more global cooling than thought

When the dinosaur-destroying asteroid collided with Earth 66 million years ago, massive amounts of sulfur — volumes more than were previously thought — were thrown high above land into the stratosphere, a new study finds. Once airborne, this vast cloud of sulfur-bearing gases blocked the sun and cooled Earth for...

Mar 25, 2022

We may finally know why spinning-top asteroid Ryugu has such a weird shape

Scientists may have finally solved the mysterious origins of the diamond-shaped asteroid Ryugu: It may be the remnants of a long-dead comet. The new origin theory, taken from findings from Japan's Hayabusa2 mission, suggests that the 0.5-mile-wide (0.8 kilometer) asteroid is actually the rocky remains of a dead comet that,...

Mar 28, 2022

'Potentially hazardous asteroid' will make its closest-ever approach to Earth on April Fools' Day (yes, really)

Astronomers have confirmed that a potentially hazardous asteroid is set to make its closest-ever approach to Earth this Friday (April 1). However, there is no need to panic; astronomers say the massive space rock will miss us by around 4.6 million miles (7.4 million kilometers). The asteroid, known as 2007...

Apr 1, 2022

'Potentially hazardous' Apollo-class asteroid sails harmlessly past Earth

A space rock the size of a skyscraper that scientists deemed potentially hazardous sailed harmlessly past Earth today (April 1) around 4:35 p.m. ET. Even though the asteroid only flew within roughly 4.6 million miles (7.4 million km) of Earth (or — about 30 times the average distance between Earth...

Apr 12, 2022

Colossal asteroid impact forever changed the balance of the moon

One side of the moon is littered with far more craters than the other, and researchers finally know why: A massive asteroid that slammed into the moon around 4.3 billion years ago wreaked havoc in the moon's mantle, according to a new study. More than 9,000 visible craters pockmark the...

Apr 26, 2022

'Potentially hazardous' asteroid twice the size of the Empire State Building will skim past Earth Thursday, NASA says

A gigantic potentially hazardous asteroid that may be twice the size of the Empire State Building is set to zoom past Earth Thursday (April 28), according to NASA. The asteroid, named 418135 (2008 AG33), has an estimated diameter between 1,150 and 2,560 feet (350 to 780 meters) and will break...

May 22, 2022

Asteroid four times the size of the Empire State Building barreling toward Earth on May 27

An enormous asteroid four times the size of the Empire State Building will make a close approach to Earth on May 27, according to NASA's Center for Near Earth Object Studies (CNEOS). Fear not: the asteroid, named 7335 (1989 JA), will soundly miss our planet by about 2.5 million miles...

May 25, 2022

Watch 'potentially hazardous' asteroid 7335 (1989 JA) blow past Earth this Friday

An enormous asteroid four times the size of the Empire State Building is headed toward Earth — and you can watch live as it whooshes harmlessly through the night sky. The asteroid, dubbed 7335 (1989 JA), orbits the sun once every 570 days or so, occasionally swooping a little too...

May 27, 2022

Mile-wide asteroid, the largest yet of 2022, flies safely by Earth

A mile-wide asteroid passed by Earth on Friday (May 27) at a distance about 10 times that of the space between the Earth and moon. The asteroid, known as asteroid 7335 (1989 JA), is roughly four times the size of the Empire State Building and is the largest yet to...