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Black Hole Image Reveals the Beast Inside the Milky Way’s Heart

May 12, 2022

In 2019, the Event Horizon Telescope released a historic image of a supermassive black hole in another galaxy. The follow-up — an image of Sagittarius A* — shows it shimmering at the center of our own.

Secrets of the Moon’s Permanent Shadows Are Coming to Light

April 28, 2022

Robots are about to venture into the sunless depths of lunar craters to investigate ancient water ice trapped there, while remote studies find hints about how water arrives on rocky worlds.

Tiny Galaxies Reveal Secrets of Supermassive Black Holes

March 14, 2022

Dwarf galaxies weren’t supposed to have big black holes. Their surprise discovery has revealed clues about how the universe’s biggest black holes could have formed.

Four Years On, New Experiment Sees No Sign of ‘Cosmic Dawn’

February 28, 2022

When astronomers tried to confirm a signal from the birth of the first stars after the Big Bang, they saw nothing.

The Year in Physics

December 22, 2021

Puzzling particles, quirky (and controversial) quantum computers, and one of the most ambitious science experiments in history marked the year’s milestones.

Cosmologists Parry Attacks on the Vaunted Cosmological Principle

December 13, 2021

A central pillar of cosmology — the universe is the same everywhere and in all directions — is surviving a storm of possible evidence against it.

The Webb Space Telescope Will Rewrite Cosmic History. If It Works.

December 3, 2021

The James Webb Space Telescope has the potential to rewrite the history of the cosmos and reshape humanity’s position within it. But first, a lot of things have to work just right.

Q&A

The Astronomer Who’s About to See the Skies of Other Earths

October 12, 2021

After the ultra-powerful James Webb Space Telescope launches later this year, Laura Kreidberg will lead two efforts to check the weather on rocky planets orbiting other stars.

Neither Star nor Planet: A Strange Brown Dwarf Puzzles Astronomers

August 4, 2021

Brown dwarfs such as “The Accident” are illuminating the murky borderlands that separate planets from stars.

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