Stars are born from huge clouds of mostly hydrogen gas floating in space. Astronomers like me study this gas because it helps us understand how stars and galaxies form and grow. Hydrogen gas gives off a faint glow that is invisible to human eyes but can be observed with a telescope tuned to detect radio ...
In 2017, the first interstellar object from beyond our solar system was discovered via the Pan-STARRS astronomical observatory in Hawaii. It was named ‘Oumuamua, meaning “scout” or “messenger” in Hawaiian. The object was like a comet, but with features that were just odd enough to defy classification. Two Arizona State University astrophysicists, Steven Desch and Alan Jackson of the School ...
Researchers at the University of Iowa report that the spacecraft Voyager 2 has entered the interstellar medium (ISM), the region of space outside the bubble-shaped boundary produced by wind streaming outward from the Sun. Voyager 2 thus becomes the second human-made object to journey out of our Sun’s influence, following Voyager 1’s solar exit in 2012. ...
Astronomers have found what could be one of the universe’s oldest stars, a body almost entirely made of materials spewed from the Big Bang. The discovery of this approximately 13.5 billion-year-old tiny star means more stars with very low mass and very low metal content are likely out there — perhaps even the universe’s very ...
If extraterrestrial intelligence exists somewhere in our galaxy, a new MIT study proposes that lasers on Earth could, in principle, be fashioned into something of a planetary porch light — a beacon strong enough to attract attention from as far as 20,000 light-years away. The research, which author James Clark calls a “feasibility study,” appears ...
If you’re standing in the Southern Hemisphere on a clear night, you can see two luminous clouds offset from the Milky Way. These clouds of stars are satellite galaxies of the Milky Way, called the Small Magellanic Cloud and the Large Magellanic Cloud, or SMC and LMC. Using newly released data from a new, powerful ...
In 1977, U.S. space agency NASA launched Voyager 2 into space to explore the vastness of our universe. Now, about four decades later, the probe is reportedly nearing interstellar space. Approaching interstellar space Voyager 2 is currently about 11 billion miles away from Earth. This comes to approximately 118 times the distance between the Earth ...
NASA’s Voyager 2 probe, currently on a journey toward interstellar space, has detected an increase in cosmic rays that originate outside our solar system. Launched in 1977, Voyager 2 is a little less than 11 billion miles (about 17.7 billion kilometers) from Earth, or more than 118 times the distance from the Earth to the ...
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