Researchers led by David Nesvorny of Southwest Research Institute and David Kipping of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics has inferred an unseen planet, this time orbiting a distant star, marking the first success of this technique outside the solar system. [...more]
Two very different models explain the possible origin of Type Ia supernovae, and different studies support each model. New evidence shows that both models are correct - some of these supernovae are created one way and some the other. [...more]
Supermassive black holes snack infrequently, making the recent discovery of a black hole in the act of feeding all the more exciting to astronomers. [...more]
An extraordinary outburst produced by a black hole in a nearby galaxy has provided direct evidence for a population of old, volatile stellar black holes. [...more]
To celebrate its 22nd anniversary in orbit, the Hubble Space Telescope has released a dramatic new image of the star-forming region 30 Doradus, also known as the Tarantula Nebula because its glowing filaments resemble spider legs. 30 Doradus is located in the neighboring galaxy called the Large Magellanic Cloud, and is one of the largest [...] [...more]
For the last 1,000 days the Infrared Array Camera, aboard NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope, has been operating continuously to probe the universe from its most distant regions to our local solar neighborhood. [...more]
Smithsonian astronomers have joined their colleagues from other observatories in a daring new venture: to photograph the giant black hole at the heart of our Milky Way galaxy. [...more]
A new study by astrophysicists at the University of Utah and the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory in Cambridge, Mass., has found a new explanation for the growth of supermassive black holes: they repeatedly capture and swallow single stars from pairs of stars that get too close. [...more]
Scientists from the Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center have found that fledgling catbirds living in the suburbs are extremely vulnerable. Almost 80 percent are killed by predators before they reach adulthood. Nearly half of the deaths are connected to domestic cats. The team studied catbird nests in 3 suburban neighborhoods in Maryland: Spring Park, Opal Daniels Park, and Bethesda. Learn more about this 2011 study by clicking here. (Catbird photo by Gerhard Hofmann)
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