Category Astronomy/Space

Observations made with a new instrument developed for use at the 2.1-meter (84-inch) telescope at the National Science Foundation’s Kitt Peak National Observatory have led to the discovery of the fastest eclipsing white dwarf binary yet known. Clocking in with an orbital period of only 6.91 minutes, the rapidly orbiting stars are expected to be one of the strongest sources of gravitational waves detectable with LISA, the future space-based gravitational wave detector.

After expanding into a red giant at the end of its life, a star like the Sun will eventually evolve into a dense white dwarf, an object with a mass like that of the Sun squashed down to a size...

Study overturns conventional wisdom that water is needed to create cyclones. Nearly every atmospheric science textbook ever written will say that hurricanes are an inherently wet phenomenon – they use warm, moist air for fuel. But according to new simulations, the storms can also form in very cold, dry climates.

A climate as cold and dry as the one in the study is unlikely to ever become the norm on Earth, especially as climate change is making the world warmer and wetter. But the findings could have implications for storms on other planets and for the intrinsic properties of hurricanes that most scientists and educators currently believe to be true.

“We have theories for how hurr...

An astronomer from the University of Hawaii Institute for Astronomy and an international team published a new study that reveals more of the vast cosmic structure surrounding our Milky Way galaxy.

The universe is a tapestry of galaxy congregations and vast voids...

Gas-giant planets orbiting close to other stars have powerful magnetic fields, many times stronger than our own Jupiter, according to a new study by a team of astrophysicists. It is the first time the strength of these fields has been calculated from observations.

The team, led by Wilson Cauley of the University of Colorado, also includes associate professor Evgenya Shkolnik of Arizona State University’s School of Earth and Space Expl...