Sun News

April 18, 2024

Top Headlines

Most Massive Stellar Black Hole in Our Galaxy Found

Apr. 16, 2024 — Astronomers have identified the most massive stellar black hole yet discovered in the Milky Way galaxy. This black hole was spotted in data from the European Space Agency's Gaia mission because it imposes an odd 'wobbling' motion on the companion ...

Stellar Winds of Three Sun-Like Stars Detected for the First Time

Apr. 12, 2024 — An international research team has for the first time directly detected stellar winds from three Sun-like stars by recording the X-ray emission from their astrospheres, and placed constraints on the mass loss rate of the stars via their stellar ...

Exoplanets True to Size

Apr. 12, 2024 — A star's magnetic field must be considered in order to correctly determine the characteristics of exoplanets from observations by space telescopes such as Kepler, James Webb, or PLATO. Researchers show that the distribution of the star's brightness ...

The Hidden Role of the Milky Way in Ancient Egyptian Mythology

Apr. 10, 2024 — Astrophysicists shed light on the relationship between the Milky Way and the Egyptian sky-goddess Nut. The paper draws on ancient Egyptian texts and simulations to argue that the Milky Way might have shone a spotlight, as it were, on Nut's role as ...

Latest Headlines

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Neutron Stars Are Key to Understanding Elusive Dark Matter

Apr. 5, 2024 — Scientists may be one step closer to unlocking one of the great mysteries of the universe after calculating that neutron stars might hold a key to helping us understand elusive dark ...

CHEOPS Detects a 'Rainbow' on an Exoplanet

Apr. 5, 2024 — The CHEOPS space telescope is providing new information on the mysterious exoplanet WASP-76b. This ultra-hot giant is characterized by an asymmetry between the amount of light observed on its eastern ...

Unlocking Supernova Stardust Secrets

Mar. 28, 2024 — New research has discovered a rare dust particle trapped in an ancient extra-terrestrial meteorite that was formed by a star other than our ...

Long-Period Oscillations Control the Sun's Differential Rotation

Mar. 27, 2024 — The interior of the Sun does not rotate at the same rate at all latitudes. The physical origin of this differential rotation is not fully understood. It turns out, long-period solar oscillations ...

Distant 'Space Snowman' Unlocks Mystery of How Some Dormant Deep Space Objects Become 'Ice Bombs'

Mar. 27, 2024 — Researchers found that the double-lobed object, which is officially named Kuiper Belt Object 486958 Arrokoth and resembles a snowman, may have ...

Turbulence Within Solar Transients Imaged

Mar. 27, 2024 — Scientists captured images showing the development of turbulence as a Coronal Mass Ejection (CME) interacted with the ambient solar wind in the circumsolar ...

Tiniest 'Starquake' Ever Detected

Mar. 26, 2024 — An orange dwarf star has yielded the tiniest 'starquakes' ever recorded, measured by an international team of ...

James Webb Space Telescope Captures the End of Planet Formation

Mar. 22, 2024 — How much time do planets have to form from a swirling disk of gas and dust around a star? A new study gives scientists a better idea of how our own solar system came to ...

Secrets of the Van Allen Belt Revealed in New Study

Mar. 21, 2024 — A challenge to space scientists to better understand our hazardous near-Earth space environment has been set in a new ...

Ancient Ice May Still Exist in Distant Space Objects, Researchers Find

Mar. 14, 2024 — A new paper presents findings about the Kuiper Belt Object 486958 Arrokoth, shedding new light on the preservation of volatile substances like carbon monoxide in such distant celestial bodies. The ...

Space Tourism? Cosmic Radiation Exposure

Mar. 5, 2024 — Space weather experts are urging regulators and space tourism innovators to work together to protect their passengers and crews from the risks of space weather radiation ...

Groundbreaking Survey Reveals Secrets of Planet Birth Around Dozens of Stars

Mar. 5, 2024 — A team of astronomers has shed new light on the fascinating and complex process of planet formation. The research brings together observations of more than 80 young stars that might have planets ...

JWST Captures the End of Planet Formation

Mar. 4, 2024 — The James Webb Space Telescope is helping scientists uncover how planets form by advancing understanding of their birthplaces and the circumstellar disks surrounding young stars. Scientists have ...

Study Determines the Original Orientations of Rocks Drilled on Mars

Mar. 4, 2024 — Geologists determined the original orientation of many of the Mars bedrock samples collected by the Perseverance rover. The findings can give scientists clues to the conditions in which the rocks ...

Ultraviolet Radiation from Massive Stars Shapes Planetary Systems

Mar. 1, 2024 — Up to a certain point, very luminous stars can have a positive effect on the formation of planets, but from that point on the radiation they emit can cause the material in protoplanetary discs to ...

Metal Scar Found on Cannibal Star

Feb. 26, 2024 — When a star like our Sun reaches the end of its life, it can ingest the surrounding planets and asteroids that were born with it. Now, researchers have found a unique signature of this process for ...

Evidence of Geothermal Activity Within Icy Dwarf Planets

Feb. 15, 2024 — A team found evidence for hydrothermal or metamorphic activity within the icy dwarf planets Eris and Makemake, located in the Kuiper Belt. Methane detected on their surfaces has the tell-tale signs ...

The Hottest Catalog of the Year: Comprehensive List of Slow-Building Solar Flares

Jan. 31, 2024 — Although solar flares have been classified based on the amount of energy they emit at their peak, there has not been significant study into differentiating flares since slow-building flares were ...

Astronomers Unravel Mysteries of Planet Formation and Evolution in Distant Planetary System

Jan. 26, 2024 — TOI-1136, a dwarf star located more than 270 light years from Earth, is host to six confirmed exoplanets and a seventh as yet unconfirmed candidate. The system has provided a rich source of ...

Moon Rocks With Unique Dust Found

Jan. 18, 2024 — A research team has for the first time discovered anomalous meter-sized rocks on the lunar surface that are covered in dust and presumably exhibit unique properties -- such as magnetic anomalies. ...

Space Solar Power Project Ends First in-Space Mission With Successes and Lessons

Jan. 17, 2024 — A 10-month mission demonstrated three elements of the plan to beam solar power from space to ...

Earth-Sized Planet Discovered in 'Our Solar Backyard'

Jan. 14, 2024 — Astronomers have discovered a planet closer and younger than any other Earth-sized world yet identified. It's a remarkably hot world whose proximity to our own planet and to a star like our sun ...

Our Surprising Magnetic Galaxy

Jan. 11, 2024 — A team of astronomers has created the first-ever map of magnetic field structures within a spiral arm of our Milky Way galaxy. Previous studies on galactic magnetic fields only gave a very general ...

Astronomers Make Rare Exoplanet Discovery, and a Giant Leap in Detecting Earth-Like Bodies

Jan. 11, 2024 — Astronomers have made the rare discovery of a small, cold exoplanet and its massive outer companion -- shedding light on the formation of planets like ...

NASA's Webb Finds Signs of Possible Aurorae on Isolated Brown Dwarf

Jan. 9, 2024 — Astronomers have found a brown dwarf (an object more massive than Jupiter but smaller than a star) with infrared emission from methane, likely due to energy in its upper atmosphere. This is an ...

Meteorite Analysis Shows Earth's Building Blocks Contained Water

Jan. 9, 2024 — Analysis of iron meteorites from the earliest years of the solar system indicate that the planetary 'seeds' that ultimately formed Earth contained ...

Three Iron Rings in a Planet-Forming Disk

Jan. 8, 2024 — Astronomers have detected a three-ringed structure in the nursery of planets in the inner planet-forming disk of a young star. This configuration suggests two Jupiter-mass planets are forming in the ...

A Carbon-Lite Atmosphere Could Be a Sign of Water and Life on Other Terrestrial Planets

Dec. 28, 2023 — Best chance of finding liquid water, and even life on other planets, is to look for the absence of carbon dioxide in their ...

NASA's Hubble Watches 'Spoke Season' on Saturn

Dec. 21, 2023 — A new photo of Saturn was taken by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope on October 22, 2023, when the ringed planet was approximately 850 million miles from Earth. Hubble's ultra-sharp vision ...

Ringing in the Holidays With Ringed Planet Uranus

Dec. 19, 2023 — NASA's James Webb Space Telescope recently trained its sights on unusual and enigmatic Uranus, an ice giant that spins on its side. Webb captured this dynamic world with rings, moons, storms, ...