An active galaxy is one whose nucleus contains a massive black hole that is vigorously accreting material. In the process, the nucleus typically ejects jets of particles and radiates br...

Astronomers in the 1960s were amazed to discover that molecular clouds in interstellar space sometimes produced natural masers (the radio wavelength analogs of lasers) that shine with bri...

The Grote Reber Foundation has announced that Professor Jim Moran will be the recipient of the 2013 Grote Reber Gold Medal. Moran is the Donald H. Menzel Professor of Astrophysics at Harv...

Supermasssive black holes, having masses of millions or even billions ofsuns, are found at the nuclei of galaxies. In dramatic cases like quasars, these black holes are responsible for ...

Cambridge, MA Using publicly available data from NASA's Kepler space telescope, astronomers at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA) have found that six percent of red dw...

The corona of the sun is the hot (over a million kelvin), gaseous outer region of its atmosphere. The corona is threaded by intense magnetic fields that extend upwards from the surface in...

Cambridge, MA The Minor Planet Center, located at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory (SAO) in Cambridge, Mass., has announced the recipients of the 2012 Edgar Wilson Award for the...

Two years ago, CfA astronomers reported the discovery of giant, twin lobes of gamma-ray emission protruding about 50,000 light-years above and below the plane of our Milky Way galaxy, and...

Cambridge, MA The Sun's visible surface, or photosphere, is 10,000 degrees Fahrenheit. As you move outward from it, you pass through a tenuous layer of hot, ionized gas or plasma called ...

Dr. Avi Loeb is the recipient of the 2013 Chambliss Astronomical Writing Award from the American Astronomical Society for his book, "How Did the First Stars and Galaxies Form?" (Princeton...