Supernovae, the explosive deaths of massive stars, disburse into space all of the chemical elements that were spawned inside the progenitor stars. Furthermore, these violent explosions th...

The two most prominent, nearby galaxies to our Milky Way are the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) and the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC). They lie about 160,000 light-years away, in the outskir...

Seattle, WA The Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) and Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC) are two of the Milky Way's closest neighboring galaxies. Both are visible only in the southern hemisphere. B...

Not long after the big bang that created our universe, the cosmos had cooled enough for its matter -- mostly hydrogen -- to form neutral atoms. Astronomers know that neutral hydrogen emit...

Seattle, WA Astronomers have proposed an improved method of searching for intelligent extraterrestrial life using instruments like one now under construction in Australia. The Low Freque...

Astronomers think that most stars form in clusters because evidence suggests that a nursery capable of producing one star efficiently is usually capable of birthing many. But precisely ho...

The universe created in the big bang consisted mostly of hydrogen, with a significant though much smaller quantity of helium, about 24% by mass, and some traces of lithium. All of the oth...

Once a normal star like the Sun has burned its hydrogen fuel into helium, and then in turn converted its helium into carbon and oxygen, it begins to show its age. Already very swollen and...

One of the primary reasons why astronomers study planets around other stars is to learn whether our own Earth and solar system are typical or unusual, and to unravel new details about how...

Cambridge, MA Astronomers have discovered the first negatively charged molecule in space, identifying it from radio signals that were a mystery until now. While about 130 neutral and 14 ...