Cambridge, MA - Scientists have discovered a vast, previously unknown reservoir of new aromatic material in a cold, dark molecular cloud by detecting individual polycyclic aromatic hydroc...

Ultraluminous infrared galaxies (ULIRGs), powered by starburst activity and often with supermassive black holes accreting material at their nuclei, contain large reservoirs of molecular g...

Cambridge, MA - Scientists have long theorized that supermassive black holes can wander through space—but catching them in the act has proven difficult. Now, researchers at the Center f...

Cambridge, MA - The research, published this month in The Astronomical Journal, was led by Spencer Hurt, an astronomy undergraduate student at the University of Colorado Boulder. Hurt con...

The binary star system Her X-1 consists of a 1.5 solar-mass neutron star – the super-dense, collapsed remnant of a massive star – in orbit around the 2.2 solar-mass star, HZ Herculis. Loc...

Cambridge, MA - Fabrication of the sixth of seven mirrors for the Giant Magellan Telescope has begun. The mirrors will allow astronomers to see further into the universe and with more det...

One of the largest structures in the Milky Way galaxy, the North Polar Spur, was discovered at radio and X-ray wavelengths. The Spur is a giant ridge of bright emission that rises roughly...

The Milky Way's central molecular zone (CMZ) spans the innermost 1600 light-years of the galaxy (for comparison, the Sun is 26,600 light-years away from the galactic center) and includes ...

Cambridge, MA - It forever changed history when it crashed into Earth about 66 million years ago. The Chicxulub impactor, as it's known, left behind a crater off the coast of Mexico that...

Dust storms are one of the defining features of the Martian atmosphere. They range from microscale dust devils to global events, and greatly impact the Martian climate through atmospheric...