Featured Astrobites
Our latest posts
Clearing Up Stellar Streams with Gaia
What will new data from Gaia reveal about the formation and evolution of stellar streams in the Milky Way?
Dating the Evaporation of Globular Clusters
Globular clusters in the Milky Way are shedding their stars. How can we tell when this process began?
A Paleo-Detector for Dark Matter: How Ancient Rocks Could Help Unravel the Mystery
A “paleo-detector” may sound more like a Jurassic Park plot point than an astrophysics experiment, but today’s featured paper shows us that digging deep for ancient minerals may be an effective way to characterize the ever-mysterious nature of dark matter.
The Planets in the Gaps
We’ve strongly suspected they’re there. A new method promises to prove it.
Basaltic asteroids might not all be from Vesta
Most basaltic asteroids are thought to originate from the dwarf planet Vesta. However, some of these asteroids are far from Vesta and exhibit different spectra, implying a second point of origin.
Deflating a Planet: Helium Loss in the Atmosphere of Wasp-107b
It has long been theorized that exoplanet atmospheres should be partially composed of helium — now we finally have our first detection in the atmosphere of Wasp-107b. Today’s bite explains how the authors observed helium and discuss what this means for the atmosphere of this planet.
Beyond astro-ph
Astronomy beyond the research
Meet the AAS Keynote Speakers: Nicholas Walton
Dr Nicholas Walton discusses the impacts of GAIA and his research! See him today at #AAS232!
Astrobites at AAS 232: Day 3 and Day 4
We report on Day 3 of the summer AAS meeting in Denver, CO. Highlights include a look at the triumphs of helioseismology, discussions on merging galaxies, and a new way to weigh the Milky Way.
Meet the AAS Keynote Speakers: Evan Kirby
Dwarf galaxies: small blobs of dark matter (and stars and gas), or time traveling machines for studying chemical evolution? Professor Evan Kirby’s upcoming #AAS232 talk will tell you more.
Navigating careers in astronomy
Career advice
Meet the AAS Keynote Speakers: Nicholas Walton
Dr Nicholas Walton discusses the impacts of GAIA and his research! See him today at #AAS232!
Meet the AAS Keynote Speakers: Evan Kirby
Dwarf galaxies: small blobs of dark matter (and stars and gas), or time traveling machines for studying chemical evolution? Professor Evan Kirby’s upcoming #AAS232 talk will tell you more.
Meet the AAS Keynote Speakers: Julie Comerford
Some galaxies live peaceful lives, calmly making stars at a sedate pace, with supermassive black holes that don’t vomit jets of material. Other galaxies… not so much. Come to Professor Julie Comerford’s upcoming #AAS232 talk to learn more about the weird and wonderful world of active galactic nuclei!