To the Center of The Cold Spot
Astronomers measure the randomness in the Cosmic Microwave Background radiation to determine the cause of an anomalously cold spot.
Massive Stars Don’t Make Good Neighbors
Massive stars emit energetic radiation and expel strong winds that can disrupt their natal environments. New simulations show that these effects are important in the evolution of stellar nurseries and can account for some of the observed low efficiency of star formation.
Kepler Discovers a Self-Lensing Star System
Kepler finds the signature of a transiting white dwarf. Instead blocking the light of its companion star, the white dwarf magnifies it, creating a light curve that periodically brightens.
Cloudy With a Chance of Habitability
Find out how cloudy atmospheres can improve the chances for habitability in close-in planets.
How Weird Is Our Solar System?
Earth and its Solar System compatriots all have nearly circular orbits, but many exoplanets orbit their stars on wildly eccentric paths. Is our home system strange? Or is our sense of the data skewed?
New detections of exoplanet HD 95086 b with the Gemini Planet Imager
HD 95086 b is one of the first exoplanets directly imaged with the newly commissioned instrument Gemini Planet Imager. This is only the first in what is likely to be a long line of exciting results coming from this state of the art instrument.