All Stories by Ken Croswell
- Astronomy
The heaviest neutron star on record is 2.35 times the mass of the sun
The measurement helps refine the dividing line between neutron stars and black holes.
- Astronomy
Neutrinos hint the sun has more carbon and nitrogen than previously thought
Scientists still don’t know the sun’s exact chemical composition, which is crucial for understanding the entire universe. Neutrinos will help.
- Astronomy
‘Goldilocks’ stars may pose challenges for any nearby habitable planets
Orange dwarfs emit far-ultraviolet light long after birth, stressing the atmospheres of potentially life-bearing worlds.
- Astronomy
When the Magellanic Clouds cozy up to each other, stars are born
The Magellanic Clouds, the two closest star-making galaxies to the Milky Way, owe much of their stellar creativity to each other.
- Astronomy
Here’s the best timeline yet for the Milky Way’s big events
A new study puts more precise dates on when the Milky Way formed its thick disk and collided with a neighboring galaxy.
- Astronomy
A new image captures enormous gas rings encircling an aging red star
The rings, seen for the first time, provide insight into how giant stars lose mass and seed the cosmos with elements.
- Astronomy
How ‘hot Jupiters’ may get their weirdly tight orbits
Gravitational kicks from other planets and stars can send giant worlds into orbits that bring them close to their suns.
- Astronomy
Two stars’ close encounter may explain a cosmic flare that has barely faded
A brilliant outburst of light that has lasted nearly a century arose when two young stars skirted past each other, simulations suggest.
- Astronomy
How massive stars in binary systems turn into carbon factories
A massive star with an orbiting partner star ejects on average twice as much carbon, an element crucial for life, into space compared with a solo star.
- Astronomy
Distant rocky planets may have exotic chemical makeups that don’t resemble Earth’s
Elements sprinkled on white dwarf stars suggest that the mantles of faraway rocky worlds differ greatly from their counterparts in our solar system.
- Astronomy
A Jupiter-like planet orbiting a white dwarf hints at our solar system’s future
A new planet is the first ever discovered that is orbiting a white dwarf and resembles Jupiter in both its mass and its distance from its star.
- Astronomy
The fastest-spinning white dwarf ever seen rotates once every 25 seconds
A white dwarf star that spins every 25 seconds owes its record-breaking rotation rate to a companion star dumping gas onto it.
