Astronomy Archives - Spotlight Magazine

This isn’t just another rocky world orbiting a red dwarf—this one’s special

Astronomers have found an exoplanet that could serve as a benchmark in future studies. It’s a rocky planet orbiting an M-type star, and though these planets are plentiful, this one could serve as a benchmark […]

AI accelerates elucidation of nuclear forces with explosive neutron star data

A research team is using astrophysical explosions to understand the mysterious forces at work in some of the smallest building blocks in nature: atomic nuclei. In new research published in Nature Communications, the team uses […]

Galactic islands of tranquility: ‘Little red dots’ may have brewed life’s building blocks

Astronomers have found that both the core of our Milky Way and the earliest proto-galaxies in the universe share a surprising trait: They are unusually calm and quiet in terms of harsh radiation. This tranquility […]

Webb spots details in nearby spiral galaxy NGC 5134

Two powerful instruments of the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope joined forces to create this scenic galaxy view. This spiral galaxy is named NGC 5134, and it is located 65 million light-years away in the […]

Deep underground, a telescope may soon detect ghosts of stars that died before Earth existed

Imagine looking up at the night sky and seeing a star suddenly burst into a blaze of light brighter than anything nearby. A flash so bright that it briefly outshines an entire galaxy before fading […]

NASA’s tiny spacecraft sends first exoplanet images

With the first images from the spacecraft now in hand, the team behind NASA’s Star-Planet Activity Research CubeSat, or SPARCS, is ready to begin charting the energetic lives of the galaxy’s most common stars to […]

We are not alone: Our sun escaped together with stellar ‘twins’ from galaxy center

Researchers have uncovered evidence for our sun joining a mass migration of similar “twins” leaving the core regions of our galaxy, 4 to 6 billion years ago. The team created and studied an unprecedentedly accurate […]

The Rubin Observatory’s LSST will detect imminent impactors before they crash into Earth

The Vera Rubin Observatory (VRO) has barely begun observations and is already wowing us. Images like its Cosmic Treasure Chest have us anticipating even more cosmic glory. And when the observatory sent out 800,000 alerts […]

Galaxy-group motion suggests slower expansion in our cosmic neighborhood

Two new studies have measured the expansion of the universe in our immediate cosmic neighborhood using a novel method that analyzes the motion of two nearby galaxy groups within their surrounding cosmic flow. The results […]

Astronomers capture birth of a magnetar, confirming link to some of universe’s brightest exploding stars

Astronomers have for the first time seen the birth of a magnetar—a highly magnetized, spinning neutron star—and confirmed that it’s the power source behind some of the brightest exploding stars in the cosmos. The finding […]