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An animated gif shows the artist's interpretation of a brown dwarf with clouds. NASA/JPL-Caltech Failed stars can end up with weather more turbulent than gas giant planets — and NASA JPL researchers are now getting a peek into how a...

The Eclipse Megamovie project is aiming high this Monday — they’re going to compile photos of the eclipse taken all along its 2,000-mile path across the United States. The first results of this ambitious and groundbreaking project should ...

NASA’s Cassini spacecraft is quickly nearing the end of its mission — and its life. Already in the aptly named Grand Finale portion of its mission, Cassini has begun its final five orbits around the ringed planet. The probe is also prepar...

Type Ia supernovae are one of the most important tools in an astronomer’s toolkit. These bright but brief events are one of just a few reliable “standard candles” that allow us to measure not only vast distances accurately, but also...

If you look up at Earth’s night sky and find the constellation Cetus — it looks something like a sea monster — you might also notice a rather average looking star called Tau Ceti. It’s slightly smaller than our sun and sits ju...

There’s a supermassive black hole in the center of our galaxy called Sagittarius A*, or Sgr A* for short. This massive but invisible object lies about 26,000 light-years away and weighs in at 4 million times the mass of our Sun. Although it&rsq...

The Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence, or SETI, has been seeking to improve our ability to intercept and identify intelligent signals from beyond our planet for decades. Now, Laser SETI represents another leap forward, with the ability to sear...

The asteroids that populate our solar system are some of the oldest relics of its formation. Studying these relics tells astronomers not only about the conditions in which they — and the planets — formed, but also about the dynamical hist...

There are so many photographs of eclipses, and while they’re all amazing to see, this one might be the most special. Emeritus J. McKim “Kim” Malville,” professor of astrophysical and planetary sciences at the University of C...

The Sun is the closest star to Earth at a mere 93 million miles (150 million kilometers) away. Despite the fact that you can feel its heat on your skin and its disk appears as large as the Full Moon in the sky, the Sun still largely remains an enigma...

A supernova is the largest explosion you might ever see if you ever get to see it! It’s the death of a star, and stars go out with a bang. They’re still mostly a mystery to science. It’s possible to understand the basic processes be...