Stars and Galaxies

Do you want that toasted? A newly suggested planet formation process suggests smaller worlds could be created when a gas and dust filling is squeezed between two larger planets.

Astronomers have now deduced what alien scientists might see when they gaze at the Milky Way from afar. Our home galaxy is unusual but not unique, at least when it comes to chemistry.

The James Webb Space Telescope has spied a distant galaxy that represents the wreckage of a titanic collision between two galaxies 500 million years ago.

The Hubble Space Telescope has spied on the Milky Way's galactic neighbor, irregular galaxy ESO 174-1, imaging it as a lonely hazy cloud.

A supernova that erupted when a massive star died could have destroyed our infant solar system — if it weren't protected by a cocoon of molecular gas.

Astronomers have discovered high amounts of tryptophan, an amino acid key in the formation of life, in a nearby star-forming region of space called the Perseus Molecular Complex.

We have never seen dark matter and dark energy, so why do we think they exist? And what would happen if Europe's new space telescope Euclid finds evidence that they don't exist after all?

Observations of a distant stellar nursery show it as a smiling cosmic cat with a head so massive it stretches for 150 light-years with a cluster of infants stars below its nose.

Europe's Euclid telescope is heading to space to prove whether hypothetical dark energy and dark matter really exist. The mission's findings may rewrite cosmology textbooks.

Astronomers have detected high-energy neutrinos coming from within our Milky Way galaxy, potentially opening up an exciting new window of research.

A telescope at Kitt Peak National Observatory in Arizona has captured a striking new view of a dark nebula called LDN 1622, located in the nearby Orion complex.

In the early 20th century, a team of women went far beyond their job descriptions, not to mention the societal norms of the time, to revolutionize astronomy.

The Virgo Cluster and 1,900 galaxies shine in an incredible image captured from a dark sky preserve in Portugal, by photographer Miguel Claro.

NASA has produced sounds from telescope data on five galaxies in Stephan's Quintet, a binary star system called R Aquarii, and a giant galaxy known as Messier 104.

Scientists have discovered a weird celestial object that's blurring the line between planet and star.

Astrophotographer Miguel Claro captured a panoramic view of the Milky Way, a comet and other night sky sights from a dark sky preserve in Portugal. Watch it in virtual reality.

A gamma-ray burst spotted near the core of an ancient galaxy was likely created by an odd demolition-derby-style collision of two stars or stellar remnants, a new study suggests.

Astronomers have discovered a second example of a white dwarf pulsar, a rapidly spinning stellar remnant that could teach scientists more about stellar evolution.

Two of six newly discovered runaway stars launched by supernovas have broken the record for the fastest objects of this type ever discovered.

A new small satellite will peer at distant stars to help NASA's James Webb Space Telescope search for potentially habitable exoplanets.