Images of the dramatic end to a red supergiant’s life could transform our understanding of how massive stars spend their last few months and days
Read article: Astronomers watch the death of a red supergiant in real time
White dwarf breaks rotation speed record
Read article: Magnetic propeller star flings plasma into the cosmos
Analysis of an ancient asteroid suggests that Earth may have received a large amount of its water from extraterrestrial dust grains interacting with the solar wind
Read article: Did the solar wind create Earth’s water?
Margaret Harris examines the circumstances that shaped the career of 1993 physics Nobel laureate Russell Hulse
Read article: Life beyond the Nobel: Russell Hulse’s path from binary pulsar discoverer to plasma physicist
Do clouds of in-falling gas lead to greater than expected inhomogeneity in the interstellar composition of our galaxy?
Read article: Composition of gases in the Milky Way appears surprisingly patchy
The Sun’s magnetic fields make its corona much hotter than the surface of the star. But how and why is still a mystery, as Philip G Judge explains
Read article: The enduring mystery of the solar corona
Understanding why the corona is so hot could help us predict space weather
Read article: The Sun’s enigmatic crown
Observation could explain a puzzling type of supernova
Read article: Invading black hole or neutron star caused star to explode, say astronomers
Careful numerical modelling explains origin of polarized light emitted by sodium atoms in the solar atmosphere
Read article: Solar polarization paradox resolved at last
But what caused that dark spot to form in the first place?
Read article: New evidence supports dark-spot theory for Betelgeuse’s ‘Great Dimming’
