Black holes are irresistible sinks for matter and energy. They are so dense that not even light can escape from their gravitational clutches. Massive black holes (equal to millions or ev...

Austin, TX Astronomers using NASA's Kepler mission have discovered two new circumbinary planet systems - planets that orbit two stars, like Tatooine in the movie Star Wars. Their find, w...

Austin, TX The stars we see today weren't always as serene as they appear, floating alone in the dark of night. Most stars, likely including our sun, grew up in cosmic turmoil - as illus...

Star formation is studied by astronomers not only because it produces new stars and planetary systems. It also generates copious amounts of ultraviolet light that heats dust which in turn...

Observatory Night lectures will take place on the third Thursday of the month from January through May. Topics will include a new view of the Sun, why we should send astronauts to the ast...

At 7:30 pm on Thursday, January 19, the Center for Astrophysics will hold our first Observatory Night talk of 2012, which will be all about the new view of our Sun provided by NASA's Sola...

A large team of scientists led by CfA astronomer Francois Fressin, and including ten other CfA astronomers, last week announced the dramatic discovery of two Earth-sized planets around an...

Cambridge, MA Astronomers using NASA's Kepler mission have detected two Earth-sized planets orbiting a distant star. This discovery marks a milestone in the hunt for alien worlds, since ...

Matter in the universe after the big bang consisted almost entirely of hydrogen and helium atoms. Only later, after undergoing fusion reactions in the nuclear furnaces of stars, did thes...

Perhaps the most astonishing and revolutionary discovery in cosmology was Edwin Hubble's observation that galaxies are moving away from us with velocities that are proportional to their d...