Cambridge, MA Although cold and gaseous rather than a desert world, the newfound planet Kepler-16b is still the closest astronomers have come to discovering Luke Skywalker's home world o...

Researchers developing key new technology electronics like quantum computing or advanced detectors, as well as those studying basic material science and metal surface properties, often fi...

Popular Science magazine has selected CfA astronomer Justin Kasper as one of this year's "Brilliant Ten" scientists. According to the magazine, the Brilliant Ten - all researchers under t...

Cambridge, MA Usually, running five minutes late is a bad thing since you might lose your dinner reservation or miss out on tickets to the latest show. But when a planet runs five minute...

Infrared dark clouds (IRDCs) are dark patches in the sky seen against the continuous, bright infrared background produced by our galaxy.IRDCs are rich in molecules and relatively dense, c...

Cambridge, MA In the Hollywood blockbuster "Speed," a bomb on a bus is rigged to blow up if the bus slows down below 50 miles per hour. The premise - slow down and you explode - makes fo...

Observatory Night lectures will take place on the third Thursday of the month from September through December. Topics will include colliding galaxies, the stellar version of the carnival ...

A blazar is a galaxy which, like a quasar, has an intensely bright central nucleus containing a supermassive black hole. In a blazar, however, the emitted light sometimes includes extreme...

Cambridge, MA Astronomers using NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory discovered the first pair of supermassive black holes in a spiral galaxy similar to the Milky Way. Approximately 160 mill...

How do massive stars form? Stars with more than about eight times as much mass as the sun are arguably the most important actors in the universe. Although they live only hundreds of milli...