Cambridge, MA In 1987, light from an exploding star in a neighboring galaxy, the Large Magellanic Cloud, reached Earth. Named Supernova 1987A, it was the closest supernova explosion witn...

The comet Hartley 2 is a relatively small and elongated comet - only about 0.6 x 0.4 kilometers in size. It orbits the sun every 6.46 years, getting as close to it as 1.05 astronomical u...

Harvard scientists are creating a group of interstellar "ambassadors" who are helping to explain the universe in school classrooms through a web-based program that lets students soar thro...

The process of star formation, once thought to involve just the simple coalescence of material under the influence of gravity, actually entails a complex series of stages, with the younge...

Cambridge, MA Today, astronomers unveiled the most complete 3-D map of the local universe (out to a distance of 380 million light-years) ever created. Taking more than 10 years to comple...

Cambridge, MA Five billion years from now, our Milky Way galaxy will collide with the Andromeda galaxy. This will mark a moment of both destruction and creation. The galaxies will lose t...

Cambridge, MA NASA's Kepler spacecraft is proving itself to be a prolific planet hunter. Within just the first four months of data, astronomers have found evidence for more than 1,200 pl...

Cambridge, MA For many movie stars, their age is a well-kept secret. In space, the same is true of the actual stars. Like our Sun, most stars look almost the same for most of their lives...

Black holes, one of the most amazing and bizarre predictions of Einstein's theory of gravity, are irresistible sinks for matter and energy. They are so dense that not even light can escap...

The Great Nebula in the constellation of Carina is a massive star-forming complex located about 7.5 thousand light-years away. The main star in the complex, Eta Carinae, shines brightly ...