Astronomers over the past decade have made remarkable progress in the study of extrasolar planets; over 500 distant worlds are now confirmed. Meanwhile, as this active research community ...

Radio galaxies beam as much as one trillion solar-luminosities of radiation into space at radio wavelengths. They are therefore cosmic beacons, and the light from the most distant ones k...

Asteroids (or comets) whose orbits bring them close to the earth's orbit are called Near Earth Objects (NEOs). Some asteroids are old, dating from the origins of the solar system about f...

Just like a weather map for a local forecast on Earth, the colored circle depicts variations in temperature across a region. This particular map presents the range of temperature in a reg...

Cambridge, MA In an exciting example of international collaboration, a Qatar astronomer teamed with scientists at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA) and other institut...

Stars form from giant clouds of gas and dust in space, as the matter in these clouds comestogether under the influence of gravity. A long-standing goal of astronomy has been to determine ...

"Physics for the 21st Century," a free, on-line course developed at the CfA about current research in physics is now available. It consists of eleven units that introduce cutting-edge top...

Cambridge, MA Our Sun can be a menace when it sends out powerful solar blasts of radiation towards the Earth. Astronomers keenly watch the Sun to learn more about what powers these sola...

About a dozen of the roughly 500 currently known extra-solar planets are super-Earths: planets with masses between about two and ten earth-masses. For larger extra-solar planets, an esti...

Cambridge, MA In December 2009, astronomers announced the discovery of a super-Earth known as GJ 1214b. At the time, they reported signs that the newfound world likely had a thick, gaseo...