Cambridge, MA Astronomers think that many - perhaps all - galaxies in the universe contain massive black holes at their centers. New observations with the Submillimeter Array now suggest...

Most stars the size of the sun or larger (in mass) are part of multiple stellar systems in which two or even three stars orbit around one another. This tendency presumably reflects the co...

The galaxy Arp 220 is actually two galaxies that have been caught in the act of merging. Astronomers think that many galaxies, including our own Milky Way, have undergone similar collisio...

Cambridge, MA A new research center combining the tools of chemistry and astronomy will use the unique laboratory of interstellar space to free the study of basic chemistry from the rest...

Cambridge, MA A tiny asteroid discovered just hours ago at an Arizona observatory will enter Earth's atmosphere harmlessly at approximately 10:46 p.m. Eastern time tonight (2:46 a.m. Gre...

Cambridge, MA When a treasure hunt comes up empty-handed, the hunters are understandably disappointed. But when astronomers don't find what they are looking for, the defeat can provide a...

An "exoplanet" is an extra-solar planet, that is, a planet orbiting a star other than our own sun. Of the roughly 307 currently known extrasolar planets, about thirty of them transit the...

Stars form as gravitational forces coalesce the gas and dust in interstellar clouds until the material forms clumps dense enough to become stars. But how this happens, and whether or not ...

Cambridge, MA Water is being blasted to pieces by a young star's laser-like jets, according to new observations from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope.The discovery provides a better unders...

About ten years ago, astronomers using new submillimeter wavelength facilities discovered the existence of a new class of very distant galaxies. These objects are located so far away that...