Astronomers claim that taking a picture of an exoplanet is like trying to photograph a firefly next to a lighthouse, but what if we also wanted to figure out how fast the firefly is spinning next to t...

Galaxies are at their most active at cosmic noon. What happens to their gas?

Could “little red dots” and their lesser known cousins, “little blue dots”, be the same astronomical object? Today’s paper puts this recently popular theory to the test by invoking helium reionization...

Someone get the broom, there's a supernova spreading dust everywhere.

"It's just so big... it's like out there (>3Mpc from the galactic nuclei!!). I mean gross (instability!!)...Look! She's just so...physically inexplicable!" - Sir Mix-a-Lot, if we had today's radio tel...

Black holes can launch jets that stretch for thousands of light-years. How can we find new formulas to describe them?

The Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope just launched, but it started as a spy telescope. Turns out, there are many astronomy/defense connections…

Gaia wasn’t meant to find stellar flares… But we found some anyway!

The LIGO Collaboration used its latest gravitational-wave catalog to put Einstein’s famous theory through a series of tests.

The Parker Solar Probe takes a dip below the Sun's corona, allowing today's authors to uncover some periodic waves in the solar wind.

Have you ever found astronomy terminology confusing? If so, you are not alone. In today’s bite we explore some of the most outrageous and nonsensical naming conventions in astronomy, both those we hav...

Turns out, going around in circles is overrated.

Today's authors go looking for satellites around brown dwarf CD-35 2722. What do they find? They can't quite find the right words...

Interstellar object 3I/ATLAS whizzed by the sun late last year. The polarization of its reflected sunlight was quite different from solar system objects we’re familiar with.

Hidden in the shapes and positions of millions of galaxies is a measurement of what the universe is made of, if you're careful enough to extract it.

700 years of astronomical progress is currently being laid out on the tables of the library of the Royal Observatory of Edinburgh. Join astrobites for a glimpse into the process!

In a few billion years, the Sun will rapidly expand in size. What does that mean for the inner planets, including our very own Earth? Read today's bite to find out!

Let's explore GW detection from a slightly different candidate today!

The Vera C. Rubin Observatory has found a new ultra-faint dwarf galaxy in our galactic backyard just by using preview data, taken before its 10-year survey!

Phosphorus, key for life on Earth, has never been seen in the planet-forming environment. The authors of today’s paper have sniffed out why and where the Phosphorus is hiding.

The search for life beyond Earth often focuses on finding the right ingredients. But what if the more revealing clue is what a planet does with them? Today's bite offers a different perspective: perha...

Today's bite explores the first candidate globular cluster stellar stream outside of our Milky Way!

No need to feel blue about cosmology—this week’s paper tries a new way to measure a key parameter of ΛCDM.

Many cosmologists look toward the CMB for answers about reionization… but should they?

Radio astronomy is obviously better than any other domain, and read here to see why!

Exoplanets with helium-rich atmospheres might seem alien and hostile, but laboratory evidence tells a different story. Join us today as we explore whether life could survive, and maybe even thrive, on...

We’re used to imagining dark matter as tiny particles, such as WIMPs or axions, but what if dark matter existed in chunks the size of bowling balls, fridges, or even pyramids? The author of today's pa...

What do you get when you cross a spectroscopic survey with a planet hunter? A cardiology ward, and 50 stars whose orbits are ringing them like a bell.

There have been reports of gaseous bars in dwarf irregular galaxies. Gaseous bars are often assumed to be unstable and hard to form compared to stellar bars. This study uses hydrodynamical simulation...

Wake up babe, new merger just dropped! Several distinct populations of stars and clusters in the Milky Way are remnants of the same accreted galaxy, which our galaxy tore apart almost 12 billion years...

Sub-Neptunes are very good at hiding their secrets: many show flat spectra that could indicate multiple possibilities for their atmospheric composition. Yet some of these same worlds are caught in the...

In 2019, CHIME detected a very unusual fast radio burst (FRB) signal that excited the astronomical community. However, it turns out that the signal wasn’t from an FRB after all…

Odd Radio Circles are a recently discovered extragalactic phenomenon. As their name suggests, the cause of them is still a mystery. This astrobites explores an ORC identified in LOFAR data that exhibi...

Fall is coming, which means graduate school applications will soon be upon us. In this post, you will find answers for many of your most pressing questions about applying to graduate school in the US,...

A new study finds that Triton, Neptune's moon, might have a magnetic field.

Detecting the undetectable... At least until COSI launches

“An eclipse, a trombone and an oscilloscope walk into a bar” sounds like the beginning of a bad joke, but what do they have in common? Read on to find out.

Telescopes. Science Funding Cuts. The Commercialization of the night sky and what we can do to change it.

A close-in brown dwarf is a rare sight; but finding one around a massive, aging star is even rarer. Today's authors explore HIP 61637 b, an exciting case study that challenges known brown dwarf format...

Did Uranus’ major moons form out of debris left behind after a giant, planet-tilting impact? Spoilers: probably not.

The authors of today's paper explore how the neighbourhood a black hole grows up in may affect the rest of their lives with a new diagnostic tool.

Pairs of stars are mysteriously missing from the middle of ancient star clusters.

What if the earliest galaxies weren’t unusual at all? Maybe the answer lies in relics left over from the universe’s first moments.

A new JWST study reveals that reionization was driven by a leaky minority.

Astronomers are on the hunt for the elusive starless ‘dark galaxies’ predicted by our model of the Universe. In this paper, learn about two newly detected dark galaxy candidates!

What might the next space-based gravitational wave detector look like? And what might it see? Today's authors explore these questions by comparing proposed future detectors, providing some insight int...

When water began dripping through a leaking dome, the race was on to preserve an iconic astronomical landmark. Discover how an ambitious restoration project is securing the Round Tower in Copenhagen f...

There’s no need to storm Area 51 for evidence of UFOs, in today’s bite we explore the first detection of a UFO (ultra-fast outflow) in a quiescent galaxy!

Are you upset that the World Cup is over? Well, today’s bite has another contest for you to agonize over — the contest over which cosmological model best explains the Hubble tension!