Astronomers Have Identified a New Kind of Supernova We Never Knew Existed

We often think of supernova explosions as inevitable for large stars. Big star runs out of fuel, gravity collapses its core, and BOOM! But astronomers have long thought at least one type of large star didn’t end with a supernova. Known as Wolf-Rayet stars, they were thought to end with a quiet collapse of their core … Read more

The Solar System Exists Inside a Giant, Mysterious Void, And We Finally Know Why

The Solar System floats in the middle of a peculiarly empty region of space. This region of low-density, high-temperature plasma, about 1,000 light-years across, is surrounded by a shell of cooler, denser neutral gas and dust. It’s called the Local Bubble, and precisely how and why it came to exist, with the Solar System floating … Read more

Space cow: Bizarre explosion was probably a failed supernova

By Leah Crane Illustration of a cow in space Shutterstock An explosion that baffled astronomers in 2018 may finally have an explanation. Observations of X-rays from the blast have revealed that it was probably a massive star that only partially blew up, leaving behind either a dense neutron star or a small black hole – … Read more