Space / Stars

"Dead" Galaxies Live On

Even in the oldest, deadest galaxies out there, young stars continue to be born. 05.07.2012

Star Breeding Grounds

In the right circumstances, humble gas and dust can form into powerful, majestic stars. 04.28.2012

#14: Astronomers Watch Black Hole Devour Star


Researchers luck out, getting a front row seat for stellar annihilation. 01.09.2012

#62: Star Birth Seen in Action


Astronomers glimpse stellar creation. 01.09.2012

#88: Visualizing the Violent Cosmos

A new map shows the hotspots of energetic activity in our galaxy and beyond. 12.27.2011

#66: Found: Stars Cool Enough to Touch


But if you were close enough to touch, you'd be entirely squished by the gravity. 12.27.2011

#37: Today’s Forecast: Cloudy, 
80 Percent Chance of a Sunspot

The next time the Sun releases a destructive magnetic belch, we may have some warning to protect the electric grid. 12.27.2011

One Giant Leap for Machine Kind

While human explorers remain stubbornly stuck in Earth orbit, robotic space probes are preparing for the next great age of exploration: drilling, rolling, sailing, and prospecting where nobody has gone before. 10.31.2011

5 Questions for the Galaxy Finder

Jeff Cooke looked heavenward and discovered Golden Boy, which showed astronomers how galaxies collide and merge. 08.31.2011

The Night the Scientific Revolution Began

After turning his homemade telescope to the heavens, Galileo became the first person to see the moons of Jupiter, suggesting that not everything orbited Earth—and he jotted his world-changing notes on a piece of scrap paper. 07.28.2011

How to Build a Telescope Even More Powerful Than Hubble

NASA is building the James Webb Space Telescope, which will be humanity's premier eye in the sky when it launches later this decade. Here's a sneak peek at the telescope that will take the universe's baby pictures. 02.15.2011

A Shaking Star Soon Shares Its Secrets

Researchers are watching the earthquake-like shaking of stars to find out how old they are, what their structure is like, and where sunspots and solar storms come from. 01.20.2011

Fails at Fusion; Succeeds at Schooling

Scientists are looking closer at brown dwarfs to learn more about the formation of stars and planets. 01.09.2011

The Alien Seekers of SETI Are Just Getting Started

For 50 years a devoted group of scientists has been listening for signals from intelligent life. Despite all the dead air, the true believers say the odds of success are now better than ever. 01.03.2011

The 100 Top Science Stories of 2010

Every year DISCOVER sorts through the scientific accomplishments of the past 12 months, and assembles a list of the coolest experiments, most brilliant discoveries, and most world-changing events. As you page through the countdown to the #1 science story, we think you'll come to the same conclusion we did: 2010 was quite a year. 12.16.2010

5 Questions for the Host of Iran's Star Parties

Inspired by Carl Sagan, Babak Tafreshi is on a mission to bring the wonder of astronomy to the Middle East, and to the world. 08.17.2010

Shedding Dark: Discoveries That Totally Confused Scientists

Some science doesn't "shed light" on the subject--instead it forces researchers to question their assumptions and start all over again. 07.29.2010

10 Science Hotspots—Where Mother Nature Reveals Her Secrets

From glaciers to undersea vents to tornado-wracked plains, these are the locations that draw boatloads of scientists from all over the world. 06.30.2010

Happy Birthday, Hubble: The Telescope's Most Underrated Images

Of the vast library of amazing Hubble images, a few hog all the glory. So for the telescope's 20th anniversary, we bring you 10 pictures that deserve more love. 03.30.2010

Astronomers Discover 2 Shortcuts for Locating Earth-Like Planets

Stars orbited by planets are a little bit different than other stars, and scientists can use that to quickly home in on new planets. 03.23.2010

How to Become a Backyard Galileo (Minus the Church Trouble)

In the United States, about 250,000 amateurs watch the heavens—and many of them have made significant contributions to science. 02.26.2010

#5: Astronomer Alan Dressler

Hot on the trail of the first galaxies in the universe 01.25.2010

Discover Interview: Miles of Wire, Reams of Print-Outs, and a Giant Discovery

Jocelyn Bell Burnell worked through old-school equipment and old-school sexism to find the first pulsar—the beginning of an extraordinary life in science. 12.29.2009

What is This? A Bioluminescent Mushroom?

Hint: It's actually not on the ground, nor in the oceans, but up in the sky—way up in the sky. 10.21.2009

11 Great Astro Pics: Winners of the Celestron Photo Contest

Gazing up at the night sky is a reward unto itself: the splendor of the Universe awaits! But when you use a telescope and a camera, you can capture that beauty in ways that even our sophisticated eyes cannot detect. 08.12.2009

A Scientist's Guide to Finding Alien Life: Where, When, and in What Universe

A variety of new findings point to the "habitable zones" where we're likely to find extraterrestrials. 05.11.2009

The Frontiers of Astronomy

DISCOVER's panel of top astronomers and astrophysicists discuss some of the biggest questions in the universe. 05.10.2009

The Inspiring Boom in "Super-Earths"

At last we are finding rocky planets like our own. But some are pretty weird: The smallest may have a mineral-vapor atmosphere that condenses as lava rain or rock snow. 05.08.2009

The Satellite That Aims to Succeed Where Icarus Failed

NASA's Solar Probe Plus study the sun from close up, braving temperatures that would melt stainless steel. 04.07.2009

Forget Megapixels: Here Comes the Gigapixel Sky Camera

The Pan-Starrs-1 telescope will scan the skies for asteroids and comets that could wipe out life on Earth. 04.03.2009

The Violent, Mysterious Dynamics of Star Formation

Lighting up the universe is a rough-and-tumble business. 03.26.2009

The World's Hardest-Working Telescope

By precisely mapping a volume of space 5 billion light-years in diameter, the Sloan telescope is answering some of the universe's biggest questions. 03.06.2009

A Closer Look at Our Galactic Twin: Andromeda

Andromeda is a spiral galaxy, like our own, that contains 1 trillion stars. 01.19.2009

Our First Glimpse of an Alien World

Astronomers capture the first visible-light image of a planet orbiting another star. 01.17.2009

The Man Who Made Stars and Planets

Alan Boss has spent a career predicting how stars and planets form—and has often been right. 01.12.2009

A Lenticular Galaxy Reveals Spinning Black Holes

MCG-6-30-15 may not stun at first glance, but it's a goldmine of black hole images. 01.09.2009

Beyond the Nine Planets

We are only beginning to discover how vast and strange our solar system truly is. 01.06.2009

The Father of Dark Matter Still Gets No Respect

Little-acknowledged Fritz Zwicky got there first on dark matter, neutron stars, and supernovas. 12.31.2008

How a Cloud of Space Dust Could Wipe Out Life on Earth

Seemingly innocuous specks could throw off the whole solar system—and we might not see them until it's too late. 12.30.2008

#23: Black Holes Birth Baby Stars

Computer simulations reveal the source of mystery constellations. 12.18.2008

#27: Astronomers Spy the Youngest Planet Ever Found

The latest, newest protoplanet is a "dusty, rocky, gaseous lump." 12.17.2008

#40: The First Known Binary Black Hole System

One of the most massive things in the universe turns out to have a little buddy. 12.15.2008

#78: The Galaxy that Spins a Giant Magnetic Web

This "fiery spiderweb" uses magnetic fields to survive tough storms. 12.09.2008

How Long Until We Find a Second Earth?

Researchers are racing to find the first planet that might support life as we know it. 10.10.2008

Searching Heaven and Earth for the Real Johannes Kepler

Galileo may be science's most famous martyr, but it was Kepler who solved the mystery of the planets. 10.05.2008

Nevermind The Black Hole Hoopla: Here's How the LHC Could Blow Up the World (of Physics)

The collider might find extra dimensions, dark matter, some unknown unknown, and—just maybe—nothing at all. 09.10.2008

An Essential, Concise History of the LHC, 2002–2008

DISCOVER's been all over the Large Hadron Collider since it was just a big hole in the ground. 09.10.2008

Is the Universe's Energy Smothered in Dust?

A good dusting of 10,000 galaxies reveals tons of hidden energy. 08.23.2008

Rearranging Stars to Communicate with Aliens

A proposal to create special constellations that nature would never produce 02.08.2008

The Developmentally Disabled Galaxy

A strange old galaxy churns out new stars like a young'un. 01.15.2008

The Man Who Imagined Wormholes and Schooled Hawking

Kip Thorne revolutionized physics, fixed up Contact, and straddled the Cold War divide. 11.09.2007

The Milky Way's Strange Galactic Neighbors

Fly-bys, hobbit galaxies, and an impending merger with Andromeda 09.18.2007

The Sun Flies Like a Bullet

The Milky Way's magnetic field constantly buffets our little star. 08.07.2007

Raw Data: Inside The Oldest Known Star

Astronomers find a star almost as old as the big bang. 07.30.2007

Map: Alien Weather Report

A planet with supersonic winds, where a day lasts a year 07.16.2007

Sun's Shifts May Cause Global Warming

Physicist says carbon dioxide's no big deal 06.25.2007

Perfect Symmetry in Space

Star "belches" are way prettier than they sound. 06.21.2007

One Spectacular Stellar Death

The biggest recent supernova revealed how stars live and die. 05.22.2007

Seeing Sun Storms in Stereo

Space weather is finally available in 3-D. 05.10.2007

Map: X-Ray Vision Shows How a Galaxy Cluster Grows

New X-ray data unveils the dynamics of galaxy cluster Abell 3266. 09.01.2006

Sky Lights: Remote-Control Astronomy

View the cosmos on your computer 05.29.2006

Sky Lights

Nature's weirdest stars turn magnetism into radiation, unleashing as much energy in the blink of an eye as the sun does in 250,000 years 02.20.2006

The Year in Science: Astronomy

Planet Xena, cosmic evolution, gamma ray bursts, and more. 01.08.2006

X [marks the spot]

The First Star is Born 12.01.2005

Starry Galaxies Grow

Starry Galaxies Grow 11.22.2005

Sky Lights

In the heavens as on Earth, reliability is rare, precious, and well, unreliable 03.31.2005

Sky Lights

Just wait until you hear the weather report for the Boomerang nebula 02.06.2005

X-Ray Vision

A completely different view of ravenous black holes, exploding stars, colliding galaxies, and other wonders of the universe a human eye can't see 02.05.2005

Sky Lights

Outer space is not just out there—it is also on your windowsill and inside your body 11.25.2004

Sky Lights

Does the secret of extraterrestrial life lie deep within the stars and planets? 07.25.2004

Ask Discover

04.21.2004

Pleiades Pileup

01.05.2004

Sky Lights

Five astronomy illusions to trick an unwary autumn sky observer 10.01.2003

The Biggest Chill

05.01.2003

Sky Lights

Jupiter's bright light calls attention to an oft-overlooked stellar treasure 04.01.2003

Astronomy

01.01.2003

Sky Lights

Look sharp—there's change afoot up above 11.01.2002

A Cosmic Whopper

11.01.2002

The Very Best Telescope

A powerful, new, and rather bizarre collection of six small telescopes atop Mount Wilson is about to change our view of the stars forever 10.01.2002

Sky Lights

The heavens seem peaceful—but there is danger in the darkness 10.01.2002

Sky Lights

Riding a horse that moves at 137 miles per second 09.01.2002

Works in Progress

Gamma-ray bursts illuminate the farthest reaches of space 08.01.2002

Black Holes Spin?

That's only one of several incredible new surprises about these whirlpools of darkness 07.01.2002

Black Beauty

05.01.2002

Let There Be Light

04.01.2002

Works in Progress

When it's a planet that's not a planet 01.01.2002

Sky Lights

Nature's blackest creations slowly reveal their true identities 10.01.2001

Stardust

The Earth grows fatter every day, snowed under by a continuous microscopic flurry of space specks. Now scientists think space dust may hold the clues to which stars parented our solar system 09.01.2001

Planets in Peril

08.01.2001

Star in a Jar

Want to make a supernova? Astrophysicists are studying the heavens inside a lab 06.01.2001

Dream Weaver

01.01.2001

Sky Lights

Even in the firmament, the only thing constant is change 12.01.2000

Collision Course

11.01.2000

A Star Is Torn

A massive star may soon become a supernova. 09.01.1999

Baby Big Bangs

Massive supernovas called hypernovas could explain mysterious bursts of energy. 08.01.1999

Night Watchman

Snow and city lights can make February a sky watcher's washout. Not this year. 02.01.1999

Galactic Crime Scene

The Milky Way may be cannibalizing nearby galaxies. 12.01.1998

Sired by a Supernova

Cosmic rays born in the shock waves of explosive star death. 11.01.1998

The Mysterious Middle of the Milky Way

At the center of our galaxy is a storm of exploding stars circling a hungry black hole. 11.01.1998

Galaxies in Hiding

11.01.1998

Young Star

Hubble shows the violent birth of a massive star. 10.01.1998

The Archer

Gaze toward the Milky Way's core, around which we imperceptibly revolve 08.01.1998

Cosmic Kickball

What makes a pulsar spin? 08.01.1998

The Year in Science: Astronomy 1997

It turns out gama ray bursts are truly titanic. 01.01.1998

The Year in Science: Astronomy 1997

The Pistol Star makes our own sun lookd downright puny. 01.01.1998

Ramming Remnants

The debris from two supernovae collides. 10.01.1997

A Halo of Suns

Mysterious galactic halos may be made from ordinary stars. 09.01.1997

The Great Summer Triangle

Within the triangle, treasures await 09.01.1997

Watery Stellar Nurseries

Water may be the key ingredient for the successful birth of a star. 07.01.1997

Star Bright

Hubble catches sight of stars so dim it's like seeing the glow of a single cigarette on the moon. 06.01.1997

The Star Machine

When a team of astrophysicists wanted to simulate a moderate-size star cluster, they figured the world's fastest computer could help. And so it could, they learned, give 3,000 years for calculating. So these computer neophytes did the natural thing. They built an even faster computer. 06.01.1997

Water World

Beneath the six-mile-thick shell of ice that encases the moon Europa may lie a vast liquid ocean. And in its dark, alient depths, we may--if we look--find something swimming alive. 05.01.1997

See That Black Hole?

By swallowing huge amounts of energy, a black hole betrays it's whereabouts. 04.01.1997

The Lion in Spring

In April Leo leaps above the eastern horizon at nightfall. 04.01.1997

Your Stars in 1997

Comets, meteors, eclipses, conjunctions and planets will all show off this year. 01.01.1997

Mystery of the Missing Star

The spectacular supernova of 1987 left a hole astronomers have tried to plug for nine years. 12.01.1996

Just Gas, Part II

10.01.1996

Fright Night

10.01.1996

A New Type of Star

A pulsar shoots out powerful bursts of x-rays. 07.01.1996

Scorpion Season

07.01.1996

Death of a Star

Big stars explode and little stars last forever, but medium stars like our sun just fade away ... or do they? 07.01.1996

Harassed Galaxies

06.01.1996

Summer Resolution

June offers celestial splendors that lie at the very edges of human vision. 06.01.1996

A Star That Went Too Close

A star ripped to shreds by a massive black hole may explain a strange feature near the center of our galaxy. 05.01.1996

Whence the Rays? Thence the Rays

A source of mysterious cosmic rays is found at last. 03.01.1996

In the Nursery of the Stars

Infant stars kick, scream, and spew hot gas many light-years into space. 02.01.1996

The Quasars' New Clothes

The more we learn, the less we seem to know about quasars. 01.01.1996

Hi-ho, Hi-ho

Brown dwarfs are the missing link between normal stars and planets. 01.01.1996

Vanishing Stars

Some stars pulse like lighthouse beacons. 10.01.1995

Constant as the Northern Star

The pole star won't always point north. 05.01.1995

The Space Between the Stars

The emptiness is rich in both mystery and misconception. 12.01.1994

Black As Night

The coming of winter brings new constelations. 10.01.1994

September Slowdown

Constellations seem to move more slowly in the fall. 09.01.1994

Invisible Dynamos

Why do galaxies have magnetic fields? It may be because most of them harbor giant black holes at their centers. 07.01.1994

Winds of Change

In the mysterious, glowing clouds created by the collision of violently blowing gases, you can read the record of a star's dying days. 06.01.1994

Dim Lights Everywhere

The universe is turning out to be thronged with dim and ghostly young galaxies that had escaped the notice of astronomers. 05.01.1994

Hunting Season

Orion is full of wonders. 02.01.1994

The Case of the Missing Neutron Stars

Why some stars can end their lives as both a supernova and a black hole. 12.01.1993

Bright Fires Around Us

Mysterious burst of gamma rays reach Earth almost every day—where do they come from? 08.01.1993

A Bubble Is Born

We live in a bubble. It’s about 600 light-years wide. And the exploding star that created it may have been as bright as the full moon. 06.01.1993

The Center Is Ancient

Most astronomers think the Milky Way’s suburbs are its oldest part—they may be wrong. 05.01.1993

Walking in From Arcturus

Arc to Arcturus 04.01.1993

The Ultimate Icebox

Stars come in a wide range of temperatures. 02.01.1993

Island of Stars

10.01.1992

Doubtful Elements

08.01.1992

Cosmic Cartographer

Bob Kirshner wants to give the map of the universe some scale. His yardstick: the bright beacon of a supernova. 07.01.1992