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Astronomy

The latest stories, clear explanations and essential discoveries from Astronomy.

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NASA visualization of a neutron star with X-ray beams and an accretion disk
EDITOR’S PICK

What Is Inside a Neutron Star?

A neutron star compresses more mass than the Sun into a sphere the size of a city, turning its interior into a laboratory for matter beyond terrestrial reach.

Sep 13, 2026 • 11 min readRead the discovery →
LATEST

Latest discoveries

New stories, explanations and research from Astronomy.

Dense star field in the constellation Cepheus recorded by NASA’s Dawn spacecraft camera
Astronomy

Why Do Stars Twinkle?

Stars twinkle because their light crosses turbulent layers of Earth’s atmosphere whose temperature and density are constantly changing. Those moving pockets bend the light…

Oct 3, 2026 • 13 min read
Bright Milky Way above the Atacama Desert at night
Astronomy

Why Do Stars Twinkle?

Stars twinkle because their light crosses turbulent layers of Earth’s atmosphere. Pockets of air with different temperatures and densities bend the narrow beam by…

Oct 3, 2026 • 12 min read
Ultraviolet image of Venus showing patterns in its global cloud deck
Astronomy

Why Is Venus Hotter Than Mercury?

Mercury is closer to the Sun, but Venus is hotter because its massive carbon-dioxide atmosphere traps outgoing infrared energy. Venus averages about 464°C at…

Oct 1, 2026 • 14 min read
Why Pulsars Are the Universe’s Precision Clocks featured reference image
Astronomy

Why Pulsars Are the Universe’s Precision Clocks

Rapidly rotating neutron stars sweep radio or high-energy beams past Earth with extraordinary regularity, making them tools for studying gravity and interstellar space.

Sep 30, 2026 • 12 min read
How Cold Clouds Collapse and Form New Stars featured reference image
Astronomy

How Cold Clouds Collapse and Form New Stars

Stars begin inside cold molecular clouds when regions become dense enough for gravity to overcome support from gas pressure, turbulence and magnetic fields, producing…

Sep 28, 2026 • 12 min read
How Gravity Turns Galaxies into Cosmic Lenses featured reference image
Astronomy

How Gravity Turns Galaxies into Cosmic Lenses

Mass bends spacetime and therefore the paths of light, allowing galaxies and clusters to magnify, distort or multiply the images of more distant objects…

Sep 24, 2026 • 12 min read
Why Does the Moon Change Shape? — documentary reference image
Astronomy

Why Does the Moon Change Shape?

The Moon does not physically change shape. Half of it is illuminated by the Sun at almost all times, and its phases occur because…

Sep 23, 2026 • 14 min read
What Causes the Northern Lights? — documentary reference image
Astronomy

What Causes the Northern Lights?

The northern lights form when energetic charged particles guided by Earth’s magnetic field collide with atoms and molecules in the upper atmosphere. Those gases…

Sep 23, 2026 • 14 min read