‘Vampire’ star feeding frenzy found
New project makes good use of data from an old telescope.
Astronomers led by the Australian National University (ANU) have found a “vampire” star in the midst of a feeding fre...
Kepler space telescope
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New clues to the Milky Way’s age
Star-quake vibrations suggest ‘thick disc’ is 10 billion years old.
The Milky Way’s “thick disc” is about 10 billion years old, according to an international team of scientists.They use...
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Study raises concern for sun ‘superflare’
Research finds it’s not just young stars that behave explosively.
Astronomers monitoring data from thousands of distant stars have come to an unnerving conclusion: every 2000 to 3000 ...
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TESS finds comets around ‘celebrity’ star
NASA planet-spotting mission detects its first smaller bodies.
Just one year after its launch, NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) has detected its first comets orb...
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Artificial astronomers spot new planets
Applying algorithms to noisy Kepler data produces results. Andrew Masterson reports.
Two new exoplanets have been discovered – but not by human eyes.In a paper published in The Astronomical Journal, res...
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Ten years after: Kepler’s first planet confirmed
Months after NASA’s orbiting telescope shut down, its work is verified. Andrew Masterson reports.
A decade after it was first detected, astronomers have confirmed the existence of the first exoplanet ever spotted by...
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NASA retires the Kepler Space Telescope
The world’s first dedicated exoplanet-spotting craft has run out of fuel, and fallen silent. Andr...
After just shy of a decade of active service, NASA’s Kepler Space Telescope has ceased operations.Announcing the end ...
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Dust to dust: the mystery of Tabby’s star deepens
It’s been dubbed the most mysterious star in the universe, and the latest research does nothing t...
Astronomers using small telescopes around the world are unearthing clues to an enigma once dubbed “the most mysteriou...
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Non-magnetic dwarfs turn out to be magnetic
NASA’s Kepler satellite provides detailed data to overturn conventional thinking on magnetism and...
Until today, roughly 85% of white dwarfs – the compact, hyper-dense corpses of burnt-out stars – were thought to lack...
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Johannes Kepler's obsession with Mars
It took Johannes Kepler eight years to solve the “Martian problem” laying the foundations for mod...
In the dying years of the 16th century, Johannes Kepler – mathematician, astrologer and astronomer – became obsessed ...
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Whirling dance of vibrating 'heartbeat stars'
Stars locked in a strange orbit could be pulled around by an as-yet unseen stellar companion.
An artist's impression of two 'heartbeat stars' swerving near one another in their closest approach along their highl...
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Alien megastructure 'discovery': a review of the facts
Two recent stories suggest extraterrestrial life is alive and well – and advanced enough to build...
An artist's impression of a Dyson sphere – a collection of energy-harvesting components built around a sun by an alie...