In my January 23, 2026, “The Universe” column, I wrote about some of the biggest bangs the universe has to offer: exploding stars, hiccupping magnetars, stellar disruptions and colliding black holes.

Katherine Johnson, a brilliant mathematician, played a vital role in America's space race. Her accurate calculations were essential for the safety of astronauts like John Glenn. Johnson's work on ...

I arrive halfway through a staff meeting on a crisp autumn day in New York City. Patricia Field is perched on a swivel stool at the front counter of her boutique and gallery on Manhattan’s Lower East ...

Simulations suggest that two enormous masses of hot rock have been involved in generating Earth’s magnetic field and giving ...

A massive star 2.5 million light-years away simply vanished — and astronomers now know why. Instead of exploding in a supernova, it quietly collapsed into a black hole, shedding its outer layers in a ...

Hypothetical dark matter stars known as "boson stars" could leave telltale ripples across the cosmos, offering researchers a new way to probe the invisible forces shaping the universe. In 2019, a ...

A mysterious object has caused a long-lasting and extreme dimming of a distant star, but is this object a 'failed star' brown dwarf, or an exceptionally massive super-Jupiter exoplanet?

Comet Wierzchoś, also known as C/2024 E1, is rapidly brightening as it approaches its closest point to Earth next week. But experts predict it will eventually be thrown out of the solar system forever ...

Typically, from what astronomers have gathered thus far, star systems follow a tidy logic: small, rocky worlds huddle close to the warmth of their star, while massive gas giants bloat up in the colder ...