The bright clutter of individual discoveries can overshadow some fascinating research, from necroplanetology to rogue planets to the intimacy of alphanumeric nomenclature.
stars
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Thousands of Stars View Earth as a Transiting Exoplanet
Researchers have identified more than 2,000 stars whose past, present, or future vantage points afford a view of Earth passing directly in front of the Sun, a geometry useful for pinpointing planets.
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When Betelgeuse Won’t Explode, You Need a Big Telescope to Prove It
Thanks to last-minute telescope time, researchers pieced together the sequence of events that caused Betelgeuse’s Great Dimming last year.
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Record-Setting Flare Spotted on the Nearest Star to the Sun
Proxima Centauri recently let loose a blast of radiation, and ground- and space-based telescopes detected the record-setting event at wavelengths ranging from radio to the ultraviolet.
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Seeing Stripes in the Atmosphere of a Brown Dwarf
A planet-hunting satellite’s observations of the nearby system Luhman 16 AB reveal bands of clouds, high-speed jets, and polar vortices.
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Hot White Dwarfs May Reveal Cold Gas Giants
The gaseous atmospheres of giant planets may evaporate and accrete onto the dense surfaces of white dwarfs, providing astronomers a new way to detect hidden exoplanets.
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Dust Older Than the Sun Sheds Light on Galactic History
A small pile of dust grains older than the Sun brings new evidence about the rate at which stars are born in the Milky Way.
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Interstellar Visitors Could Export Terrestrial Life to Other Stars
A handful of interstellar objects and long-period comets could have scooped up microorganisms from Earth and carried them to worlds around other stars.
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Chemical Patterns May Predict Stars That Host Giant Planets
Stars with giant planets tend to have a few key elements in abundance. A new algorithm used these patterns to predict hundreds of stars that will likely have exoplanets if we go looking for them.
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Aging Stars Make New Habitable Zones
Scientists searching for life in the universe now have a new target: the once-icy worlds orbiting red giants.