Nearly 4.5 million years ago, two enormous, blazing stars swung close to the solar system. They did not touch the sun, but they came close enough to leave a permanent mark on the thin mist of gas that ...

Scientists have revealed for the first time a jaw-dropping early view of an exploding supernova. Observations with the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope (ESO’s VLT) have revealed ...

In recent years, whenever astronomers have gazed into the night sky, they’ve noticed something peculiar: Some of its massive stars—the true titans of the cosmos—appear to be missing. The largest of ...

What’s the link between an exploding star, climate change and human evolution? Francis Thackeray, who has researched ancient environments and fossils for many years, sets out his ideas about what ...

Astronomers have for the first time seen the birth of a magnetar—a highly magnetized, spinning neutron star—and confirmed that it's the power source behind some of the brightest exploding stars in the ...