I keep trying to see this supernova in the Pinwheel Galaxy. The darn moon is just too bright. Ethan at Starts With a Bang suggests waiting a week or so. I will try that. But what I find really cool ...

Astronomers from Serbia and Russia have conducted deep optical observations of a cloud of neutral atomic hydrogen, designated FAST J0139+4328. Results of the observational campaign, published December ...

Hubble proved Andromeda is a separate galaxy by identifying a Cepheid variable star within it. Cepheid variables have a period-luminosity relationship: longer period means greater brightness. Knowing ...

A standard candle is an object whose luminosity, or brightness, is a known quantity. Standard candles are used by astronomers to estimate the distance of the candle itself, as well as nearby features, ...

This week on Looking Up guest host Caitlyn Voige illuminates a luminary by the name of Henrietta Swan Leavitt. When we look up into the night sky, stars look immeasurably small and distant, unchanging ...

What is luminosity? According to some basic physics, it is just one of the trinities of light's properties. It sits alongside brightness and flux and contributes to warmth. Besides being a lovely ...

Quasars, the luminous beacons at the centers of distant galaxies, have puzzled astronomers for decades with their dramatic brightness variations. Recent observations suggest that these celestial ...

Don Lincoln is a senior scientist at the U.S. Department of Energy's Fermilab, the United States' biggest Large Hadron Collider research institution. He also writes about science for the public, ...