Exotic Objects

The universe is packed with exotic objects, including black holes, pulsars, gamma-ray bursts, magnetars, quasars, and more.

Merging black holes

When black holes merge, is the diameter of the new black hole bigger?

Exotic Objects, Science, Stars

A weird, repeating radio signal from space stumps astronomers

Now far from the Sun in the outer solar system, the strange interstellar object known as ‘Oumuamua is depicted here as it’s approached by a questing spacecraft. Project Lyra is hoping to launch such a craft to explore our first known visitor from another solar system and provide the detailed study scientists desperately seek.

Exotic Objects, Space Exploration

‘Oumuamua: Can we catch an interstellar interloper?

NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory detects X-ray emissions from astronomical events. Credit: NASA/CXC & J. Vaughan.

Exotic Objects, Robotic Spaceflight, Science

How Chandra’s clear, sharp photos help study supermassive black holes

This is an artistic impression of record-breaking quasar J059-4351. It's the bright core of a distant galaxy that is powered by a supermassive black hole like the one studied in this new research. Credit: ESO/M. Kornmesser

Exotic Objects, Science

In a cosmic breakthrough, astronomers measure a supermassive black hole’s spin

Curation teams process the sample return capsule from NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission in a cleanroom in 2023. Credit: NASA.

Exotic Objects, Science

NASA’s asteroid Bennu samples have rocks unlike any meteorite ever found

The LISA spacecrafts observing gravitational waves from a distant source while orbiting the Sun. Credit: Simon Barke/Univ. Florida, CC BY

Exotic Objects, Robotic Spaceflight, Science

‘Hairy’ black holes may get a massive glow-up from the LISA spacecrafts

A visualization of the black hole at the center of the Milky Way. Credit: Abhishek Joshi/UIUC

Exotic Objects, Science

Could you survive falling into a black hole? It depends.

An artist’s conception shows the orbits of both the star (in blue) and the black hole (in red), dubbed Gaia BH3, around their common center of mass. Credit: ESO/L. Calçada/Space Engine (spaceengine.org)

Exotic Objects, Milky Way, Science

Astronomers uncover ‘sleeping giant’ black hole Gaia BH3, the largest ever found in the Milky Way

PRIMA will measure the absolute and relative abundances of heavy elements where they are formed, deep in the hearts of galaxies. Credit: NASA/Jenny Mottar

Exotic Objects, Robotic Spaceflight

Which came first, galaxies or black holes? This is the plan to find out

Exotic Objects, Milky Way

How do you find a black hole? An astronomer explains the thrilling hunt

Black holes, like the one in this illustration, can emit energetic neutrinos. Credit: NASA/Chandra X-ray Observatory.

Exotic Objects, Science

IceCube researchers detect a rare type of particle sent from powerful astronomical objects

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The new study suggests that miniture solar systems would not necessarily look like our own. This composite of planets in our solar system was taken by various NASA spacecraft. Included in the image are (from top to bottom) Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. Credit: NASA/JPL.

Solar system

Our solar system hosts a plethora of fascinating planets and other objects.

Credit: Marco Lorenzi.

Stars

These giant, glowing balls of gas are vital to the evolution of the cosmos.

Artist’s conception of the Milky Way. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/R. Hurt (SSC-Caltech).

Milky Way

Our home galaxy hosts hundreds of billions of stars orbited by countless worlds.

Located 12 million light-years away, M82 appears high in the northern spring sky in the direction of the constellation Ursa Major, the Great Bear. It is also called the “Cigar Galaxy” because of the elliptical shape produced by the oblique tilt of its starry disk relative to our line of sight. Credit: NASA, ESA, and The Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA).

Galaxies

These sprawling star factories are home to millions to trillions of stars.

In this artist’s rendition, the newly discovered planet is shown as a hot, rocky, geologically-active world glowing in the deep red light of its nearby parent star, the M dwarf Gliese 876. Credit: Trent Schindler, National Science Foundation.

Exoplanets

Our cosmos is filled with countless bizarre worlds around other stars.

An artist’s imagination of hydrocarbon pools, icy and rocky terrain on the surface of Saturn’s largest moon. Credit: Steven Hobbs (Brisbane, Queensland, Australia).

Alien life

Only one planet we know of hosts life. But the hunt for extraterrestrial life is on.

This artist’s conception illustrates one of the most primitive supermassive black holes known (central black dot) at the core of a young, star-rich galaxy. Astronomers using NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope have uncovered two of these early objects, dating back to about 13 billion years ago. The monstrous black holes are among the most distant known, and appear to be in the very earliest stages of formation, earlier than any observed so far. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech.

Exotic objects

The universe is filled with extreme objects, from black holes to pulsars and more.

Based on the study, astronomers have updated the timeline of the universe to reflect when the first stars are now thought to have appeared, some 180 million years after the Big Bang. Credit: N. R. Fuller/National Science Foundation.

Cosmology

The origin, evolution, and fate of the universe is shrouded in mystery.

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