Astronomy news, features and articles

A beam of particles speeding away from a monstrous black hole is severely kinked, suggesting that the black hole is actually part of the most extreme binary system known.

One of the most prolific meteor showers of the year will peak overnight on Aug. 12-13, but a bright moon will reduce its visual impact.

NASA's Curiosity rover has snapped black and white images of a rock on the Martian surface that looks remarkably like a piece of coral.

High-speed winds on exoplanet WASP-17b may align quartz crystals in its atmosphere and create dazzling light effects like "sun dogs."

As many as 100 "shooting stars" per hour can be seen during the peak of the Perseids on Aug. 12 and 13, but a bright full moon means evasive action is required.

In a rare skywatching treat, you can see August's full Sturgeon Moon rise soon after sunset on both Saturday, Aug. 9 and Sunday, Aug. 10.

A surprising new paper suggests that the universe's expected lifespan is just 33 billion years, and that the cosmos will start dying in less than a third of that time. However, this is only one possible theory.

Giant, ridge-like structures of methane ice, known as "bladed terrain," may be much more abundant along Pluto's equator than previously realized, a new study suggests.

New simulations suggest that up to four of the solar system's rocky planets, including Earth and a long-lost world, once orbited in mathematical harmony around the infant sun.