Latest articles by Robert Lea
Amateur astronomer finds 5 fascinating new galaxies — and they're now named after him
Giuseppe Donatiello is an amateur astronomer with a unique distinction: discoverer of 11 galaxies, nine with his name.
Stars give tiny planets a gravitational 'squeeze' to strip away their atmospheres
Modeling distant planets has revealed that tidal forces generated by their parent stars can combine with intense radiation bombardment and strip away their atmospheres.
Young 'cotton candy' exoplanet the size of Jupiter may be shrinking into a super-Earth
Astronomers have found that one of the lightest exoplanets ever seen, the young 'cotton candy' world V1298 Tau b, may be shrinking from the size of Jupiter to the width of a super-Earth.
Right again, Einstein! Scientists find where matter 'waterfalls' into black holes
Einstein was right! Scientists found the first-ever evidence of "plunging regions" of spacetime where matter inexorably falls into black holes, as predicted by general relativity.
Bright green fireball lights up the skies over Portugal and Spain (photos)
On the evening of Saturday (May 18) a bright fireball lit up the skies over Portugal and Spain in stunning green and blue as it streaked through Earth's atmosphere.
James Webb Space Telescope sees Orion Nebula in a stunning new light (images)
The Orion Nebula may be a familiar astronomical sight over Earth but that hasn't stopped the James Webb Space Telescope from seeing this star-forming region in a stunning new light.
Japanese-European spacecraft bound for Mercury weakened by thruster glitch
The thrusters of Mercury-bound spacecraft BepiColombo are operating at less than full capacity, and operators are racing to find a solution.
James Webb Space Telescope spots most distant and oldest black hole collision ever seen (video)
The James Webb Space Telescope has detected a merger between two supermassive black holes so distant it proceeded just 740 million years after the Big Bang.
In the Milky Way, 3 intruder stars are 'on the run' — in the wrong direction
Three ancient stars that hail from cannibalized dwarf galaxies are "on the run" at hundreds of thousands of miles per hour in the Milky Way's galactic halo.
Cotton candy exoplanet is 2nd lightest planet ever found
"The planet is basically super fluffy."
Milky Way's halo is filled with 'magnetic donuts' as wide as 100,000 light-years
The discovery could help astronomers better understand how cosmic magnetic fields form and evolve.
Earth-size planet discovered around cool red dwarf star shares its name with a biscuit
Astronomers have discovered an Earth-size planet orbiting a red dwarf star, making just the second planetary system seen around one of these tiny, cool, dim, but common, stars.
NASA's Chandra spacecraft spots supermassive black hole erupting in the Milky Way's heart
NASA's Chandra X-ray space telescope has spotted the supermassive black hole at the heart of our galaxy erupting, proving even quiet black holes like Sagittarius A* need to vent sometimes.
Cracking! Some binary black holes may roll around each other in egg-shaped orbits
Some black hole pairs roll around each other in wobbly, egg-shaped orbits that could hold clues about their origins, gravitational wave measurements suggest.
NASA's Roman Space Telescope will hunt for the universe's 1st stars — or their shredded corpses, anyway
NASA's Nancy Grace Roman Telescope will hunt for the universe's first stars — or rather, what's left of them after they've been ripped apart by black holes.
'God of Destruction' asteroid Apophis will come to Earth in 2029 — and it could meet some tiny spacecraft
Asteroid Apophis is heading to Earth, and scientists have revealed three tiny spacecraft concepts that could race to meet the space rock in April 2029.
Scientists use XRISM spacecraft to predict fate of matter around monster supermassive black hole
The spacecraft XRISM has examined light from a distant galaxy that houses a supermassive black hole to determine the fate of matter in the void's gravitational thrall.
NASA's Nancy Grace Roman Telescope will hunt for tiny black holes left over from the Big Bang
Primordial black holes left over from the Big Bang and no wider than a dime could be a prime target for NASA's Nancy Grace Roman Telescope after it launches in 2026.
White dwarfs are 'heavy metal' zombie stars endlessly cannibalizing their dead planetary systems
Zombie white dwarf stars keep their heavy metal exteriors fresh by constantly cannibalizing any smaller objects in their dead planetary systems, like comets and asteroids, that get in their way.
NASA's TESS spacecraft resumes exoplanet hunt after recovering from glitch
NASA's exoplanet-hunting spacecraft TESS is back in action after nine days in safe mode, returning to scientific observations on May 3.
This diamond exoplanet lost its atmosphere — then it grew another
55 Cancri e is a super-Earth planet that appears composed of diamond-like carbon — now, thanks to the JWST, astronomers have found the world has "grown" a second atmosphere.
Fall into a black hole in mind-bending NASA animation (video)
Black hole week is on, and to celebrate NASA is taking us on a way to plunge past the event horizon of a supermassive black hole and on a time-bending trip around the same cosmic titan.
James Webb Space Telescope suggests supermassive black holes grew from heavy cosmic 'seeds'
The mystery of how early universe supermassive black holes grew so quickly may be solved, with the James Webb Space Telescope finding the first evidence of "heavy seeds."
