R136a1 is the most massive star that astronomers have ever discovered. It's so massive you might think the laws of physics wouldn't allow it. But it turns out that its current mass estimate is actually so low that it threatens our...

Our solar system is a tiny bubble of habitability suspended in a vast universe that mostly wants to kill us. In fact, a good fraction of our own galaxy turns out to be utterly uninhabitable, even for sun—like stellar systems. Is this why...

This week on SciShow Space News we're talking about gravity waves (not gravitational waves) on Pluto, and radioactive interstellar rain on Earth!

The majority of the universe is made up of a currently mysterious entity that pervades space: dark energy. We don’t know exactly what it is, but we do know that dark energy accelerates the expansion of space. We think this means the...

When we look at the sky, we have a flat, two-dimensional view. So how do astronomers figure the distances of stars and galaxies from Earth? Yuan-Sen Ting shows us how trigonometric parallaxes, standard candles and more help us determine...

A pulsing black hole in the centre of a distant galaxy sheds light on black hole and galaxy formation. How fast are black holes rotating and how does that rotation change over its life-span?

What are the odds a supernova could end the world tomorrow?

When will the next naked-eye supernova event happen? What will it look like? Will we be safe? Astrum Answers!

An element is a pure substance that cannot be broken down any further by chemical means.
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A Twig Science
Glossary Film.
Key scientific terms defined in just 60 seconds using stunning images and concise textual...

What are stars made of? How are they born, how do they live, and how do they die? Physics - Our Solar System - Learning Points. Our nearest star is the Sun. A star is formed from a cloud of dust and gas, which shrinks under gravity and...

What was proto-Earth like? How do Earth slowly form over time? Where were the first forms of life found on Earth?<br/>
Searching for Life in the Galaxy, Part 1

Who are the biggest super stars in the universe? For Adam Burrows, an astrophysics professor at Princeton University, it's not who, but ""what,"" and they are far from Hollywood, or even Earth, for that matter. Burrows would tell you...

New paper proposes megalodon may have gone extinct due to supernova explosion

Our universe is more than a serene landscape of stars--it is teeming with activity from some extremely violent events. In a presentation at the IMAX theatre at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C. on...

On July 4, NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) completed its primary mission, a two-year-long survey that imaged about 75% of the starry sky. In capturing this giant mosaic, TESS has found 66...

NASA’s upcoming Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope will see thousands of exploding stars called supernovae across vast stretches of time and space. Using these observations, astronomers aim to shine a light...

1. Still of supernova viewed from NASA's Hubble Space Telescope

NASA's space telescope has captured the titanic supernova explosion of a massive st
ar .
The photo shows glowing, gaseous streamers of red, white, and blue,...

1. Wide shot of press conference

2. Press confe
rence
3. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr Derek Fox, California Institute of Technology,
Pasadena:
"If gamma-rays bursts are the birth cries of black holes, then...

English/Nat

Scientists have obtained new pictures showing that a exploding star is lighting up space with spectacular images - the likes of which have not been seen since
1604.
Pictures of the...

1. Animation of 2006GY Supernova exploding ++mute++

2. Wide of panel of scien
tists
3. Set up Nathan Smith, Astrophysicist at the University of Californi
a/Berkeley
4. SOUNDBITE: (English) Nathan Smith,...

English/Nat

Scientists using the Chandra X-ray telescope in space have uncovered evidence of a new type of black h
ole.
In a relatively close galaxy, astronomically speaking, a mid-sized black hole's...

1. Zoom animation from Scorpius constellation pushing deeper to reveal Kepler's Supernova

Pasadena, California, USA - 6 October
2004
2. SOUNDBITE: (English) Dr. Michael Werner, NASA's Jet Propulsion...

Space mute Duration: 0.50"

Astronauts aboard the US space shuttle Endeavor were able to
watch
a stellar explosion in progress, a celestial event taking place in a far-off galaxy...

English/Nat

Astronomers working with America's space agency, NASA, say they've seen a bursting star which is unlike anything ever obse
rved.
It came in the form of a huge explosion of X-rays from a...