Enigmatic Mercury Will Remain A Puzzle Until Someone Sends A Lander

Despite the upcoming Bepi Colombo visit to Mercury, we need a lander mission to fully understand our solar system’s innermost planet.

In the Search for Exoplanets, Some Failures Are A Success

Astronomers used decades of archival data and new radial velocity measurements to search for exoplanets around a neaby binary star, 70 Oph AB. They didn't find any, which can seem like a failure. But in this case, their work only ruled out large, Jupiter-mass planets at certain distances. There could still be Earth-sized planets there, and their precise findings will only fuel a deeper search with more powerful telescopes.

The Flavor of Neutrinos Could Determine How a Large Star Dies

Neutrinos come in three different flavors. A new study finds that neutrino flavor could play a significant role in whether a dying star becomes a supernova or collapses directly into a black hole.

A Radio Phoenix Beyond the Zone of Avoidance

Years ago, astronomers spotted a strange radio formation beyond the Zone of Avoidance. The formation resembles a treble clef, a symbol in musical notation, and the nickname has stuck. Determining what created it has been difficult, but new research has revealed that the Treble Clef is a radio phoenix.

A Distant Supercluster of Galaxies Points To Self-Interacting Dark Matter

The El Gordo supercluster is unusually large given its distance. How could such a large galaxy cluster form so quickly? The answer could be that dark matter is self-interacting in an interesting two-state way.

Scientists Detect Rare Type of Wood Alcohol in Space

As part of the ALMA COMPASS Large program, an international research team has detected a rare form of methanol in space for the first time.

Host Stars Shape Their Planetary Systems Into Two Families

New research draws a link between a host star and the characteristics of its planetary system. Higher mass stars create one family of systems, while lower mass stars create another. These results provide a new, more detailed template for understanding exoplanet systems.