Astrophysics

The James Webb Space Telescope has the potential to rewrite the history of the cosmos and reshape humanity’s position within it. But first, a lot of things have to work just right.

After a search of neutron stars finds preliminary evidence for hypothetical dark matter particles called axions, astrophysicists are devising new ways to spot them.

Brown dwarfs such as “The Accident” are illuminating the murky borderlands that separate planets from stars.

These ultrabright flashes have recently been tracked for days, upending ideas about the cataclysms that create them.

Scientists have long struggled to understand how common planets form. A new supercomputer simulation shows that the missing ingredient may be magnetism.

Groundbreaking results show that neutron stars of different masses may have the same size — upending astrophysical models.

Supermassive black holes emit jets of white-hot plasma that stretch thousands of light-years across the cosmos. For the first time, researchers have identified what’s creating these jets.

Ultrahigh-energy cosmic rays twist and turn on their way to Earth, which has made it nearly impossible to identify the colossal monsters that create them.

Radio waves, longer and less energetic than visible light, give astronomers access to some of the most obscure physics in the cosmos.