The observable universe is home to more than a hundred billion galaxies of many shapes and sizes. The most distant galaxies are relics of an earlier era, so observing them is a glimpse at history.

CfA astronomers have found the fastest growing black hole on record, which could explain how some can get so big so quickly Cambridge (September 19, 2025)—A black hole is growing at one of the fastest ...

Arcand won the award for her contributions to the public understanding and appreciation of astronomy as a popular science communicator and a leading expert in astronomy communications and data ...

The Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian Office of Communications issues press releases and other media materials pertaining to the CfA's research and projects, as well as overseeing ...

The new multi-year Event Horizon Telescope observations capture evolving polarization patterns in a neighboring galaxy's supermassive black hole. Cambridge, MA— The Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) ...

The awards honor outstanding contributions by researchers in the United States in the Life Sciences, Chemical Sciences, and Physical Sciences and Engineering. Charlie Conroy, professor of astronomy at ...

The Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory (SAO) was founded in 1890 under Smithsonian Secretary Samuel Pierpont Langley as a research bureau of the Smithsonian Institution. It began its tenure ...

Throughout the last century of scientific discovery, as well as the history of popular culture and science fiction, black holes have been a source of fascination and mystery. One thing is certain: ...

The unusual shape of the star's debris ring shows evidence of sculpting by ancient planets. The new debris disk image was created with the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) telescope ...

Theory is how scientists fit data collected from observation into a system of understanding. However, some astrophysical systems are too complicated to be treated adequately using straightforward ...

The Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian Radio & Geoastronomy (R&G) division explores the Universe using the low-energy portion of the electromagnetic spectrum, including the radio, ...

Space doesn’t have air, but it does have weather. This weather comes from the Sun: the high-energy light emitted by the Sun and the electrically charged particles known as the solar wind, which can ...