Puerto Rico’s Arecibo radio telescope suffers serious damage

The Arecibo Observatory -- the second-largest radio telescope in the world -- is in trouble again. Early this week, a support cable snapped, causing a 100-foot-long gash in the telescope’s reflector dish. It also damaged panels in a receiver called t...

China’s giant radio telescope will start searching for aliens in September

China will soon make a significant contribution to the search for extraterrestrial life. State media outlet Science and Technology Daily (via ChinaTechCity) says the country’s Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Telescope, or FAST, will begin looki...

Capturing the Sun’s Texas-sized cells in the highest detail ever

The Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope (DKIST) started with some controversy, but its first images are already changing the field of solar science. The Maui observatory captured the highest-resolution photos of the sun ever taken, revealing detail down...

NASA decommissions Spitzer Space Telescope after 16 years of service

NASA is flipping the switch on the Spitzer Space Telescope today. The observatory has made groundbreaking discoveries about the universe since its launch in 2003, from imaging some of the oldest stars in the universe to detecting the light reflected...

The first ever black hole image lands scientists $3 million prize

The scientists that captured the first image of a black hole are being rewarded with a $3 million prize. The Breakthrough prize, known as the "Oscars of Science," is sponsored by Silicon Valley execs such as Mark Zuckerberg and Sergey Brin, and recog...

The world’s largest telescope is one step closer to completion

The world's largest telescope is one step closer to completion. This month, the team working on the Giant Magellan Telescope (GMT) completed the second of seven primary mirror segments, a process that began in January 2012.