Tag Archives: Kepler

In 1604, a white dwarf star went supernova. This is very normal behavior for a white dwarf star; but this one, at a distance of just 20,000 light-years from Earth, was visible to the naked eye, and documented by astronomers around the world, including the German astronomer Johannes Kepler. Kepler’s …

Measurements from NASA’s Transit Exoplanet Study Satellite (TESS) have enabled astronomers to greatly improve their understanding of the strange environment of KELT-9b, one of the hottest known planets. “The rarity factor is high with KELT-9b,” said John Ahlers, an astronomer at the Universities Space Research Association in Columbia, Maryland, and …