60-second Space

A galaxy four billion light-years from us was has three supermassive black holes at its center, with two in a tight formation. Clara Moskowitz reports

The European Southern Observatory broke ground June 19th to build the world's largest telescope atop the Cerro Armazones mountain in Chile. Clara Moskowitz reports     

The current solar maximum appears to be weak. But the few previously measured maxes could have been unusually strong. Clara Moskowitz reports     

A failed dwarf galaxy called the Smith Cloud apparently survived an ancient collision with the Milky Way because of a protective dark matter cloak. Clara Moskowitz reports     

Pluto has at least five moons and an atmosphere—and now a new analysis places its diameter as bigger than its outer solar system rival, Eris    

Jupiter's Great Red Spot, once estimated to be 41,000 kilometers across, is just 16,500 kilometers wide in the latest Hubble Space Telescope observations, and the shrinkage seems to be accelerating. Clara Moskowitz reports  

When a white dwarf passes in front of its binary star system companion every 88 days, it acts like a lens to make the larger star appear brighter to us.  

The star cluster HVGC-1 had been part of the M87 galaxy, but now it's fleeing that galaxy at more than two million miles per hour. Clara Moskowitz reports  

A brown dwarf only about three to 10 times Jupiter's mass couldn't get fusion going and now sits freezing in space, in the nearby galactic neighborhood. Clara Moskowitz reports  

Citizen scientists have helped professional astronomers locate more than 500 million lunar craters by using an app called MoonMappers. Karen Hopkin reports   

More than 100 tiny satellites are set to launch into space on April 14th, in a demonstration of a possible future inexpensive technology that could pave the way for the $1,000 satellite. Clara Moskowitz reports   

After prolonged periods in microgravity, astronauts' hearts became more spherical, according to scans done on the International Space Station. Sophie Bushwick reports   

The asteroidlike object Chariklo orbits between Saturn and Uranus and has been found to have its own set of rings. Clara Moskowitz reports    

An exhaustive search by NASA's Wide-Field Infrared Survey Explorer has found no hints of a theorized planet or dwarf star in our neck of the cosmic woods. Clara Moskowitz reports   

The half-the-speed-of-light spin of a giant black hole suggests it grew by digesting another black hole in a galaxy merger. Clara Moskowitz reports 

Spanish astronomers spotted a meteoroid impact at 61,000 kilometers per hour using a telescope network that automatically scans the moon. Clara Moskowitz reports 

The Hubble Telescope's new set of Frontier Fields images includes a galaxy some 13-billion light-years away, which makes it a candidate for the most distant object ever seen. Clara Moskowitz reports 

Galileo—who, among many accomplishments, was first to use a telescope to discover moons around Jupiter—was born 450 years ago this week. Clara Moskowitz reports   

Exoplanet Kepler 413 b's tilt can vary by as much as 30 degrees over 11 years, leading to extremely erratic seasons. Clara Moskowitz reports   

Astronomers have come up with a shopping list of what a planet needs to support life, perhaps even better than our Earth does, making them "superhabitable." Michael Moyer reports