An illustration of a star being torn apart by a black hole. To the right of center, there is a black sphere representing a black hole, surrounded by many thick wisps of light. To the left of it, there is a fuzzy, bright white object representing a star. The star has a tail of gas coming off its right, which is brightest near the star, but becomes grayer further away. This tail flows into the black hole’s right side and swirls around the black hole in a horizontal disk. The disk is thicker toward its center and more diffuse farther away. Material in the disk also appears to wrap around the top of the black hole. Above and below the black hole, there are purple rays of light that extend upward and downward in two broad cones. This scene sits amid a black backdrop of space with many dim, white stars in the background.

NASA’s Roman Space Telescope Could Help Researchers Detect the Universe’s First Stars

The first stars to form in the universe were very different from our Sun. Known to astronomers (somewhat paradoxically) as ...
Illustration of the Roman Space Telescope

WFIRST Telescope Named For ‘Mother of Hubble’ Nancy Grace Roman

Today, NASA announced that it is naming its next-generation space telescope, the Wide Field Infrared Survey Telescope (WFIRST), in honor ...