Ashley Strickland - Writer

Ashley Strickland

Writer

Ashley is a space and science writer for CNN.

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An illustration of project number 92 ('Wat') based on the osteobiography generated through analyses of remains excavated from the main cemetery of the hospital of St. John the Evangelist in Cambridge. 'Wat' as an older man, likely born between 1316-1347 and died between 1375-1475. He lived through the Black Death, perhaps ending up in St. John the Evangelist after becoming impoverished in old age. He died in the hospital while sick with cancer. The full osteobiography can be viewed on the After the Plague website. Credit: Mark Gridley/After the Plague

Mark Gridley/After the Plague

‘Bone biographies’ reveal what life was like for Cambridge’s Black Death survivors

Researchers spent five years studying bones from medieval Cambridge, England, to see what life was like for a cross section of the city’s survivors of the Black Death.

Massive exoplanet orbiting small star upends planet formation theories

Astronomers have found a massive planet orbiting a small, cool star, and planet formation theories struggle to explain its existence.

This artistâs impression shows the HH 1177 system, which is located in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a neighbouring galaxy of our own. The young and massive stellar object glowing in the centre is collecting matter from a dusty disc while also expelling matter in powerful jets. Using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), in which ESO is a partner, a team of astronomers managed to find evidence for the presence of this disc by observing its rotation. This is the first time a disc around a young star â the type of disc identical to those forming planets in our own galaxy â has been discovered in another galaxy.

M. Kornmesser/ESO

Planet-forming disk spotted around star in another galaxy for the first time

Astronomers have spotted a massive young star in a neighboring galaxy called the Large Magellanic Cloud. The star is surrounded by a disk where planets may form.

Tracing a link between two neighbour planet at regular time interval along their orbits, create a pattern unique to each couple. The six planets of the HD110067 system create together a mesmerising geometric pattern due to their resonance-chain.

Thibaut Roger/NCCR PlanetS

Astronomers discover nearby six-planet solar system with ‘pristine configuration’

Astronomers have discovered six exoplanets orbiting a nearby star in harmonic rhythm — called resonance — that could shed light on planet formation and evolution.

NASA's Psyche spacecraft is shown in a clean room at the Astrotech Space Operations facility near the agency's Kennedy Space Center in Florida on December 8, 2022. DSOC's gold-capped flight laser transceiver can be seen, near center, attached to the spacecraft.

Ben Smegelsky/NASA

‘First light’: NASA receives laser-beamed message from 10 million miles away

An experiment aboard NASA’s Psyche mission achieved “first light” by sending and receiving its first deep-space laser communications from far beyond the moon.

There are approximately 500,000 stars in this image of the Sagittarius C region of the Milky Way. The bright cyan area contains emissions from ionized hydrogen.

NASA/ESA/CSA/STScI

Webb telescope captures never-before-seen glimpse of the heart of the Milky Way

The James Webb Space Telescope spied new details and mysteries within the chaotic heart of the Milky Way galaxy.

SpaceX's mega rocket Starship launches for a test flight from Starbase in Boca Chica, Texas, Saturday, Nov. 18, 2023. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)

SpaceX launch attempt ends in loss of most powerful rocket ever built

This week, see the second test flight of Starship, meet South Africa’s shy shark species, unravel a stellar mystery, and more.

Rare stellar explosion creates a dead star flaring with signs of life

Stellar corpse called ‘Tasmanian devil’ reveals phenomenon astronomers have never seen

Months after a star exploded, the stellar corpse has continued to release energetic flares just as powerful as the original event.

NASAâs Perseverance rover captured this view of the location where it will be parked for several weeks during Mars solar conjunction, a period when engineers stop sending commands to spacecraft at the Red Planet because the Sun may interfere with radio signals.

NASA/JPL-Caltech

Sun temporarily halts communications between NASA and Mars missions

Chatter may slow between NASA missions and ground control as the sun moves between Earth and Mars, but the robotic explorers will keep working over the next two weeks.

This artist's concept illustrates the new view of the Milky Way, along with other findings presented at the 212th American Astronomical Society meeting in St. Louis, Mo.

JPL-Caltech/NASA

Webb telescope spots the most distant Milky Way-like galaxy yet

Astronomers used the James Webb Space Telescope to spot a Milky Way-like galaxy that formed soon after the big bang created the universe.

The Euclid telescope captured an image of the 1,000 galaxies contained within the Perseus cluster, as well as 100,000 faint, distant galaxies behind the cluster. The cluster is located 240 million light-years from Earth.

New celestial images will create a 3D map of the universe

This week, see the first cosmic images taken by the Euclid telescope, read 265-year-old letters, uncover the volcanic threat lurking beneath Italy, and more.

This panchromatic view of galaxy cluster MACS0416 was created by combining infrared observations from NASA's James Webb Space Telescope with visible-light data from NASA's Hubble Space Telescope. To make the image, in general the shortest wavelengths of light were color-coded blue, the longest wavelengths red, and intermediate wavelengths green. The resulting wavelength coverage, from 0.4 to 5 microns, reveals a vivid landscape of galaxies that could be described as one of the most colorful views of the universe ever created.

NASA/ESA/CSA/STScI

Cosmic ‘Christmas tree’ dazzles in new image captured by Hubble and Webb

Astronomers used the combined powers of the Hubble and Webb telescopes to take a portrait of colliding clusters of galaxies, called the Christmas Tree Galaxy Cluster.

NASA/Goddard/SwRI/Johns Hopkins APL

‘Puzzling’ discovery spotted in new images from NASA mission’s asteroid flyby

The Lucy mission has shared additional images from its flyby of the asteroid Dinkinesh, revealing the surprising companion orbiting the space rock isn’t what it initially seemed.

Astronomers found the most distant black hole ever detected in X-rays (in a galaxy dubbed UHZ1) using the Chandra and Webb space telescopes. X-ray emission is a telltale signature of a growing supermassive black hole. This result may explain how some of the first supermassive black holes in the universe formed. These images show the galaxy cluster Abell 2744 that UHZ1 is located behind, in X-rays from Chandra and infrared data from Webb, as well as close-ups of the black hole host galaxy UHZ1.

NASA/ESA/CSA/STScI/CXC/SAO/Ákos Bogdán/L. Frattare & K. Arcand

Telescopes spot the oldest and most distant black hole formed after the big bang

Two NASA telescopes discovered the oldest known black hole, which formed just 470 million years after the big bang created the universe.

Adult patiria (from the paper).jpg

Laurent Formery

Starfish bodies aren’t bodies at all, study finds

The heads of most animals are easily identifiable, but scientists haven’t been able to say the same for sea stars — until now.

Euclid's view of the Horsehead Nebula.

Euclid telescope’s first images reveal new cosmic details

The first five color images captured by the European Space Agency’s Euclid telescope were revealed Tuesday, capturing previously unseen cosmic details.