How to become a variable star observer

As an astrophotographer, you might feel that you will eventually run out of targets. I disagree — amateurs are discovering new targets all the time, and old targets can look brand new with better skills and different gear — but if you are looking for a fresh astronomical challenge, look […]

NASA’s Chandra Finds Unusual Objects in Pinwheel Galaxy

Using NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory, researchers found mysterious objects that give off unusually low-energy X-rays but intense levels of ultraviolet radiation. One of the galaxies they studied, M101, is pictured here in this image released on Sept. 9, 2026. Astronomers suggest these newly spotted objects in other galaxies may help […]

MiMo-V2.6-Pro ties Grok 4.7 (xHigh) and beats GLM-5.3 (max) on Artificial Analysis’ Intelligence Index, making it the benchmark’s top-scoring open-weight model (Carl Franzen/VentureBeat)

Carl Franzen / VentureBeat: MiMo-V2.6-Pro ties Grok 4.7 (xHigh) and beats GLM-5.3 (max) on Artificial Analysis’ Intelligence Index, making it the benchmark’s top-scoring open-weight model  —  That puts Xiaomi’s new flagship ahead of proprietary models including xAI’s Grok 4.6, currently at 44, and Google’s Gemini 3.8 Flash …