Space Rings, Black Holes, and LEGO Robots!

Whoa—have you ever expected a giant “BOOM”… and got a giant “shhh” instead? Astronomers watched a huge, aging star that seemed ready to explode like a classic supernova. But instead of blasting bright fireworks across space, the star mostly collapsed inward and formed a black hole. How can that happen? A massive star is like a gigantic engine. It pushes outward with hot energy, while gravity pulls inward like a cosmic tug-of-war. When the star runs out of fuel, gravity can suddenly win. In a re

Have you ever seen the Sun look like it has a glowing, golden hula-hoop around it? That can happen during an annular solar eclipse—coming on February 17. “Annular” sounds fancy, but it just means “ring-shaped.” Here’s the picture in your mind: the Moon moves in front of the Sun, like a cookie sliding over a lamp. But on this day, the Moon will look a bit smaller than the Sun in the sky. So it can’t cover the Sun completely. That leaves a bright ring of sunlight around the Moon—like a shiny donu

Okay, ready for a different kind of space mission—one that happens on a tabletop? In Illinois, teams of students ages 9 to 14 are meeting for a big FIRST LEGO League Challenge championship. Imagine a room buzzing like a beehive, but instead of bees… it’s kids with robots! Here’s how it works: teams build robots out of LEGO pieces, but these aren’t just statues. They add motors and sensors—little robot “senses” that can detect things like lines on the floor or how close the robot is to a wall. T