Magnetars — the dense remains of dead stars that erupt sporadically with bursts of high-energy radiation — are some of the most extreme objects known in the universe. A major campaign using NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory and several other satellites…

Griffith Observatory is a Los Angeles-based facility that bills itself as the most-visited observatory in the world.

While many professional facilities are solely used by astronomers, Griffith has free public telescopes that are open each evening that the observatory and skies…