headshot of temporary astronomy writer Liz Kruesi

Liz Kruesi

Liz Kruesi is a freelance science journalist who focuses on astronomy. She is based in Colorado. She has written about astronomy and space since 2005, and received the AAS High-Energy Astrophysics Division science journalism award in 2013. She holds a bachelor’s degree in physics from Lawrence University in Appleton, Wisc.

All Stories by Liz Kruesi

  1. image of the Milky Way with exoplanet orbits indicated by purple circles
    Astronomy

    NASA’s exoplanet count surges past 5,000

    With a new batch of 60 confirmed exoplanets, the number of known worlds in our galaxy reaches another milestone.

  2. illustration of the New Horizons spacecraft with interplanetary dust in the background and the sun in the very distant background
    Astronomy

    The universe’s background starlight is twice as bright as expected

    Images from the New Horizons spacecraft suggest that light from all known galaxies accounts for only half of the cosmos’ visible background glow.

  3. image of the black hole in galaxy M87
    Particle Physics

    How light from black holes is narrowing the search for axions

    The orientation of light waves from the region around galaxy M87’s central black hole rules out the existence of axions of a certain mass.

  4. illustration of two blue stars in star system HR 6819
    Astronomy

    Earth’s purported ‘nearest black hole’ isn’t a black hole

    A disputed multiple-star system doesn’t have a black hole, as once reported, but is actually a missing piece in binary star evolution.

  5. illustration of the Rosalind Franklin Mars rover on the surface of Mars
    Space

    How Russia’s war in Ukraine hinders space research and exploration

    A Mars rover, an X-ray telescope and several low-Earth satellites are at risk in response to international sanctions on Russia.

  6. An illustration of a Trojan asteroid in space
    Planetary Science

    Earth has a second known ‘Trojan asteroid’ that shares its orbit

    A recently found space rock is about one kilometer wide, orbits ahead of Earth around the sun and will stick around for at least 4,000 years.

  7. illustration of a Cow-like supernova with yellow hues
    Astronomy

    An X-ray glow suggests black holes or neutron stars fuel weird cosmic ‘cows’

    With the brightest X-ray glow of a new class of exploding stars, cosmic oddity AT2020mrf boosts evidence of these mysterious blasts’ power source.