About Author
Shiladitya Ray is a veteran journalist, data storyteller, and astronomy aficionado with nearly a decade of experience covering geopolitics, policy, and science in high-pressure digital newsrooms. Across his tenures as an Assistant Editor at Mint and Chief Sub-Editor at Deccan Herald, Shiladitya has reported on everything from complex international conflicts to landmark scientific breakthroughs. At Starlust, Shiladitya narrows his focus exclusively to a lifelong passion: understanding the cosmos. He oversees the site's coverage of deep-sky discoveries, planetary science, and the commercial space race, drawing on his extensive experience of covering major achievements and events in astronomy. Furthermore, his background as an academic editor for Cactus Communications brings a strict, peer-review-level rigor to Starlust's scientific reporting. A data storyteller at heart with a focus on crafting engaging visual narratives, Shiladitya is a standout fellow of the Google News Initiative (GNI) Data Journalism Lab, where he utilized NASA's extensive exoplanet dataset to build an interactive deep-dive featuring habitability analyses and spatial maps of the 5,000+ discoveries to date. He has also served as a speaker at GNI's AI Skills Lab, instructing senior newsroom editors on the use of generative AI for complex data visualization—expertise he now brings to Starlust. Shiladitya grew up poring over the astronomical canon of Carl Sagan and Stephen Hawking, and today, seeks to modernize science communication through interactive storytelling, evoking the sense of wonder and awe that only the cosmos can inspire.
Latest From Shiladitya Ray
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330 million light-years of darkness: The mystery of The Great Nothing—the Boötes Void
When astronomers look at the night sky, the expect to see thousands of galaxies. But there exists a 330-million-light-year patch of near nothingness. Here's all about the Boötes Void.
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September 2026 skywatching guide: Planetary conjunctions, Full Harvest Moon, and more
September 2026 offers a rich viewing window for stargazers, with a variety of celestial events lined up. Here's all about them.
Partial Lunar Eclipse on August 27-28, 2026: Will weather affect visibility in the U.S.?
Cloud cover and storms can play spoilsport. Here's what conditions to expect across the U.S.
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Could we save Earth when the Sun dies? A scientist says there could be a way
Life on Earth is staring at extinction when the Sun turns red giant a billion years from now, but a scientist believes we can save the Blue Planet, as well as our solar system.
China's LandSpace joins elite club with SpaceX, Blue Origin after Zhuque-3 booster recovery on land
LandSpace is only the third private firm across the world to have successfully recovered an orbital-class rocket.
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Could Mars be our next home? Five strange facts about the Red Planet that will make you rethink
Humanity is eyeing Mars for colonization, but there are realities about the Red Planet that might make you question these lofty ambitions.
Nearly 12-billion-year-old merger: Meet LKH, the earliest known galaxy to have collided with the Milky Way
This is the first evidence of a galactic merger preceding the Gaia-Sausage-Enceladus collision.
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Astronomers just confirmed the first black hole star: "We’re seeing pure black hole star light"
A new type of astrophysical object has been identified. Know all about MoM-BH*-1, the first confirmed black hole star.
Astronomers confirm first 'black hole star,' explaining Little Red Dots seen by James Webb Telescope
The object completely outshines its surrounding host galaxy, revealing "pure" black hole star light.
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Harvard professor says humans could reach the Milky Way's center in just 10 years. Here's how
The distance from Earth to the Milky Way's center is a whopping 26,000 light-years. But Harvard astrophysicist Avi Loeb says humans could be able to traverse this in just a decade, without breaking the laws of physics. Read here to learn how.
Total solar eclipse 2026: When and where to livestream the spectacular event on August 12
Afraid of missing the total solar eclipse of August 12? Worry not, there are many livestreams available.
China's Long March 7A rocket explodes moments after liftoff; Elon Musk reacts. Watch video
The incident marked only the second failure of Long March 7A, which has been a workhorse for China.
What is the Extremely Large Telescope and what makes it special? All about the most powerful telescope ever made
The massive Extremely Large Telescope (ELT) will outclass Hubble and the JWST and usher in a new era in observational astronomy.
Starship Flight 13 delayed again—why did Space X scrub the launch? New launch date and other details
This is the second delay to the second flight test of SpaceX's Starship V3. New launch date has been announced.
Starship Flight 13 to launch today—liftoff time, livestream details, objectives and more
Flight 13's launch was scrubbed at the last moment on July 16. Here's what today's test will entail.
Blue Origin's rocket explodes on launch pad in Florida—a look at New Glenn's troubled past
Prior to Thursday's explosion, New Glenn had faced a number of issues, from delays to failed tests.
Massive star clusters destroy their birth clouds faster, James Webb and Hubble find
Fresh insights into star clusters advance our understanding of galaxy and planet formation.
'A dark, hot rock': Astronomers directly study exoplanet surface for the first time using JWST
JSWT's direct observation of LHS 3844 b's surface is a massive stepping stone for exoplanet geology.