Space

Sep 15th, 2025 - Scientists have measured the recoil velocity from a cataclysmic collision between two black holes for the very first time. Gravitational waves are ripples in space-time first proposed to exist by Albert Einstein, and detected for the first time in 2015 . Another first came in 2019, when scientists picked up a gravitational wave signal resulting from a violent merger between vastly different sized black holes . The size imbalance caused the newborn black hole to ricochet off into the universe in ... [Read More]

Sep 15th, 2025 - By Europlanet Share Deflecting an asteroid isn't just a matter of smashing into it with a spacecraft. If the strike happens in the wrong place, it could nudge the space rock into a tiny gravitational "keyhole," a hidden gateway that steers it back onto a collision course with Earth. Building on lessons from NASA 's DART mission, researchers are now creating detailed maps of asteroid surfaces to find the safest spots for impact. By aiming precisely, they hope to ensure humanity can push ... [Read More]

Sep 15th, 2025 - New research using the powerful JWST telescope has identified a planet 41 light-years away which may have an atmosphere. The planet is within the "habitable zone" , the region around a star where temperatures make it possible for liquid water to exist on the surface of a rocky world. This is important because water is a key ingredient that supports the existence of life. If confirmed by further observations, this would be the first rocky, habitable zone planet that's also known to host an ... [Read More]

Sep 15th, 2025 - A long, narrow mirror could help astronomers detect life on nearby exoplanets Astronomers are rethinking one of their oldest tools: the telescope's mirror. A new study led by Dr. Heidi Newberg of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute proposes an unorthodox but remarkably efficient design for the next generation of space telescopes: a long, narrow rectangular mirror, rather than the traditional circular kind. Their research, published September 1 in Frontiers in Astronomy and Space Sciences , ... [Read More]

Sep 14th, 2025 - Researchers in China have conducted the most thorough search yet for alien radio signals in the nearby TRAPPIST-1 system, which may harbor potentially Earth-like planets. TRAPPIST-1 is a red dwarf star located about 40 light years away that hosts seven Earth sized rocky planets, with at least three orbiting in the habitable zone where liquid water could potentially exist. This makes it one of the most Solar System like exoplanet systems discovered, with TRAPPIST-1e considered among the best ... [Read More]

Sep 14th, 2025 - QUICK FACTS What it is: Pismis 24, a young star cluster Where it is: 5,500 light-years away, in the constellation Scorpius When it was shared: Sept. 4, 2025 A craggy mountain peak, a tower, perhaps even a finger — in this new celestial dreamscape from the James Webb Space Telescope ( JWST ), something seems to be pointing at a cluster of bright stars above, as if a stargazing session were going on deep in the Milky Way . This is Pismis 24, a small open star cluster at the core of the ... [Read More]

Sep 13th, 2025 - Large amounts of liquid water once flowed inside asteroid Ryugu. A new study shows that this did not happen only in the first few million years of the solar system, but more than a billion years later. Japan's Hayabusa2 mission brought pieces of Ryugu back to Earth in December 2020. The reentry capsule was recovered in Australia, and work began to open it and distribute samples to labs. Ryugu's water record The team studied the ratio of isotopes in the returned grains and found a clear ... [Read More]

Sep 13th, 2025 - By University of Bern Share Early Earth lacked life's essentials until a collision with Theia added them. This chance event made life possible. After the Solar System formed, it took no more than three million years for the proto-Earth to finish developing its chemical composition, according to a new study from the Institute of Geological Sciences at the University of Bern . At that stage, however, the young planet contained almost none of the key ingredients for life, such as water or carbon ... [Read More]

Sep 13th, 2025 - Earlier this year, astronomers watched a burst of high-energy light that kept roaring back for nearly a full day. Gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) are usually sorted into short and long events, and they generally last from milliseconds to a few minutes. In a new study, researchers describe a signal named GRB 250702B that fired three distinct times over a few hours, with soft X-rays flaring even earlier. The team also reported evidence that the source lies beyond our galaxy. Lead researchers Antonio ... [Read More]

Sep 12th, 2025 - "Like Nothing Anyone Has Ever Seen Before" – Bizarre Supernova Stuns Scientists By Share A distant supernova exposed elements from a star's core. The result reshapes ideas of how massive stars evolve. According to long-standing theory, stars are built in layers like onions, with each layer composed of different elements that grow heavier toward the core. While this model is widely accepted, directly observing a star's deeper layers has been nearly impossible. Until now. Astronomers using ... [Read More]

Sep 12th, 2025 - Comet 3I/ATLAS is the third ISO ever detected. It was discovered by the (ATLAS) station on 1 July 2025. It's traveling through the inner solar system at about 220,000 km/h and will make its closest approach to the sun in late October. Multiple telescopes have observed it, including the JWST, and will continue to observe it. Interplanetary missions like the Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (JUICE) and Mars Express will also get a crack at it in the future. NASA's Juno may even observe it from its ... [Read More]

Sep 12th, 2025 - Astronomers examining data from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) say they've spotted a contender for the most distant galaxy ever seen, Capotauro. The galaxy looks like nothing more than a tiny smudge. Yet its light appears to have set out when the universe was only about 90 million years old. The team has nicknamed the object "Capotauro," but they're the first to admit it might turn out to be something else entirely. Capotauro surprises scientists Distance in cosmology is measured by ... [Read More]

Sep 12th, 2025 - ) and a smaller cluster (right). The hot gas seen by the Chandra X-ray Observatory is shown in magenta, and the mapped dark matter in blue. Note the dark matter surrounds the two clusters, whereas the hot gas lies between them. For astronomers studying dark matter , the Bullet Cluster is one of the greatest laboratories in the universe. It was discovered almost by accident, a blip of x-rays in the sky that was detected by NASA's Einstein Observatory in 1992 and given the designation 1E 0657-56. ... [Read More]

Sep 11th, 2025 - If you've ever ready anything about cosmology, you'll have come across an astonishing statistic: all the matter around us, everything we see and touch, every star and gas cloud and planet, makes up just five per cent of the energy in the Universe. Of everything else, around 25 per cent is made up of dark matter , and the rest – a baffling 70 per cent of everything that exists – is dark energy. Cosmologists say this must be the case because of the way the Universe is expanding. But ... [Read More]

Sep 11th, 2025 - Makemake, one of the brightest icy bodies beyond Neptune, just joined an exclusive club. Using NASA's James Webb Space Telescope, experts have detected gas above its surface. This is the second confirmed case of a trans-Neptunian object with gaseous material after Pluto. The culprit is methane, the same molecule that dominates Makemake's frozen surface. Study lead author Sylvia Protopapa is a principal scientist at the Southwest Research Institute ( SwRI ). "Makemake is one of the largest and ... [Read More]

Sep 11th, 2025 - By Andy Tomaswick, Universe Today Share Millisecond pulsar binaries may produce the excess 511 keV photons seen in the galaxy. These systems could expose hidden pulsars and even exoplanets. Many astrophysicists devote their work to tracing the origins of photons, since certain types are closely linked to specific cosmic processes. Identifying where these photons come from could help resolve major questions in astrophysics. One particularly intriguing case involves photons on the "511 keV line," ... [Read More]