The ALMA Array is Completed With 145 New Low-Noise Amplifiers

The Atacama Millimeter/Submillimeter Array (ALMA), the world's most powerful radio telescope, has received 145 new low-noise amplifiers (LNAs) that will increase its range and sensitivity.

The Interstellar Comet That’s Spilling Its Secrets

Astronomers have measured water streaming from interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS for the first time since it passed closest to the Sun. Using a spacecraft that’s been watching the Sun for nearly three decades, scientists detected hydrogen glowing around the comet and calculated that it was producing water at extraordinary rates. These measurements not only confirm that interstellar comets behave remarkably like our own Solar System’s icy wanderers, but also provide crucial clues about what comets looked like in the early universe.

Gaia Spots Worlds Being Born

ESA’s Gaia space telescope has achieved something astronomers thought nearly impossible, detecting planets while they’re still forming inside the dusty discs surrounding newborn stars. By measuring the subtle gravitational wobbles that unseen companions induce on their host stars, Gaia has found hints of planets, brown dwarfs, and companion stars in 31 young stellar systems out of 98 surveyed.

Scientists Race to Film Black Holes in 3D

The iconic 2019 and 2022 photographs of black holes M87* and Sagittarius A* captivated astronomers worldwide with their fuzzy orange doughnut shapes. Now, scientists are preparing to take the next giant leap by creating the first ever 3D movies of black holes that could fundamentally reshape our understanding of gravity and the universe’s most violent phenomena.

When Galaxies Collide

Two spiral galaxies locked in a slow motion collision have been captured in stunning detail by NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope and Chandra X-ray Observatory. The pair grazed past each other millions of years ago, triggering spectacular waves of star formation and distorting their elegant spiral arms into sweeping silver blue streamers. This celestial dance, playing out over hundreds of millions of years, offers astronomers a rare glimpse into the violent yet creative process that shapes galaxies across the universe.

When Stars Fail to Explode

A supernova observed by Chinese and Japanese astronomers in 1181 CE didn’t fully explode, instead it sputtered and left behind a rare “zombie star” surrounded by long filaments resembling fireworks. New research by Syracuse University physicist Eric Coughlin explains how these unusual structures formed. After the failed detonation, the surviving white dwarf launched a fast, dense wind that slammed into surrounding gas. The collision created finger-like plumes through a fluid instability, but a second instability that normally tears such structures apart never activated. In some sense, the stars didn’t quite die!

Space Mice Come Home and Start Families

A female mouse that spent two weeks aboard China’s space station has successfully given birth to healthy pups after returning to Earth. This marks the first time offspring have been born from mammals that have traveled in space. The birth demonstrates that short term spaceflight doesn’t impair reproductive capability and provides crucial data for understanding how space environments affect mammalian development, a critical question for future long-l duration human missions beyond Earth.