The Largest Canyon in the Solar System is Still Tectonically Active

Scientists at Imperial College London and Columbia University have found that the largest canyon system in the solar system is still active and shaping Mars today, billions of years after it first formed.

Saudi Arabia Joins the Search for Alien Civilizations

Saudi Arabia is joining the search for alien signals coming from the cosmos. They're collaborating with SETI in the endeavour. SETI has announced that two LaserSETI instruments will be positioned in Saudi Arabia, adding to a growing network of optical sensors designed to detect laser pulses that could come from alien technological civilizations.

Advancing Astronomy at MIT with X-ray Reverberation Mapping

Professor Erin Kara of MIT's Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research is helping advance our understanding of the most extreme objects in the Universe by analyzing X-ray reverberations and other astrophysical data.

Even the Rubin's Test Camera Produces Stunning Images

The Vera Rubin Observatory's Commissioning Camera operated for about 7 weeks in 2024, before the observatory released its well-known first look images. It's an engineering camera, and its job was to test the VRO's equipment and procedures. Now, the VRO has released the ComCam's image of the Seagull nebula. It's a pretty stunning image for an engineering camera.

Two Disks in One: How Accretion Disks Drive Black Hole Jets

SMBH jets are driven by thick, hot accretion disks with powerful magnetic fields. But there's a bit of a paradox. Some SMBH produce jets, even though they appear to have thin, cold accretion disks. New research has solved this paradox, showing that disks can be truncated into an outer cold disk and an inner hot disk.

New Evidence for an Old Prediction: Recoiling Supermassive Black Holes

Theory says that during some SMBH mergers, the merger remnant receives a recoil kick from gravitational waves. Instead of sitting placidly in the galactic center, these recoiled SMBH are sent on a pendulum-like motion, back and forth through the galactic center. New research has found statistical evidence supporting their existence.

How Flare Ribbons Reveal Hidden Solar Explosions on the Sun

Solar flaring is complex behaviour triggered by reconnection, when magnetic field lines break and then snap back to the Sun's surface. The flaring is complex behaviour, and its details are difficult to observe. Researchers found a new way to study flaring behaviour.