Friday, October 23, 2026

White Dwarfs Are Actually…Yellow, Green, Pink, and Purple?

Artist’s illustration of a white dwarf appearing greenish from the sodium-rich planetary debris that enriches its atmosphere. (Credit: Mark A Garlick/University of Warwick)

The universe hosts a myriad of star types, including supergiants, giants, main sequence, red dwarfs, brown dwarfs, white dwarfs, and neutron stars. What makes these stars stand out are just their sizes, but their colors, as each one hosts a distinct color based on their surface temperature, specifically orange, red, blue, and white based on cooler to hotter temperatures. While the correlation between star colors and surface temperatures has long been known throughout astronomy, what if star colors could change based on specific criteria, including their atmosphere?



27 Exoplanet Targets for the World's First Private Space Telescope

An artist's illustration of 55 Cancri d, an exoplanet notable for being a Jupiter analog. It's one of the planets on a list of 27 targets for the Lazuli Space Telescope. It'll be the world's first private space telescope, and will use a coronagraph to image exoplanets. It's scheduled for a 2029 launch. Image Credit: NASA

Get ready for the age of private space telescopes. The Lazuli Space Telescope will launch in a few years and part of its mission is to observe exoplanets. New research presents a list of 27 exoplanet targets, some of which are very well-known and will certainly benefit from deeper observations.



The Largest Canyon in the Solar System is Still Tectonically Active

Artist's impression of the Valles Marineris canyon system on Mars. Credit: Mark Garlick/Science Photo Library

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 has installed a pair of LaserSETI detectors in a region in a region named AlUla Manara, a site being established as the kingdom's first major astronomical observatory. They're part of a network of optical detectors will scan the heavens for laser signals from alien technological civilizations. Image Credit: LaserSETI.

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.



Thursday, October 22, 2026

Advancing Astronomy at MIT with X-ray Reverberation Mapping

Artist's concept of a supermassive black hole with an accretion disk and a relativistic jet. Credit: NASA

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

IC 2177, or the Seagull Nebula, as captured by the Vera Rubin Observatory's Commissioning Camera in 2024. This image features the Seagull's head, a cloud of gas named Sharpless 2-292. Image Credit: NSF–DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory/NOIRLab/SLAC/AURA. Image Processing: T.A. Rector (University of Alaska Anchorage/NSF NOIRLab), D. de Martin & M. Zamani (NSF NOIRLab)

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

This artist's illustration shows a rapidly-feeding supermassive black hole launching jets from its poles. For this to happen, the accretion disk has to have large-scale magnetic fields. But not all do, generating a contradiction. New research has an answer. Image Credit: Tohoku University.

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.