Saturday, September 13, 2025

Lasers Can Melt Through Extraterrestrial Ice Efficiently

An ice sample being melted with a laser. Credit - M. Koßagk et al

Lasers aren’t just useful for entertaining cats or pointing out features of powerpoint slides. They can also drill holes on icy extraterrestrial bodies from comets to Mars polar caps. At least according to a new paper in Acta Astronautica by researchers at the Technical University of Dresden, who describe a new laser drill for use on icy surfaces throughout our solar system.



Friday, September 12, 2025

This Trio Of Robots Could Explore Lunar Caves

European researchers are developing a three-member team of robots that can cooperatively explore lunar caves. In this image, the robots are being tested on the Spanish volcanic island of Lanzarote. Image Credit: Aerial Skylight Robots/ University of Malaga

Seeking refuge in caves is natural. Animals do it, and so did our ancestors. Future lunar astronauts may do the same when they visit the Moon. Lunar caves can provide protection from the harsh radiation that bathes the Moon, the wild temperature swings on its surface, and from meteorites that can damage spacesuits and equipment. But these caves need to be explored first, and new research outlines how a team of three diverse robots working together could do the job.



New Study Follows Planetary Nebula Through 130 Years of Evolution

The 'Spirograph Nebula' IC418. Credit: NASA/Hubble Space Telescope.

A study published in a recent edition of Astrophysical Journal Letters by researchers at the University of Manchester and Hong Kong University has charted the growth and evolution of IC418, spanning observations going all the way back to years after its discovery in the late 19th century.



Thursday, September 11, 2025

Rectangular Telescopes Could Find Earth 2.0

Concept design for a rectangular space telescope, modeled after the Diffractive Interfero Coronagraph Exoplanet Resolver (DICER). Credit: Leaf Swordy/Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.



Stellar Slingshots Launch the Galaxy's Fastest Stars

Sirius B (seen at lower left in this image) is the closest white dwarf to Earth (Credit : NASA, ESA and STScI)

It’s really quite reasonable to assume the stars don’t move! Indeed that was the opinion of our ancestors however we now know they are far from stationary. Imagine a star racing through space so fast it could travel from Earth to the Moon in just three minutes. These are known as hypervelocity white dwarfs and they have puzzled astronomers for years. Now, a team of researchers have finally cracked the mystery of how they get launched at such incredible speeds.



Where Did The Interstellar Comet 3I/ATLAS Come From?

The Gemini South Observatory captured this image of the interstellar comet 3L/ATLAS on August 27th. It shows the object's fuzzy coma and tail, made of volatiles released by the Sun's heat. Image Credit: By International Gemini Observatory/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/Shadow the Scientist, CC BY 4.0

When an interstellar object (ISO) travels through our inner Solar System, the immediate question is "Where did it come from?" There are only fleeing opportunities to study these, since their trajectories take them out of the Solar System pretty quickly. A new research effort aims to understand where the most recent ISO, 3I/ATLAS, originated.



Has NASA Detected Convincing Evidence Of Ancient Life On Mars?

This composite image of NASA's Perseverance Rover shows it near a rock named "Cheyava Falls." The rock contains tantalizing, potential biosignatures of ancient life. A white abrasion mark or core sample spot is visible in the rock. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-CalTech/MSSS

NASA Says Mars Rover Discovered Potential Biosignature Last Year - https://ift.tt/4bG7iQk Redox-driven mineral and organic associations in Jezero Crater, Mars - https://ift.tt/HQmIEBl



Hunting for Aliens in the Galaxy's Most Promising Neighbourhood

Trappist-1, seen here in this illustration with the Sun for scale, has been the target of the search for extra-terrestrial signals (Credit CactiStaccingCrane)

Are we alone in the universe? It’s a question that has, despite extensive and sometimes ingenious attempts, yet to be answered. In one of the most ambitious searches for extraterrestrial intelligence ever conducted, Chinese scientists have used the world's largest radio telescope to scan the famous TRAPPIST-1 star system for signs of alien technology. The Five hundred metre Aperture Spherical Telescope is the world's largest single dish radio telescope, and the search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI) is one of its five key science objectives.



JWST Finds An Exoplanet Around A Pulsar Whose Atmosphere Is All Carbon

Visualization that's part of an animation of a black widow pulsar burning its companion. Credit - NASA Goddard Spaceflight Center / Cruz deWilde

Science advances through data that don’t fit our current understanding. At least that was Thomas Kuhn’s theory in his famous On the Structure of Scientific Revolutions. So scientists should welcome new data that challenges their understanding of how the universe works. A recent paper, available in pre-print on arXiv, using data from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) might just have found some data that can do that. It looked at an exoplanet around a millisecond pulsar and found its atmosphere is made up of almost entirely pure carbon.



Wednesday, September 10, 2025

This Wandering Black Hole Has Left Its Galactic Center

An international team of astronomers has found a black hole in an unusual location. While massive black holes are typically located in the centers of galaxies, this one is offset from its dwarf galaxy's nucleus by almost one kiloparsec, or more than about 3,200 light years. It's not the only one, suggesting that black holes can accrete gas and become more massive regardless of being in the galactic center. Image Credit: Artistic illustration (Image generated by ChatGPT). Credit: Chinese Academy of Sciences

Traditionally, black holes are usually thought to reside at the centers of galaxies. However, a research team led by Dr. An Tao from the Shanghai Astronomical Observatory of the Chinese Academy of Sciences has discovered a wandering black hole in a dwarf galaxy located about 230 million light-years away.



Tuesday, September 9, 2025

The Gemini South Telescope Takes A Turn Imaging The Interstellar Comet 3I/ATLAS

Astronomers and students working together through a unique educational initiative have obtained a striking new image of the growing tail of interstellar Comet 3I/ATLAS. The observations reveal a prominent tail and glowing coma from this rare celestial visitor, while also providing new scientific measurements of its colors and composition. Image Credit: NOIRLab. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Interstellar comets are rare, and astronomers don't like to miss an opportunity to observe one. Now the Gemini South Telescope has taken a turn at imaging Comet 3I/ATLAS, the visitor from another star system. The images help show that the comet's tail is growing as it approaches the Sun.



The Universe's Early Star Formation Wasn't Much Different Than Now

ALMA, the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array, detected protostellar outflow jets in the Milky Way's outer reaches, where metallicity is low. Since metallicity was also low in the ancient Universe, the discovery indicates that star formation now is similar to star formation in the early Universe. Image Credit: Ikeda et al. (Niigata univ.), background: R. Hurt/NASA/JPL-Caltech/ESO]

A team of Japanese astronomers has detected protostellar outflow jets in the outer regions of the Milky Way. This is the first detection of this type of jets in this part of the galaxy. Since this part of the galaxy is similar to the more ancient Universe, it's evidence that star formation in the modern Universe is similar to star formation in the ancient Universe.



InSight Data Reveals More About Mars' Evolution

Scientists believe giant impacts — like the one depicted in this artist’s concept — occurred on Mars 4.5 billion years ago, injecting debris from the impact deep into the planet’s mantle. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Rocky material that impacted Mars lies scattered in giant lumps throughout the planet’s mantle, offering clues about Mars’ interior and its ancient past. Data provided by the now-retired InSight lander is shedding light on how this shaped Mars' structure and evolution.



A Giant Burst of Energy In Need Of An Explanation

GRB 250702B is the orange dot inside the red circle in this image from the ESO’s Very Large Telescope. While most GRBs have a single flash of gamma-rays that lasts minutes or only milliseconds, this one emitted three separate flashes over the course of one day. Image Credit: ESO/A. Levan, A. Martin-Carrillo et al.

Astronomers have detected an explosion of gamma rays that repeated several times over the course of a day, an event unlike anything ever witnessed before. It took place in a distant galaxy and was first detected on July 2nd. Scientists are trying to understand what could've caused it.



One Extremophile Eats Martian Dirt, Survives In Space, And Can Create Oxygen For Colonies

EXPOSE flight hardware on the outside of the ISS with dried Chroococcidiopsis exposed. Credit - Roscosmos/ESA

Extremophiles are a favorite tool of astrobiologists. But not only are they good for understanding the kind of extreme environments that life can survive in, sometimes they are useful as actual tools, creating materials necessary for other life, like oxygen, in those extreme environments. A recent paper from Daniella Billi of the University of Rome Tor Vergata , published in pre-print form in Acta Astronautica, reviews how one particular extremophile fills the role of both useful test subject and useful tool all at once.



Monday, September 8, 2025

The Messy Habits Of Small Black Holes

This artist's illustration shows a stellar mass black hole drawing gas from a nearby star into its accretion disk. New research shows that this process is chaotic and messy. Image Credit: JAXA

Stellar mass black holes have only a few solar masses, and are much different from their gigantic counterparts, supermassive black holes. When these modestly-massive black holes are actively accreting matter, new research shows that the process is anything but orderly. Instead, it's characterized by different velocities, different ionization zones, and other complexities.



The Exoplanet TRAPPIST-1 e Takes Its Turn In The JWST's Spotlight

This artist's illustration shows the Earth-size exoplanet TRAPPIST-1 e, depicted at the lower right as it transits in front of its star. After observing four transits, the JWST data suggests the planet has lost its primordial atmosphere due to stellar flaring. With more transits scheduled, scientists hope that the JWST can determine more about the planet, including the existence of any type of atmosphere at all. Image Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Joseph Olmsted (STScI)

The JWST has begun examining the atmosphere of the habitable zone planet TRAPPIST-1 e. It's not finished yet, but the first observations indicate that the the planet hasn't retained its primary, or original, atmosphere. The TRAPPIST-1 star exhibits powerful flaring that likely stripped it away.



Is A Young Exoplanet Warping The Disk Around Fomalhaut?

The bright star Fomalhaut and its ancient debris disk. Over the years, some research has supported the existence of a planet in the disk, while other research has not. The newest ALMA observations support the idea of an exoplanet around the young star. Image Credit: NSF/AUI/NSF NRAO/B.Saxton

Fomalhaut is one of the brightest stars in the night sky and has been observed in great detail for decades. Some research suggests it hosts exoplanets, while other research counters that. The latest observations of the star's disk with ALMA favour the existence of a planet.



Exoplanet In A Ring Gap Shows How Protoplanets Can Shape Their Environment

Image of the WISPIT2 system, including the bright dot of the exoplanet WISPIT2b in the gap between the rings. Credit - ESO/R. F. van Capelleveen et al.

Circumstellar discs are believed to be key components in planetary formation. However, we have very little actual evidence of planets growing in the “rings” that surround young stars. So planet formation theorists were ecstatic to learn that two new papers in Astrophysical Journal Letters describe a planet that is actively forming in the gap it most likely created in the ring system of a young, Sun-like star.



Sunday, September 7, 2025

Life on Earth Probably Got Some Help From Space

According to the Giant Impact Hypothesis, the Earth-Moon system formed 4.5 billion years ago after a Mars-sized object (Theia) collided with Earth. Credit: NASA

After the formation of the Solar System, it took a maximum of three million years for primordial Earth's chemical composition to settle. At the time, there was hardly any water, carbon compounds, or other ingredients necessary for life to emerge. Only a planetary collision that came later would have brought water to Earth, according to a new study by researchers from the Institute of Geological Sciences at the University of Bern.



Saturday, September 6, 2025

Researchers at SwRI Produced a Mission Concept for Exploring Interstellar Objects Like 3I/ATLAS

This image of interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS was captured by the Hubble Space Telescope’s Wide Field Camera on 21 July 2025. Credit: ESA/Hubble

A new development study from the Southwestern Research Institute outlines a possible mission that could rendezvous with and explore the interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS.



Thursday, September 4, 2025

Juno Detects Callisto's "Footprints" in Jupiter's Aurorae

Juno capturing the marks on Jupiter of all four Galilean moons. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/UVS team/MSSS/Gill/Jónsson/Perry/Hue/Rabia

Jupiter hosts the brightest and most spectacular auroras in the Solar System, and its largest moons (the Galileans) create their own auroral signatures known as “satellite footprints” in the planet’s atmosphere. Until now, astronomers had detected the auroral signatures of three Galileans (Io, Europa, and Ganymede), but not Callisto. Thanks to an international team, close-up images of Callisto's footprints have been seen at last.



The JWST's New Contribution To Understanding The Cosmic Dawn: MINERVA

This JWST image shows a variety of shapes and colours of galaxies. The MINERVA (Medium-band Imaging with NIRCam to Explore ReVolutionary Astrophysics) program is using the JWST to find rare and unusual galaxies in the early Universe. Image Credit: Courtesy of Danilo Marchesini/MINERVA

The JWST is performing a new multi-wavelength survey called MINERVA (Medium-band Imaging with NIRCam to Explore ReVolutionary Astrophysics). It'll study four extragalactic fields in greater detail and depth, and will help us understand the Cosmic Dawn.



Clues In A Dusty Disk Point The Way To A Potential Exoplanet

Hubble Space Telescope observations of the Beta Pictoris debris disk. When astronomers examined this disk in detail, they found clues to where a small planet could be hiding. They eventually found the exoplanet and directly imaged it, and the same thing is happening around another star. Image Credit: NASA, ESA, and D. Apai and G. Schneider (University of Arizona)

Astronomers struggle to detect small exoplanets directly. One tool they use is to search for the effects these planets have on debris disks around stars. Clues in these disks tell astronomers where they can find sub-Jupiter mass exoplanets.



Catch the Final Total Lunar Eclipse of 2025 Sunday Night

The March 2025 total lunar eclipse as seen from a dark sky site in Vermont. Credit: Nazmus Nasir.

Live in the eastern hemisphere? If skies are clear, you have a chance to see a remarkable sight this Sunday night into Monday morning: the ‘Blood Moon’ of a total lunar eclipse. The eclipse favors the Indian Ocean region in its entirety. Europe sees the eclipse already underway at Moonrise, while Australia catches it in progress at Moonset. Only the Americas sit this one out in person... though you can still catch it live online.



BlueDOGs Might Evolve From Little Red Dots

Deep Field Image from JWST, showing both BlueDOGs and LRDs. Credit - NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Brant Robertson (UC Santa Cruz), Ben Johnson (CfA), Sandro Tacchella (Cambridge), Marcia Rieke (University of Arizona), Daniel Eisenstein (CfA)

One of the most difficult parts of astronomy is understanding how time affects it. The farther away you look in the universe, the farther back you look in time. One way this complicates things is how objects might change over time. For example, a supermassive black hole at the center of a galaxy in the early universe might appear one way to our modern telescopes, but the same supermassive black hole might appear completely differently a few billion years later. Understanding the connection between the two objects would be difficult to say the least, but a new paper from researchers at the University of Science and Technology in South Korea describes one potential parallel, between the recently discovered “Little Red Dots” of the early universe and “BlueDOGs” of the slightly later universe.



Wednesday, September 3, 2025

Astronomers Use a Double-Lensing Technique to Study a Supermassive Black Hole

Artist’s rendering of the corona around a black hole. Credit: RIKEN

An international team of astronomers led by Matus Rybak (Leiden University, Netherlands) has proven, thanks to accidental double zoom, that millimetre radiation is generated close to the core of a supermassive black hole. Their findings have been accepted for publication in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics.



The Butterfly Star And Its Planet-Forming Disk

This JWST Picture of the Month features IRAS 04302+2247, a planet-forming disc located about 525 light-years away in a dark cloud within the Taurus star-forming region. With Webb, researchers can study the properties and growth of dust grains within protoplanetary discs like this one, shedding light on the earliest stages of planet formation. Image Credit:

The so-called Butterfly star gets its name from its edge-on appearance. The star's protoplanetary disk blocks out starlight revealing a nebula, or butterfly wing, on each side. Deeper JWST observations show the disk is tilted and asymmetrical, which affects how planets form.



Ionic Liquids Could Form Naturally And Replace Water As A Biological Solvent

Picture of some of the ionic liquids created in the study. Credit - Rachana Agrawal

Water is key to life as we know it. But that doesn’t mean its key to life everywhere. Despite the fact that the ability to house liquid water is one of the key characteristics we look for in potentially habitable exoplanets, there is nothing written in stone about the fact that life has to use water as a solvent as opposed to other liquid options. A new paper from researchers at MIT, including those who are developing missions to look for life on Venus, shows there might be an alternative - ionic liquids that can form and stay stable in really harsh conditions.



Tuesday, September 2, 2025

Red Galaxies Provide New Insights into the Birth of the Universe

The most distant galaxies ever imaged by the JWST appear as small, reddish blobs in this image. Credit: NASA/ESA/CSA/STScI

Images taken with the MIRI infrared camera on the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) have made it possible to observe the first galaxies in long-wavelength infrared light for the first time. Alongside a recent study published in Astronomy and Astrophysics, these images provide new insights into how the first galaxies formed over 13 billion years ago.



Chandra Peers Into A Supernova's Troubled Heart

This graphic features data from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory of the Cassiopeia A (Cas A) supernova remnant, a frequent target of the telescope for more than a quarter century. The latest Chandra observations reveal how the progenitor star violently rearranged its interior only hours before it exploded. In the expanded box, red is silicon-rich material, while the blue is rich in neon. Image Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/Meiji Univ./T. Sato et al.; Image Processing: NASA/CXC/SAO/N. Wolk

NASA's Chandra Reveals Star's Inner Conflict Before Explosion - https://ift.tt/vV5hldX



Metals Are Critical To Life - We Should Screen Exoplanets For Them

Artist's conception of WASP-121b, a planet with a metal-rich atmosphere. Credit - NASA, ESA, and J. Olmsted (STScI)

Life is complicated, and not just in a philosophical sense. But one simple thing we know about life is that it requires energy, and to get that energy it needs certain fundamental elements. A new paper in preprint on arXiv from Giovanni Covone and Donato Giovannelli from the University of Naples discusses how we might use that constraint to narrow our search for stars and planets that could potentially harbor life. To put it simply, if it doesn’t have many of the constituent parts of the “building blocks” of life, then life probably doesn't exist there.



Sunday, August 31, 2025

Photochemistry and Climate Modeling of Earth-like Exoplanets

Examples of potential Earth-like exoplanets. (Credit: NASA/Ames/JPL-Caltech)

What role can the relationship between oxygen (O2) and ozone (O3) in exoplanet atmospheres have on detecting biosignatures? This is what a recent study submitted to Astronomy & Astrophysics hopes to address as an international team of researchers investigated novel methods for identifying and analyzing Earth-like atmospheres. This study has the potential to help scientists develop new methods for identifying exoplanet biosignatures, and potentially life as we know it.



Scientists Solve the Mystery of Why Similar Asteroids Look Different Colours

This mosaic of Bennu was created using observations made by NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft that was in close proximity to the asteroid for over two years (Credit : NASA/Goddard/University of Arizona)

When NASA's OSIRIS-REx spacecraft returned from its mission to asteroid Bennu in 2023, it brought back more than just ancient space rocks, it delivered answers to puzzles that have baffled astronomers for years. Among the most intriguing questions was why asteroids that should look identical through telescopes appear strikingly different colours from Earth.



Saturday, August 30, 2025

Scientists Discover Unusual Plasma Waves in Jupiter's Aurora

Aurora around Jupiter's north pole captured by the Hubble Space Telescope (Credit : NASA)

In the cold darkness above Jupiter's poles, where temperatures plummet to hundreds of degrees below zero, something remarkable is happening that challenges our understanding of planetary science. Using data from NASA's Juno spacecraft, researchers have uncovered a completely new type of plasma phenomenon that creates auroras that can only be seen with specialised instruments, revealing that our Solar System's largest planet operates by rules we never knew existed.



Binary Star Evolution as a Driver of Planet Formation

Artist’s rendition of the nu Octantis system produced by ChatGPT-4.0, along with additional modifications. (Credit: The University of Hong Kong)

What can binary star systems teach astronomers about the formation and evolution of planets orbiting them? This is what a recent study published in Nature hopes to address as a team of scientists investigated past studies that claimed a specific binary star system could host a planet demonstrating a retrograde orbit, meaning it orbits in the opposite direction of the star’s rotation. This study has the potential to help scientists better understand binary and multiple star systems, specifically the formation and evolution of their planets and what this could mean for finding life beyond Earth.



The ESA Restores Communications with JUICE at Venus

Illustration of the JUICE spacecraft at Jupiter. Credit: ESA

The European Space Agency’s Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (Juice) suffered a communications anomaly on its way Venus for a gravity-assist maneuver. Thanks to swift and coordinated action by the teams at ESA’s European Space Operations Centre (ESOC) and Airbus, communications were restored in time to prepare for its upcoming flyby with Venus.



World's Most Powerful Solar Telescope Captures Breathtaking Image of Solar Flare

Solar flares like this X3.2 class flare (revealed in different wavelengths) have been captured in unprecedented detail. Clockwise from top left: 304, 335, 131, and 193 Å (Credit : NASA/SDO)

On August 8, 2024, the NSF Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope in Hawaii achieved a historic milestone by capturing the sharpest images ever taken of a solar flare. The unprecedented observations revealed coronal loops in stunning detail. The arches of superheated plasma following the Sun's magnetic field lines were captured at such resolution that it’s possible to see individual structures as narrow as 21 kilometres across.



Friday, August 29, 2025

Habitable Planet Potential Increases in the Outer Galaxy

Longstanding model of the Galactic habitable Zone, which is estimated to exist between 7-9 kiloparsecs from the center of the galaxy. However, recent research calls this into question. (Credit: NASA/Caltech)

What can the Galactic Habitable Zone (GHZ), which is a galaxy’s region where complex life is hypothesized to be able to evolve, teach scientists about finding the correct stars that could have habitable planets? This is what a recent study accepted for publication in Astronomy & Astrophysics hopes to address as an international team of researchers investigated a connection between the migration of stars, commonly called stellar migration, and what this could mean for finding habitable planets within our galaxy. This study has the potential to help scientists better understand the astrophysical parameters for finding habitable worlds beyond Earth and even life as we know it.



A Massive Virtual Radio Telescope Spots A Ribbon-like Jet Of Super-heated Plasma

Left: The RadioAstron Space VLBI mission combined a spaceborne radio telescope (Spektr-R) with 27 ground-based radio telescopes worldwide to create a virtual telescope five times the Earth’s diameter, in an observation of the enigmatic quasar OJ 287. Right: Progressive zoom into OJ 287’s jet at increasing resolution. Top: 15 GHz VLBA (18 pc scale). Middle: 43 GHz VLBI (4.5 pc scale). Bottom: 22 GHz RadioAstron (1.8 pc scale), revealing the ribbon-like structure with multiple sharp bends for the first time. Image Credit: Juan Carlos Algaba, Universiti Malaya

Astronomers used a powerful virtual radio telescope to observe a distant active galaxy. The observations revealed a ribbon-like jet of super-heated plasma. The plasma reaches temperatures of more than 10 trillion Kelvin, indicating that a pair of supermassive black holes are energizing the center of the galaxy.



"Soot Planets" Might Be More Common Than "Water Worlds"

Artist's depiction of a "soot planet" and its formation process. Credit - Ari Gea/SayoStudio

According to astronomers, water worlds, though admittedly not those containing Kevin Costner, are one of the most common types of planets in our solar system. This is partly due to low density estimates and the abundance of water ice past the “snow line” orbit of a star. But a new paper led by Jie Li and their colleagues at the University of Michigan, suggests there might be an alternative type of planet that fits the density data but is made up of a completely different type of material - soot.



Ancient "Molten Rock Raindrops" Reveal When Jupiter Was Born

A 60-tonne, 2.7-meter Hoba meteorite in Namibia, the largest known intact meteorite.

Hidden within meteorites that fall to Earth are tiny spheres that have puzzled scientists for decades. These mysterious droplets, called chondrules, are time capsules from the birth of our Solar Syste and now, a team from Japan and Italy have used them to pinpoint exactly when Jupiter formed, solving a long standing planetary mystery.



Thursday, August 28, 2025

The Great Filter Part 4: We’ve Got a Chance

Artists's depiction of the Cassini spacecraft in orbit around Saturn. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Wait wait wait. There are other, less stressful options. I don’t want to end on such a downer note. There is hope for us yet!



TESS Spotted 3I/ATLAS Two Months Before It Was Discovered - It Was Even Active Then

Hubble image of 3I/ATLAS captured in late July. Credit - NASA/ESA

One of the advantages of having so many telescopes watching large parts of the sky is that, if astronomers find something interesting, there are probably images of it from before it was officially discovered sitting in the data archives of other satellites that noone thought to look at. That has certainly been the case for our newest interstellar visitor, 3I/ATLAS, which, though discovered in early July, had been visible on other telescopes as early as May. We previously reported on Vera Rubin’s detection of 3I/ATLAS well before it was officially found, and now a new paper has found the interstellar object in TESS’s data going back to early May - and it looks like it may have been “active” around that time.



Wednesday, August 27, 2025

A New Theory of the Universe’s Origins Without Inflation

Credit: NASA/WMAP Science Team

How exactly did the universe start and how did these processes determine its formation and evolution? This is what a recent study published in Physical Review Research hopes to address as a team of researchers from Spain and Italy proposed a new model for the events that transpired immediately after the birth of the universe. This study has the potential to challenge longstanding theories regarding the exact processes that occurred at the beginning of the universe, along with how these processes have governed the formation and evolution of the universe.



The Great Filter Part 3: This is the End

The first atomic bomb test at the Trinity site.

What about the middle stages? The march from single-celled organisms doing their single-celled thing to intelligent creatures that can wield tools and leave feedback reviews about them?



Tuesday, August 26, 2025

The Mystery of the Vanishing Star

The exact location of ASASSN-24fw is unknown but it lies within the boundary of the constellation Vulpecula (Credit : IAU and Sky & Telescope magazine)

A star 3,000 light years away pulled off the ultimate disappearing act, dimming by 97% for eight months before mysteriously returning to full brightness. This unexpected vanishing trick has finally been solved by astronomers who discovered a massive dust disk and a hidden companion star orchestrating one of the rarest eclipsing events ever observed, a one in a million phenomenon that won't happen again until 2068.



High-Mass Stars Are Fed By Elongated Streamers Of Gas

This image shows a high mass proto-star with a red star. The blue and red arrows represent gas rotating and falling into the star. The gas flow (streamer) indicated by the blue arrow transports gas from the molecular cloud core to the high-density region in the vicinity of the protostar. Image Credit: Kyoto University / Fernando Olguin

Stars with eight or more stellar masses are termed high-mass stars. There are questions around how these stars can become so massive, since as they form they lose mass through stellar winds and radiation. New research shows that elongated streams of gas that feed these stars explains their high masses.



The Great Filter Part 2: We’ve Made It Through

The evolution of life as depicted by Google Gemini.

Now versions of the Great Filter argument had been around for decades (just like Fermi was not the first person to ask where everybody is), but the most comprehensive form of the argument comes from Robin Hanson in 1996.



Monday, August 25, 2025

Roman Space Telescope Joins Earth's Asteroid Defence Team

Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope (Credit : NASA)

When NASA's Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope launches in October 2026, it won't just be peering into the distant universe to study dark energy and exoplanets. This powerful observatory will also serve as Earth's newest guardian, helping scientists track and understand potentially dangerous asteroids and comets that could threaten our planet.