Earth's Center of Mass Drifts Less Than We Thought

Earth's center of mass isn't stationary. It drifts seasonally and over the course of years. A new study measures this down to the scale of millimeters and finds the seasonal drift is smaller than we thought.

Solar Orbiter Catches the Sun’s Missing High-Speed Vibrations

The Sun’s magnetic fields are a twisty, curvy, ever changing mess. In particular, our star’s polar regions host regions called polar coronal holes that host invisible magnetic highways that stretch out into interplanetary space. But there’s a lot we don’t know about how those highways actually work, and in particular how they give the particles that form the fast solar wind an extra “kick” that sends them zooming at hundreds of kilometers per second. A new paper from a team led by Dr. Yuhang Gao and Prof. Hui Tian at Peking University, and published recently in the journal National Science Review, thinks they might have found an answer by using high-speed shots from Solar Orbiter to detect never-before seen rapid, high-frequency magnetic waves in those areas.

Astronomers Uncover "Hypersoft" X-ray Sources

X-rays showcase some of the most unique astronomical objects in the universe. Neutron stars and black holes siphoning gas from companion stars stick out like sore thumbs at this level of radiation. However, according to a new paper by Mustafa Muhibullah and Jimmy Irwin from the University of Alabama and Rosanne Di Stefano from the Center for Astrophysics at Harvard & the Smithsonian, there appears to be another group of ultra-bright X-ray emitters that we’ve completely missed until now. They call them Hypersoft X-ray Sources (HSSs) and, according to a press release accompanying the paper, might answer two long-standing astronomical questions.

The Sun Is Physically Capable of Producing a "Superflare" According To A New Study

We have long known that the Sun is active. It “flares” quite often, sending huge amounts of energy off in a certain direction - sometimes directly at Earth. But we also know that, compared to other Sun-like stars, it seems relatively quiet, and not capable of producing the “superflares” we sometimes see in its stellar equivalents. That sounds like great news for humanity, and some scientists have even argued that lack of superflares was a critical impetus for the development of complex life on Earth. But a new paper from Natalie Krivova of the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research and her co-authors in the journal Philosophical Transactions A calls the assumption that our Sun is incapable of such dramatic outbursts into question. That also means that, eventually, our highly technological society could bear the brunt of one of them.

MIT Research Could Lead to Refueling Depots on Mars

MIT PhD candidate Lanie McKinney is developing technology to convert the chemicals in the Martian atmosphere into propellant to bring astronauts home.

Researchers Measure the Environment Where the First Supermassive Black Holes Formed

Scientists theorize that the rapid emergence of supermassive black holes (SMBHs) in the early Universe can be explained by the direct-collapse black hole (DCBH) scenario. In a recent study, astronomers investigated the potential host environments of DCBHs and found that this scenario is a plausible explanation for how the "seeds" of SMBH formed.

BepiColombo Makes Up-Close Measurement of Mercury's Solar Bombardment

BepiColombo's measurements of particle bombardment at Mercury will help assess the impact of space storms on Mercury's surface and on Earth's atmosphere.

The Red Planet Has a Purple Side

Mars appears red because of iron oxides in the regolith. But it's not uniformly red. Different lighting conditions and different materials accumulated on the surface can make it appear purple, as in these images from Mars Express and its High-Resolution Stereo Camera.

To Understand The Solar Cycle, Notice How The Sun Sleeps

Astronomer Sandra Chapman has found a connection between the quiet period of one solar cycle and the active period of the next. Her data shows how a critical cutoff point is the key, but the real test will be the solar maximum of Cycle 26 in the 2030s.

Astronomy’s Decades-Long Quest To Understand Cosmic Topology

Cosmic topology is as esoteric as cosmology can get. But a growing number of astrophysicists think it holds keys to understanding the universe on its largest scales.

Researchers Develop a Way to Check the Weather on a Exoplanet

Scientists from Trinity have developed a powerful way to unravel the changing weather patterns on distant worlds. Using this approach, they discovered that the weather on a well-studied brown dwarf, “SIMP 0136”, previously linked with Northern Lights-like phenomena, is largely shaped by just two dominant processes: changes in temperature and the vertical structure of its clouds.

A Zombie White Dwarf Star is Born Again. Hallelujah!

30 years ago, an amateur astronomer noticed a white dwarf star suddenly getting brighter. New research shows this is due to a Very Late Thermal Pulse, a type of helium flash. The star has heated up and become brighter, and is now called a 'born again' star. It's evolved into a Wolf-Rayet type star, and astronomers will get to watch as it continues to evolve on human timescales.

The Sun May Have Swallowed a Planet

New research suggests that some unusual characteristics of the Sun may be explained if it swallowed a large planet sometime during the Solar System’s formation.

Mercury is Shrinking, But Faster Than Previously Thought

The rough, impact-debris-covered surface of Mercury has hidden the true rate at which Mercury has been shrinking, which scientists previously underestimated by 30%

When Stars Engulf Rocky Planets, Beryllium Gives It Away

Astronomers know that stars can engulf planets when they stray too close. But how can they know, by looking at a star, if it has ever done so? The answer lies in Beryllium, an element not synthesized inside stars.

Webb Searches for Brown Dwarfs in a Stunning Star-Forming Region

How small can brown dwarfs be before the definition breaks down? That question is at the heart of new research, and new JWST images. Using the space telescope, researchers have discovered a new class of brown dwarfs with low masses, marked by a peculiar hydrocarbon feature.

For Trans-Neptunian Objects, The Past Is Written On Their Surface

Some Trans-Neptunian Objects (TNOs) formed closer to the Sun and migrated to the outer solar system, while others formed there originally. A new study finds that "hot" and "cold" origin TNOs can be distinguished not only by their orbits, but also by their surface color.

Saturn's South Pole Features Newly Formed Atmospheric Decagon

The planet Saturn is arguably the most recognizable planetary object in the entire solar system because of its massive rings. Anytime a child is asked what their favorite planet is, the answer is often “The one with the rings!” But, while Saturn’s rings are its most striking feature, the famed planet has a myriad of other unique features that often get overlooked, specifically its polar activity. This includes a long-known rotating hexagon in its north polar region, but what kinds of activity could be occurring in Saturn’s southern polar region, and what could this teach scientists about planetary formation and evolution?

If Venus Had An Ancient Moon, It Was Doomed

Earth has a big beautiful Moon, while Venus, its 'sister planet', doesn't. Why is that? Did it ever have one? If it did, new research shows it was never going to last very long.

From 10 to 22 years: The Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope's Mission Has Just Been Extended.

More good news for NASA's Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope. The telescope's first mid-course correction was extremely efficient, using only 10% of the fuel allotted for it. This efficiency, coupled with other factors, means the powerful space telescope will likely have an additional ~12 years of observing time.

ALMA is Watching a Massive Binary Star System Form

Astronomers used 8 years of observations to create a 3D image of a very young, very massive binary star as it forms. The image shows that the disks in the system are all misaligned. Those misalignments, together with the orbit, are clues to the system's chaotic history.

CubeSat Instrument Extends Solar Storm Warnings 10x

Our Sun is the very reason life exists on our small, blue planet. It provides solar radiation that warms the planet and ignites the intricate biochemical processes like photosynthesis producing oxygen for life to breathe. However, while the Sun is known for giving life, it can also potentially take it away with its solar flares, geomagnetic storms, and solar radiation storms, all of which are referred to as space weather. But how can space weather be forecasted so industries can better prepare and protect their assets, including Earth infrastructure, satellites, and even human safety?

Don't Get Your Hopes Up for a City on the Moon

Bezos said we should move heavy industry to the Moon. Musk says we'll have sustainable lunar cities. We know there's ancient water ice in craters on the Moon's poles, but there's not enough water to support a city.

Tens of Thousands of Fast Radio Bursts Could Help Solve the Greatest Cosmic Mysteries

A new study led by researchers from Caltech demonstrates the effectiveness of Fast Radio Bursts (FRBs) as a tool for measuring cosmological distances and the clustering of matter.

Could the Clues to Ancient Alien Civilizations Be Hiding in a Bucket of Moon Dust?

Most of our experience with the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) has been focused on capturing radio signals that alien species have sent out, whether intentionally or unintentionally. That creates a huge “synchronicity” problem - what if there aren’t any alien civilizations broadcasting radio signals now, but there were a billion years ago? The Milky Way is around 13 billion years old - hoping that we exist at the same time as an alien civilization that happens to be actively messaging is a huge leap of faith. But, according to a new paper available in pre-print on arXiv and submitted to the International Journal of Astrobiology by Lewis J Pinault, as associated researcher at the SETI Institute, and his co-authors, we could take a completely alternative approach to trying to find alien civilizations - by looking for evidence of them in lunar dirt.

A New Catalog of Close to 3,000 Supernova Challenges Theories on Dark Energy

The most comprehensive catalogue of exploding white dwarf stars ever assembled has revealed new clues about dark energy, the mysterious force driving the universe’s accelerating expansion.

A New Design For A Plasma Engine Fuels On Only Thin Air

Choosing what orbit to put a satellite in always comes with trade-offs. When it comes to Very Low Earth Orbit (VLEO), between 100-450 km, there are distinct advantages. Remote sensing cameras can take better pictures, comms and radar require less power, and atmospheric drag will automatically clean up dead satellites. But there’s also a cost - air friction requires any satellite in this orbit to use an engine near constantly to stay in orbit, which in turn requires fuel - typically in the form of expensive gases like Xenon. So, as part of his PhD thesis at the University of Stuttgart, which is available in arXiv, Francesco Romano decided to solve that problem by using the very air molecules that cause that friction as fuel for a plasma engine to keep satellites aloft indefinitely in VLEO.

Venus Moon Would Have Been Doomed From The Start, Says New Paper

Venus likely never had a moon and even if it did, it would have soon been torn asunder by the planet’s own gravity, says prominent planetary astrophysicist.

Dense Galaxies Are Carving Out A Bubble in the Early Universe

Light could only travel freely in the Universe after cosmic reionization. Before that, neutral hydrogen stopped photons from travelling. The JWST has found evidence of an overdensity of galaxies carving out a bubble of reionization. Is this how it all started?

What's Carving Active Gullies on Mars? It's Not Water

Scientists were shocked when they received the first images of Martian gullies. They were even more shocked as those gullies appeared to change over time. Their similarities to gullies seen on Earth were uncanny, but all of Earth’s gullies are formed by the water run-off, and Martian is too cold and has too sparse an atmosphere to have liquid water on its surface. Whatever has been causing those changing gullies couldn’t have been water, so what was it? A new paper from Apolline Leclef of the Institut d’Astrophysique Spatiale at Université Paris-Saclay and her colleagues, available in pre-print on arXiv, shows how they are likely caused by CO2 frost turning into a fluid.

NASA's Next Great Observatory Could Spot Oceans on Distant Worlds

We’ve found over 5,500 exoplanets so far. Dozens of them have been in the habitable zone of their parent stars, where, at least in theory, they could host an ocean. But we’ve never definitively found a liquid ocean on another planet. A new paper from researchers Eleanor Cornish and Tyler Robinson of the University of Arizona, available in pre-print on arXiv and submitted to the Astrophysical Journal, looks at a unique way we might be able to find one - by looking for its “glint”.

eROSITA's Second Data Release Catalog Delivering the Most Comprehensive High-Energy Census of the Cosmos to Date

The eROSITA Consortium has issued the survey's second data release (DR2), nearly doubling the previously known eROSITA X-ray sources to two million.

Unexplained Gamma-Rays from the Galactic Center Could be from Self-Annihilating Dark Matter

Over a decade ago, the Fermi satellite detected an excess of gamma-ray emissions in the galactic center. Potential explanations included Sgr. A*, the Milky Way's SMBH, pulsars, and even self-annihilating dark matter. There's no clear answer yet, since the region is so difficult to observe. But recent research shows that dark matter can't be ruled out.

Ancient Swedish Goths Had Surprisingly Accurate Calendars

Ancient Swedish pagans had surprisingly accurate calendars and the ability to measure phases of the Moon to an incredible precision.

New Revelations About the Origin of Interstellar Comet 3I/ATLAS

UK astronomers have uncovered new clues about the origin of 3I/Atlas – only the third known object from beyond our Solar System ever spotted in our cosmic neighbourhood.

New Research Says that Early Galaxies Could be Sending us Neutrinos

Those "Little Red Dots" discovered by the James Webb Space Telescope, galaxies that existed during the very early Universe, could be sending neutrino particles that are reaching us today.

Astronomers Unmask a Supernova Impostor

Astronomers observe faint light signals from stellar objects, study it intently, and try to understand what's behind these signals. In one case, the signals they detected masqueraded as an imminent supernova explosion. But more observations revealed a different reality.

Next-Gen Gravitational Wave Detectors Could Spot the First Black Holes

A few hundred million years after the Big Bang, the first stars ignited - literally the “let there be light” moment for the universe. Now known to astronomers as Population III, or Pop III, stars, these giants were very different from the stars we know today. They were formed out of pristine hydrogen and helium, with almost no “metal” (i.e. other elements) holding them back. They were also huge, growing to tens to hundreds of times larger than the Sun. And they died young, in many cases collapsing into the universe’s earliest black holes. Some of those black holes even partnered up, eventually colliding into one another and creating gravitational waves that, if we have instruments sensitive enough, we could potentially detect. A new study led by astrophysicist N.V. Krishnendu of the University of Birmingham and their colleagues shows just how much we can learn about them with the new suite of gravitational detectors about to come online.

Japan's Hayabusa2 Achieves First-Ever Laser Ranging Experiment with an Asteroid

On Sunday July 5th, 2026, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) achieved the first-ever successful laser ranging experiment while making a flyby of an asteroid.

Icy Exocomets Around a Distant Star Help Explain Earth's Water

Did icy comets deliver water to the young Earth? That idea won't go away. Now, astronomers at Lund University in Sweden have found evidence of exocomets orbiting a young star named PDS 70. The observations suggest that these comets are delivering water to that system's inner regions.

How to Land a Rocket Launch ‘Space Jellyfish’

What used to be a rare sight gracing the twilight sky is now becoming strangely commonplace. If you live on either U.S. coast, you have to good chance at seeing what’s become a common sky scene in our modern technocene era: a space launch jellyfish.

Do Black Holes Grow Along With the Universe? A New Study Says Yes

We know the universe is constantly expanding. We also know that gravitationally bound objects, such as solar systems and black holes, seem to be immune to that expansion. But a new paper, available in pre-print on arXiv by theoretical physicists Valerio Faraoni and Massimiliano Rinaldi challenges that assumption. They suggest that black holes can’t just ignore the expanding universe around them. Instead they have to expand along with it.

The World's First Spacefaring Commercial Cardiologist Has Lessons for Would-Be Astronauts

Say what you want about the changes to the space industry that’s happened over the past 10-20 years, but one thing is for certain - there are a lot more people that have access to space now than there ever has been before. Some of them have some absolutely crazy stories about how they got there, and plenty of those have written their own books about their experiences, before, during, and after their flight. Add to that list A Heart for Space by Dr. Eiman Jahangir - a cardiologist that officially became an astronaut when he crossed the Kármán line on a Blue Origin flight in August 2024. But the story of how an Iranian-American cardiologist made it all the way to space has lessons for anyone that hopes to follow in his footsteps.

China Postpones the Chang’e-7 Mission

We’ve said it before, and we’ll say it again - space is hard. Another example, albeit lacking in the destructive displays of some past examples, is China’s recent delay of its Chang’e-7 lunar mission. The agency announced the mission would miss its late-August launch window with a very brief press release from the China National Space Administration and the China Manned Space Engineering Office. While that means a slight delay in China’s plan for the Moon, it’s only a matter of time before the cornerstone of the robotic lunar exploration program is back on the launch pad.

Rubin Observatory Peers Deep Into the Famous COSMOS Field

A new image from NSF–DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory offers a spectacularly deep view into a famous region of sky known as the COSMOS field.

Quiet Black Holes With a Stellar Companion Raise Questions About How They Form

Gaia has discovered three stellar mass black holes, each with a small stellar companion. For two of these systems the companions orbit closer that we would expect. Just how these systems form is a bit of a mysteries, but there are clues.

Astronomers Hear the Faint Whispers of Cosmic Hydrogen from the Distant Past.

Astronomers have directly detected an extremely faint radio signal from hydrogen gas billions of light years away, demonstrating a powerful new way to map the Universe.

A Pair of White Dwarfs Locked in a Six-Minute Orbit Might One Day Be Observed By Gravitational Waves

Future gravitational wave observatories will be able to see the gravitational waves of close-orbiting binary stars. A newly studied white dwarf system could be one of the first systems we observe.

Snapping the Sun's Grand Magnetic Border at 0.3 AU

Out in the solar system, there is a giant rippling curtain of charged particles that is actually the largest structure in our solar system. Known as the Heliospheric Current Sheet (HCS), it marks the spot where the sun flips its magnetic north and south poles, and grows directly out of giant, glowing loops of plasma on its surface called helmet streamers. However, so far, studies of it have only occurred near Earth, using space-based instruments such as SoHo and Wind. But now, a new paper from Keiichi Ogasawara of the Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) and his team used the joint ESA/NASA mission Solar Orbiter to capture the HCS at only about ⅓ the distance to Earth - before interactions with interstellar space and the solar wind change it. In other words, this paper represents the clearest ever picture of what the solar system’s largest coherent structure is actually made out of.

Could life exist on Venus? Peptides survive harsh acid.

The planet Venus is arguably the most mischievous planetary body in the solar system. This is because like Saturn’s largest moon, Titan, Venus is shrouded in a thick atmosphere that can’t be viewed with optical telescopes and require radar images to see the surface. Unlike Titan, whose atmosphere looks quite dull, Venus’s swirling and awe-inspiring clouds give observers the impression that its surface is covered in wonderous features. However, the truth is far from ideal, as Venus’s surface is a living hell with searing temperatures and crushing pressures. But, unlike its surface and Titan, Venus’s atmosphere provides many more ideal conditions, even Earth-like conditions. But while life would be hard to exist on its surface, could we find life in the atmospheric clouds of Venus?