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Space

In the belly of the beast: massive clumps reveal star factories from a bygone era of the cosmos

Astronomers have surveyed massive, dense star factories, unlike any found in the Milky Way, in a large number of galaxies across the local universe. The findings provide a rare glimpse into processes shaping galaxies in the very early universe and possibly the Milky Way a few billion years from now. Known as luminous and ultra-luminous infrared galaxies, or LIRGs and ULIRGs, these galaxies are relatively rare in the local universe, with only 202 known within 400 megaparsecs (1.3 billion light-years) from Earth, according to Sean Linden, a research associate at the University of Arizona Steward Observatory, who presented ...

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Space

NASA’s Webb ‘UNCOVERs’ galaxy population driving cosmic renovation

Astronomers using data from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope have identified dozens of small galaxies that played a starring role in a cosmic makeover that transformed the early universe into the one we know today. “When it comes to producing ultraviolet light, these small galaxies punch well above their weight,” said Isak Wold, an assistant research scientist at Catholic University of America in Washington and NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. “Our analysis of these tiny but mighty galaxies is 10 times ...

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Space

Earth-based telescopes offer a fresh look at cosmic dawn

For the first time, scientists have used Earth-based telescopes to look back over 13 billion years to see how the first stars in the universe affect light emitted from the Big Bang. Using telescopes high in the Andes mountains of northern Chile, astrophysicists have measured this polarized microwave light to create a clearer picture of one of the least understood epochs in the history of the universe, the Cosmic Dawn. “People thought this couldn’t be done from the ground. Astronomy is a technology-limited field, ...

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Space

Silicate clouds discovered in atmosphere of distant exoplanet

Astrophysicists have gained precious new insights into how distant “exoplanets” form and what their atmospheres can look like, after using the James Webb Telescope to image two young exoplanets in extraordinary detail. Among the headline findings were the presence of silicate clouds in one of the planet’s atmospheres, and a circumplanetary disk thought to feed material that can form moons around the other. In broader terms, understanding how the “YSES-1” super-solar system formed offers further insight into the origins of our own solar system, and gives us the ...

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Space

Biggest boom since Big Bang: Hawaiʻi astronomers uncover most energetic explosions in universe

Astronomers from the University of Hawaiʻi’s Institute for Astronomy (IfA) have discovered the most energetic cosmic explosions yet discovered, naming the new class of events “extreme nuclear transients” (ENTs). These extraordinary phenomena occur when massive stars—at least three times heavier than our Sun—are torn apart after wandering too close to a supermassive black hole. Their disruption releases vast amounts of energy visible across enormous distances. The team's findings were recently detailed in the journal Science Advances. "We’ve observed stars getting ripped ...

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Space

Global team tracks unusual objects in Milky Way galaxy

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Researchers from the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) were part of a global effort to track newly discovered unusual bursts of radio emission from an object within the Milky Way galaxy. Information from telescopes in Australia, India, South Africa, and the United States were all used to help identify the object. In a paper published to the journal Nature on May 28, the international team announced the discovery of the new object, known as ASKAP J1832-091. This new object emits pulses of radio waves and X-rays lasting two minutes and recurring every 44 minutes. Called ...

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Space

From rubble to rockets: Turning scrap metal into essential equipment

Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) has been awarded $6.3 million for a groundbreaking initiative that could transform additive manufacturing by enabling the rapid production of high-quality components from scrap metal. This innovative approach to additive manufacturing, funded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), aims to ensure that essential components can be produced even in the most resource-limited environments, including where access to traditional supply chains is limited, such as battlefields or remote search-and-rescue locations. The ...

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Space

Studying the 12C+12C fusion reaction at astrophysical energies using HOPG target

A research team from the Institute of Modern Physics and Sichuan University has performed a direct measurement of the 12C+12C fusion reaction at a center-of-mass energy of 2.22 MeV using the LEAF accelerator facility. The experiment employed a highly intense 12C2+ beam, a highly oriented pyrolytic graphite (HOPG) target known for its low background, and a ΔE–E telescope combining a Time Projection Chamber and silicon detectors. This setup enabled detection of extremely rare fusion events, with a thick-target yield on the order of 10−17 ...

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Space

Discovery of giant planet orbiting tiny star challenges theories on planet formation

The Unexpected Planet Star TOI-6894 is just like many in our galaxy, a small red dwarf, and only ~20% of the mass of our Sun. Like many small stars, it is not expected to provide suitable conditions for the formation and hosting of a large planet. However, as published today in Nature Astronomy, an international team of astronomers have found the unmistakable signature of a giant planet, called TOI-6894b, orbiting this tiny star. This system has been discovered as part of a large-scale investigation of TESS (Transiting Exoplanet ...

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Space

A giant planet around a tiny star: A discovery that challenges planet formation theories

The host star, TOI-6894, is a red dwarf with only 20% the mass of the Sun, typical of the most common stars in our galaxy. Until now, such low-mass stars were not thought capable of forming or retaining giant planets. But as published today in Nature Astronomy, the unmistakable signature of a giant planet — TOI-6894b — has been detected in orbit around this tiny star. This exceptional system was first identified in data from NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS), as part of a large search for giant planets around small stars, led by Dr. Edward Bryant from UCL’s ...

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Space

Johns Hopkins study shows how scientists can use black holes as supercolliders

As federal funding cuts impact decades of research, scientists could turn to black holes for cheaper, natural alternatives to expensive facilities searching for dark matter and similarly elusive particles that hold clues to the universe’s deepest secrets, a new Johns Hopkins study of supermassive black holes suggests. The findings could help complement multi-billion-dollar expenses and decades of construction needed for research complexes like Europe’s Large Hadron Collider, the largest and highest-energy particle accelerator in the world. “One of the great hopes for particle colliders like the Large Hadron Collider is that ...

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Space

New Venus observation mission - World's first long-term planetary cubesat study by Korea’s Institute for Basic Science and NanoAvionics

Daejeon, South Korea, and Vilnius, Lithuania, 2 June 2025 – Kongsberg NanoAvionics (NanoAvionics), a leading small satellite bus manufacturer and mission integrator, has been selected by the Institute for Basic Science (IBS) in South Korea to build the first CubeSat for the world’s first long-term planetary science campaign which will use a series of CubeSats to monitor Venus from low Earth orbit. This long-term Venus observation initiative, the CLOVE project (Chasing the Long-term Variability of Our Nearest Neighbor Planet ...

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Space

Space pebbles and rocks play pivotal role in giant planet’s formation

Scientists analysing an ultra-hot giant planet believe it was formed by absorbing lightweight gases like methane evaporating from tiny space pebbles, whilst being bombarded with large rocky objects. Using the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) to explore the atmosphere of WASP-121b, researchers successfully detected water (H₂O), carbon monoxide (CO), and silicon monoxide (SiO) in the side facing its star or ‘dayside’. They also found methane (CH₄) in the planet’s ‘nightside’ atmosphere. Publishing ...

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Space

Webb reveals the origin of the ultra-hot exoplanet WASP-121b

Observations with the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) have provided new clues about how the exoplanet WASP-121b has formed and where it might have originated in the disc of gas and dust around its star. These insights stem from the detection of multiple key molecules: water vapour, carbon monoxide, silicon monoxide, and methane. With these detections, a team led by astronomers Thomas Evans-Soma and Cyril Gapp was able to compile an inventory of the carbon, oxygen, and silicon in the atmosphere of WASP-121b. The detection of methane in particular also suggests strong vertical winds on the cooler nightside, a process often ignored in current ...

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Space

Scientists discover new evidence of intermediate-mass black holes

In the world of black holes, there are generally three size categories: stellar-mass black holes (about five to 50 times the mass of the sun), supermassive black holes (millions to billions of times the mass of the sun), and intermediate-mass black holes with masses somewhere in between. While we know that intermediate-mass black holes should exist, little is known about their origins or characteristics—they are considered the rare “missing links” in black hole evolution. However, four new studies have ...

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Space

New classification system for nasal deformity in cleft lip and palate

May 30, 2025 — A proposed classification system appears highly accurate in evaluating nasal deformities in infants with cleft lip and/or palate (CLP), reports a study in the May/June issue of The Journal of Craniofacial Surgery. The journal is published in the Lippincott portfolio by Wolters Kluwer. "This new tool offers a reliable and practice tool for categorizing the severity of nasal deformities in CLP patients," comments lead author Martha Mejia, DDS, of Nicklaus Children's Health System, Miami. "With ongoing evaluation, it may promote more consistent diagnosis, individualized treatment planning, and standardized approaches ...

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Space

Observing one-dimensional anyons: Exotic quasiparticles in the coldest corners of the universe

Nature categorizes particles into two fundamental types: fermions and bosons. While matter-building particles such as quarks and electrons belong to the fermion family, bosons typically serve as force carriers—examples include photons, which mediate electromagnetic interactions, and gluons, which govern nuclear forces. When two fermions are exchanged, the quantum wave function picks up a minus sign, i.e., mathematically speaking, a phase of pi. This is totally different for bosons: Their phase upon exchange is zero. This quantum statistical property has drastic consequences for the behaviour of ...

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Space

Cosmic mystery deepens as astronomers find object flashing in both radio waves and X-rays

Astronomers from the International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research (ICRAR), in collaboration with international teams, have made a startling discovery about a new type of cosmic phenomenon. The object, known as ASKAP J1832-0911, emits pulses of radio waves and X-rays for two minutes every 44 minutes. This is the first time objects like these, called long-period transients (LPTs), have been detected in X-rays. Astronomers hope it may provide insights into the sources of similar mysterious signals ...

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Space

Space-to-ground infrared camouflage with radiative heat dissipation

In recent years, the space industry has experienced unprecedented explosive growth, with the number of satellite launches increasing exponentially. By the end of 2023, the number of global operational spacecraft exceeded 9,850, and the annual revenue of the space economy reached a staggering $400 billion. As space technology becomes increasingly integrated into our daily lives, enhancing the stealth of high-value space objects like spacecraft to reduce the risk of detection has become a critical challenge. Currently, space objects face ground-based detection threats primarily ...

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Space

Why are some rocks on the moon highly magnetic? MIT scientists may have an answer

Where did the moon’s magnetism go? Scientists have puzzled over this question for decades, ever since orbiting spacecraft picked up signs of a high magnetic field in lunar surface rocks. The moon itself has no inherent magnetism today. Now, MIT scientists may have solved the mystery. They propose that a combination of an ancient, weak magnetic field and a large, plasma-generating impact may have temporarily created a strong magnetic field, concentrated on the far side of the moon. In a study appearing in the journal Science Advances, the researchers show through detailed simulations that ...

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Space

Rare binary star system formed when a neutron star orbited inside another star

Astronomers have identified a rare type of binary star system containing a rapidly spinning millisecond pulsar and a helium star companion, formed via common envelope evolution. Although such systems are rare, the authors of this new study predict that others do exist; they estimate there are 16 to 84 undiscovered examples in the Milky Way. Millisecond pulsars – rapidly spinning neutron stars that emit radio waves – achieve their extraordinary rotation rates by siphoning matter from a close stellar companion. The formation of these exotic binary systems is not fully understood, because it can involve a variety of complex processes. ...

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Space

Here comes the boom! Studying the effects of rocket launch sonic booms on neighboring communities #ASA188

NEW ORLEANS, May 19, 2025 – Rocket launches are amazing spectacles, but close-up viewers know to bring a set of earplugs or earmuffs to protect their hearing. However, the boom of a launch isn’t reserved for those who sign up to watch it – it can also be heard and felt in surrounding communities. SpaceX’s Falcon 9 is a rocket used for both human and nonhuman space missions. Since 2010, the rocket has been launched over 400 times, and one of the launch sites for Falcon 9 is the Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. “Although Ventura County is 60-100 miles from the Vandenberg ...

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Space

Streaked slopes on Mars probably not signs of water flow, study finds

PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — A new study by planetary scientists at Brown University and the University of Bern in Switzerland casts doubt on one of the most tantalizing clues that water might be flowing on present-day Mars. For years, scientists have spied strange streaks running down Martian cliffsides and crater walls. Some have interpreted those streaks as liquid flows, suggesting the possibility of currently habitable environments on the Red Planet. But this new study, which used machine ...

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Space

Novel method for satellite 3D component layout optimization based on mixed integer programming

In satellite system design, optimizing component layout is crucial for enhancing satellite performance. Recently, a research team led by Professor Wen Yao from the Defense Innovation Institute at the Chinese Academy of Military Science has made new progress in the field of 3D satellite component layout optimization. This innovative approach can rapidly provide engineers with high-quality component layout candidates, promising to improve spacecraft layout design efficiency and efficacy. The research, published in the Chinese Journal of Aeronautics, introduces a new Satellite ...

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Space

Stretched in a cross pattern: Our neighboring galaxy is pulled in two axes

Researchers at Nagoya University in Japan have discovered that Cepheid variable stars in our neighboring galaxy, the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC), are moving in opposing directions along two distinct axes. They found that stars closer to Earth move towards the northeast, while more distant stars move southwest. This newly discovered movement pattern exists alongside a northwest-southeast opposing movement that the scientists previously observed in massive stars. These complex bidirectional movements along two different axes indicate that the SMC is being ...

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