If super massive black holes (SMBH) were given a job description, it would tell them to park themselves in the middle of a massive galaxy and consume as much gas, dust, and even stars as they could. Like teenage boys in front of a well-stocked fridge, they're happy to oblige. However, even voracious SMBHs have limits, and astronomers have watched as one of them reached its limit.
In the 1960s, scientists became acutely aware of a problem with the Universe's "mass budget." Based on the observed rotational curves of galaxies, they determined that about 85% of the Universe's mass was invisible, leading to the theory of Dark Matter. Scientists have also been aware for some time that much of the "normal" or baryonic matter (that which we can see) in the Universe was also unaccounted for. This has prompted multiple efforts to probe the Universe for this "missing" mass, using everything from X-ray emissions and ultraviolet observations of distant quasars to find hints of where it might be hiding.
As NASA prepares for a return to the Moon through the Artemis program, one of the biggest health concerns for astronauts has been lunar dust. The fine, abrasive particles known as the regolith that coat the Moon's surface have long worried scientists, especially after Apollo astronauts experienced respiratory problems after their missions. However, groundbreaking research from the University of Technology Sydney has delivered surprisingly reassuring news: lunar dust is less harmful to human lung cells than previously feared, and significantly less toxic than common Earth based air pollution.
More and more satellites are being added to Low Earth Orbit (LEO) every month. As that number continues to increase, so do the risks of that critical area surrounding the Earth becoming impassable, trapping us on the planet for the foreseeable future. Ideas from different labs have presented potential solutions to this problem, but one of the most promising, electrodynamic tethers (EDTs), have only now begun to be tested in space. A new CubeSat called the Spacecraft for Advanced Research and Cooperative Studies (SPARCS) mission from researchers at the Sharif University of Technology in Tehran hopes to contribute to that effort by testing an EDT and intersatellite communication system as well as collecting real-time data on the radiation environment of its orbital path.
We might not currently have any technology that would make a space elevator viable on Earth. But that doesn’t mean they wouldn’t work on other bodies around the solar system. One of the most interesting places that one could work is around Ceres, the Queen of the Asteroid Belt, and potentially one of the biggest sources of resources for humanity’s expansion into space. A new paper from researchers at the University of Colorado, Colorado Springs and Industrial CNT, a manufacturer of Carbon Nanotube (one potential material for the space elevator), details just how useful such an elevator could be.
Hycean worlds are also called ocean worlds. They're planets covered in oceans that also have thick hydrogen atmospheres. There are no confirmed Hycean worlds—also called ocean worlds—but many candidates. Even though they're only candidates so far, researchers are curious about their habitability. New research examines the role tidal heating plays in their potential habitability.
The telescope's journey began in the early 1600s when Dutch spectacle maker Jan Lippershey discovered that combining lenses could magnify distant objects. Galileo Galilei quickly improved the designs and became the first to explore the heavens, revealing the Moon's craters, Jupiter’s moons and the rings of Saturn. Over the centuries, telescopes evolved from simple lens combinations to massive ground-based observatories with enormous mirrors, and eventually to space-based instruments like the Hubble Space Telescope that eliminated Earth's atmospheric interference. Today's cutting-edge telescopes, such as the James Webb Space Telescope, use advanced technology to look deeper into space than ever before.
Scientists have used the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) to make a groundbreaking discovery about water in space, detecting a special type of water ice around a young star that could help explain how water travels from stellar nurseries to planets and comets.
Scientists are revolutionising the search for extraterrestrial life by challenging our somewhat Earth-centric assumptions about where and how life might exist in the universe. A new review argues that we must embrace the remarkable diversity of exoplanets discovered over the past two decades and consider a much broader range of environments that could potentially host life.
In 1912, astronomer Victor Hess discovered strange, high-energy particles known as "cosmic rays." Since then, researchers have hunted for their birthplaces. Today, we know about some of the cosmic ray "launch pads", ranging from the Sun and supernova explosions to black holes and distant active galactic nuclei. What astronomers are now searching for are sources of cosmic rays within the Milky Way Galaxy.
Extended periods in space can lead to all kinds of health problems. The hazard posed by radiation is well known and is the reason NASA and other space agencies impose limits on the amount astronauts are exposed to. There's also microgravity, which has been studied extensively thanks to regular missions to the International Space Station and long-term studies (like the NASA Twins Study). According to this research, extended periods in microgravity will result in muscle atrophy, bone density loss, changes in eyesight, effects on the cardiovascular and endocrine systems, and even genetic changes.
If our Solar System seems stable, it's because our short lifespans make it seem that way. Earth revolves, night follows day, the Moon moves through light and shadow, and the Sun hangs in the sky. But in reality, everything is moving and influencing everything else, and the fine balance we observe can easily be disrupted. Could passing stars have disrupted Earth's orbit and ushered in dramatic climatic changes in our planet's past?
Shortly after astronomers detected asteroid 2024 YR4 on December 27, 2024, they realized it posed no threat to Earth. But it still might impact the Moon in 2032. The impact debris could threaten satellites and trigger an extraordinarily stunning meteor shower.
In March 2025, NASA's Polarimeter to Unify the Corona and Heliosphere (PUNCH) mission launched into orbit to monitor the Sun's outer atmosphere to reveal more about solar wind. Developed and led by the Southwest Research Institute (SwRI), this constellation consists of four microsatellites that observe the Sun's corona and heliosphere using continuous 3D deep-field imaging. While completing its commission phase, the Wide Field Imagers (WFIs) aboard the four PUNCH spacecraft captured high-resolution images of a Coronal Mass Ejection (CME) in greater detail than any previous mission.
Very massive stars (VMSs), which typically has masses about 100 times that of our own Sun, are critical components in our understanding of the formation of important astronomical structures like black holes and supernovae. However, there are some observed characteristics of VMSs that don’t fit the expected behavior based on the best models we have of them. In particular, they hover around a relatively limited band of temperatures, which are hard to replicate with typical stellar evolution models. A new paper from Kendall Shepherd and their co-authors at the Institute for Advanced Study (SISSA) in Italy describes a series of new models based on updated solar winds that better fit the observations of VMSs in their natural environment, and might aid in our understanding of the development of some of the most fascinating objects in the Universe.
Scientists using NASA's James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) have made an exciting discovery about the early universe. They found dozens of small galaxies that played a huge role in transforming our cosmos from a dark, foggy place into the bright, clear universe we see today.
Solar sails represent one of the most elegant concepts in space exploration: using sunlight itself to propel spacecraft through the cosmos without any fuel. But these thin, light giants face a stubborn engineering challenge that has plagued missions since their inception; keeping control while riding the solar wind.
Thanks to observatories like the venerable Hubble Space Telescope (HST) and its next-generation cousin, the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), astronomers are finally getting the chance to study galaxies that existed just one billion years after the Big Bang. This period is known as "Cosmic Dawn" because it was during this period that the first stars formed and came together to create the first galaxies in the Universe. The study of these galaxies has revealed some surprising and fascinating things that are allowing astronomers to learn how large-scale structures in the Universe came to be and how they've evolved since.
We don't know what dark matter is, but that doesn't stop astronomers from using it to their advantage. Dark matter is part of what makes gravitational lensing so effective. Astronomers expect the Roman Space Telescope to find 160,000 gravitational lenses, and dark matter makes a crucial contribution to these lenses.
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