Astronomy News

Supermassive Black Holes are Remnants of Universe’s Very First Stars, New Theory Says

This artist’s impression shows a field of Population III stars as they would have appeared a mere 100 million years after the Big Bang. Image credit: NOIRLab / NSF / AURA / J. da Silva / Spaceengine.
Aug 15, 2025 by News Staff

In his new paper, Professor Jonathan Tan, an astrophysicist at the University of Virginia and the Chalmers University of Technology, proposes that Population III.1 supermassive stars were progenitors of supermassive black holes in the early Universe; high energy photons from the stars ionized the surrounding hydrogen gas far out into the pristine intergalactic medium, eventually engulfing a region that is millions of light-years in size; all supermassive...

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This artist’s concept depicts TRAPPIST-1d passing in front of its turbulent star, with other members of the closely packed system shown in the background. Image credit: NASA / ESA / CSA / Joseph Olmsted, STScI.

Could Exoplanets around TRAPPIST-1 and Other Red Dwarfs Be Habitable?

Aug 13, 2025 by News Staff

A protective atmosphere, a friendly Sun, and lots of liquid water — Earth is a special place. Using the unprecedented capabilities of the NASA/ESA/CSA...

Black holes are the sources of the strongest gravitational fields that can be found today in the Universe and are ideal laboratories for testing Einstein’s theory of general relativity in the strong field regime. In his article, Professor Bambi shows that the possibility of an interstellar mission to send a small spacecraft to the nearest black hole, although very speculative and extremely challenging, is not completely unrealistic. Image credit: Cosimo Bambi, doi: 10.1016/j.isci.2025.113142.

Astrophysicist Proposes Interstellar Mission to Study Black Holes

Aug 11, 2025 by News Staff

In a new paper published in the journal iScience, an astrophysicist from Fudan University discusses the possibility of sending a nanocraft to a black hole...

This Hubble image shows of the outer arms of NGC 45, a spiral galaxy some 22 million light-years away in the constellation of Cetus. The color image was made from separate exposures taken in the ultraviolet, visible and near-infrared regions of the spectrum with Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3) instrument. It is based on data obtained through seven filters. The color results from assigning different hues to each monochromatic image associated with an individual filter. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / D. Calzetti / R. Chandar / M.H. Özsaraç.

Hubble Space Telescope Zooms In on Outer Arms of NGC 45

Aug 11, 2025 by Enrico de Lazaro

Astronomers using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope have captured a stunning new image of part of a spiral galaxy called NGC 45. This Hubble image shows...

This artist’s concept shows what a gas giant orbiting Alpha Centauri A could look like. Image credit: NASA / ESA / CSA / STScI / Robert L. Hurt, Caltech & IPAC.

Webb Images Giant Exoplanet Candidate in Habitable Zone of Alpha Centauri A

Aug 8, 2025 by News Staff

This planet candidate, Alpha Centauri Ab, could be a gas giant, orbiting 1 to 2 times the distance between Sun and Earth, according to two papers to be...

Hubble captured this image of 3I/ATLAS on July 21, 2025, when the comet was 446 million km (277 million miles) from Earth. Image credit: NASA / ESA / David Jewitt, UCLA / Joseph DePasquale, STScI.

Hubble Captures Most Detailed Images Yet of Interstellar Comet 3I/ATLAS

Aug 7, 2025 by News Staff

According to an analysis of the new images from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, the nucleus of 3I/ATLAS is between 320 m (1,000 feet) and 5.6 km (3.5...

This Hubble image shows the Cosmic Horseshoe gravitational lens (to the right from the center): the newly-discovered ultramassive blackhole lies at the center of the orange galaxy; far behind it is a blue galaxy that is being warped into the horseshoe shaped ring by distortions in spacetime created by the immense mass of the foreground orange galaxy. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble.

Astronomers Discover Most Massive Black Hole Yet

Aug 7, 2025 by News Staff

Astronomers have identified and measured the most massive black hole to date, which tops out at a mass of 36 billion solar masses. This ultramassive black...

Illustration of a merger of a white dwarf with sub-giant star (size not to scale) that would have occurred in past. Image credit: Snehalata Sahu / University of Warwick.

Hubble Finds Remnant of White Dwarf Merger 130 Light-Years Away

Aug 6, 2025 by News Staff

White dwarfs are the dense cores left behind when stars exhaust their fuel and collapse. They are Earth-sized stellar embers weighing typically half as...

Abell 3667 is featured in this DECam image. Image credit: CTIO / NOIRLab / NSF / AURA / Anthony Englert, Brown University / T.A. Rector, University of Alaska Anchorage & NSF’s NOIRLab / M. Zamani & D. de Martin, NSF’s NOIRLab.

DECam Captures Elusive Intracluster Light in Galaxy Cluster Abell 3667

Aug 5, 2025 by News Staff

Intracluster light is a diffuse glow of stars stripped from galaxies during a galaxy cluster’s formation. Abell 3667 is featured in this DECam image....

This image shows the red supergiant star Stephenson 2 DFK 52 and its circumstellar environment. Image credit: ALMA / ESO / NAOJ / NRAO / Siebert et al.

Astronomers Discover Exotic Red Supergiant Star

Aug 5, 2025 by Natali Anderson

Designated Stephenson 2 DFK 52, the newly-discovered red supergiant resides in the massive stellar cluster RSGC2. This image shows the red supergiant star...

This Webb/NIRCam image shows NGC 6072, a planetary nebula approximately 4,048 light-years away in the constellation of Scorpius. Image credit: NASA / ESA / CSA / STScI.

Two Stars Contribute to Irregular Shape of NGC 6072, Webb Observations Show

Aug 4, 2025 by Enrico de Lazaro

Using two instruments onboard the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope, astronomers have captured new high-resolution images of the planetary nebula...

This Hubble image shows part of the Tarantula Nebula, a star-forming region some 163,000 light-years away in the constellation of Dorado. The color image is a composite of separate exposures acquired by Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3) instrument in the ultraviolet, near-infrared, and optical parts of the spectrum. It is based on data obtained through four filters. The color results from assigning different hues to each monochromatic image associated with an individual filter. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / C. Murray.

Hubble Sees Dusty Clouds in Tarantula Nebula

Aug 4, 2025 by Enrico de Lazaro

A striking new image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope shows incredible details in the Tarantula Nebula, a turbulent star-birth region located in...

This Webb image shows the Hubble Ultra Deep Field, an area of deep space with thousands of galaxies in various shapes and sizes on a black background. Image credit: NASA / ESA / CSA / Webb / G. Östlin / P. G. Perez-Gonzalez / J. Melinder / JADES Collaboration / M. Zamani, ESA & Webb.

Webb Visits ‘Hubble Ultra Deep Field’

Aug 1, 2025 by Enrico de Lazaro

Astronomers using the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope have observed the Hubble Ultra Deep Field (HUDF), an area of deep space with nearly 10,000...

This image of OJ 287 reveals the sharply curved, ribbon-like structure of the plasma jet emitted from its center. Image credit: Efthalia Traianou / Heidelberg University / IWR.

OJ 287 Galaxy Likely Harbors Supermassive Black Hole Binary at Its Center, Observations Suggest

Jul 31, 2025 by News Staff

Using data from the 10-m space radio telescope RadioAstron and a network of 27 ground-based observatories, astronomers have detected an unusual ribbon-like...

An artist’s impression of the super-Earth exoplanet HD 164922d. Image credit: Sci-News.com.

New Research Sheds Light on Evolution of Lava Planets

Jul 29, 2025 by News Staff

Lava planets are rocky exoplanets that orbit so close to their host star that their dayside is hot enough to melt silicate rock. Boukaré et al. introduce...

NASA’s Cassini spacecraft captured this stunning mosaic of Enceladus on October 5, 2008 as the spacecraft sped away from this geologically active moon of Saturn. Image credit: NASA / JPL / Space Science Institute.

Underground Microbial Life Could Survive on Mars, Europa and Enceladus Using Cosmic Rays

Jul 29, 2025 by News Staff

Radiolysis induced by Galactic cosmic rays could provide a viable energy source for microbial metabolism in the subsurface environments of rocky planetary...

This Hubble shows NGC 1309, a spiral galaxy some 100 million light-years away in the constellation of Eridanus. The color image is made up of observations from Hubble’s Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) and Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3) and in the ultraviolet, infrared, and optical parts of the spectrum. Four filters were used to sample various wavelengths. The color results from assigning different hues to each monochromatic image associated with an individual filter. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / L. Galbany / S. Jha / K. Noll / A. Riess.

Hubble Snaps Beautiful Image of NGC 1309

Jul 28, 2025 by Enrico de Lazaro

The Hubble team has released a stunning new image snapped by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope of the face-on spiral galaxy NGC 1309. This Hubble shows...

X-ray and infrared images of NGC 6099 HLX-1. Image credit: NASA / CXC / Inst. of Astronomy, Taiwan / Y-C Chang / ESA / STScI / HST / J. DePasquale.

Intermediate-Mass Black Hole Caught Eating Star in NGC 6099

Jul 27, 2025 by News Staff

The newly-discovered intermediate-mass black hole, named NGC 6099 HLX-1, resides in a compact star cluster on the outskirts of the elliptical galaxy NGC...

An artist’s impression of the L 98-59 planetary system; in the foreground is the habitable-zone super-Earth L 98-59f. Image credit: Benoît Gougeon / UdeM.

Astronomers Confirm Fifth Exoplanet in L 98-59 System

Jul 23, 2025 by Natali Anderson

Named L 98-59f, this planet is a non-transiting super-Earth with a minimal mass of 2.8 Earth masses on a 23-day orbit inside the habitable zone of the...

This image shows a possible substellar companion orbiting the young star V960 Mon. The candidate object was found with ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT), using its new Enhanced Resolution Imager and Spectrograph (ERIS). The new ERIS data are shown here in orange, overlaid on older images of the dusty disk as seen with the VLT’s SPHERE instrument (yellow) and ALMA (blue). Image credit: ESO / A. Dasgupta / ALMA / ESO / NAOJ / NRAO / Weber et al.

VLT Spots Protoplanet and Substellar Object Candidates around Young Stars

Jul 22, 2025 by News Staff

Using the Enhanced Resolution Imager and Spectrograph (ERIS) instrument on ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT), two teams of astronomers have detected a...

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