Astronomy News

Webb Spots Supermassive Black Hole Older Than Its Home Galaxy

This Webb/NIRCam image shows the little red dot Abell2744-QSO1, magnified and triply imaged by galaxy cluster Abell 2744. Image credit: NASA / ESA / CSA / Lukas Furtak, Ben-Gurion University / Alyssa Pagan, STScI.
May 28, 2026 by News Staff

Astronomers using the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope have found an enormous black hole in the early Universe that appears to predate its own host galaxy, raising fresh questions about how the cosmos’ first supermassive monsters were born. This Webb/NIRCam image shows the little red dot Abell2744-QSO1, magnified and triply imaged by galaxy cluster Abell 2744. Image credit: NASA / ESA / CSA / Lukas Furtak, Ben-Gurion University / Alyssa Pagan,...

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This artist’s impression shows the evolution of the Universe beginning with the Big Bang on the left followed by the appearance of the Cosmic Microwave Background. The formation of the first stars ends the cosmic dark ages, followed by the formation of galaxies. Image credit: M. Weiss / Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics.

Is Dark Energy Unnecessary? Mathematicians Challenge Standard Cosmological Model of Universe

May 28, 2026 by News Staff

Mathematicians from University College London and the University of California, Davis, have published a mathematical proof that the Universe’s accelerating...

An artist’s rendition of the ultrahot Jupiter TOI-1518b and its parent star. Image credit: Sci-News.com.

Webb Detects Methane in Atmosphere of Exo-Saturn TOI-199b

May 25, 2026 by Enrico de Lazaro

Using spectral data from the Near-Infrared Spectrograph (NIRSpec) onboard the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope, astronomers analyzed the atmosphere...

This image of the Crystal Ball Nebula was captured by the 8.1-m Gemini North telescope at the International Gemini Observatory. Image credit: J. Miller & M. Rodriguez, International Gemini Observatory & NSF’s NOIRLab / T.A. Rector, University of Alaska Anchorage & NSF’s NOIRLab / D. de Martin & M. Zamani, NSF’s NOIRLab.

Gemini North Telescope Peers into Crystal Ball Nebula

May 22, 2026 by Enrico de Lazaro

A stunning new image from the 8.1-m Gemini North telescope, located on the summit of Maunakea in Hawai’i, reveals the Crystal Ball Nebula in unprecedented...

The superluminous supernova SN 2017egm was discovered by ESA’s Gaia mission on May 23, 2017; it exploded in a massive barred spiral galaxy known as NGC 3191, shown on the left before the eruption; the image at right, taken on July 1, 2017, shows the supernova outshining the entire galaxy. Image credit: SDSS / PS1 / NOT+ALFSOC / Bose et al.

Fermi Identifies Hidden Engine behind Superluminous Supernovae

May 20, 2026 by News Staff

New gamma-ray observations from NASA’s Fermi Space Telescope suggest ultra-magnetic neutron stars called magnetars could be fueling superluminous supernovae,...

This image from the Gemini North telescope shows a pair of interacting spiral galaxies: NGC 4568 (bottom) and NGC 4567 (top). Image credit: International Gemini Observatory / NOIRLab / NSF / AURA / T.A. Rector, University of Alaska Anchorage & NSF’s NOIRLab / J. Miller, Gemini Observatory & NSF’s NOIRLab / M. Zamani, NSF’s NOIRLab / D. de Martin, NSF’s NOIRLab.

Violent Collision May Have Destroyed Milky Way’s First Stellar Disk

May 20, 2026 by News Staff

New simulations suggest a violent collision 11 billion years ago reshaped our Galaxy and triggered a burst of star formation. This image from the Gemini...

This is an artist's impression of a water-vapor geyser on Europa. Image credit: University of Cologne.

Do Europa’s Water Plumes Really Exist? New Study Reopens Debate

May 18, 2026 by News Staff

New research led by planetary scientists from Southwest Research Institute and KTH Royal Institute of Technology suggests that evidence for vapor erupting...

This Hubble image reveals the lenticular galaxy NGC 1266; reddish-brown clumps and filaments of dust partially obscure the galaxy’s full face, while red, blue, and orange light from distant galaxies shines through its diffuse outer regions and dots the inky-black background. Image credit: NASA / ESA / K. Alatalo, STScI / G. Kober, NASA & Catholic University of America.

Hubble Space Telescope Peers into Post-Starburst Galaxy

May 18, 2026 by Enrico de Lazaro

NGC 1266 appears frozen between two cosmic identities, offering astronomers a close-up look at how star formation shuts down. This Hubble image reveals...

Radio signal from the quasar TXS 2005+403 travels roughly 10 billion light-years to reach Earth, traversing the Cygnus region, one of the most turbulent and scattering environments in the Milky Way Galaxy. On the left, this artist’s conception shows the quasar as it truly appears, with a bright accretion disk and jets blasting into the Galaxy like a beacon through the darkness. On the right, we see how turbulent gas distorts scientists’ view of the quasar in much the same way heat haze from a fire warps our view of the objects behind it. Image credit: Melissa Weiss / CfA.

Astronomers Catch Interstellar Turbulence Warping Light across Milky Way

May 15, 2026 by News Staff

For the first time, astronomers have directly detected how turbulent clouds of ionized gas between the stars bend and blur radio signal from a distant...

This composite image combines both the original X-ray and the subtracted X-ray images of the deep Chandra observations of Abell 2029. Image credit: NASA / CXC / CfA / Watson et al. / PanSTARRS / SAO / N. Wolk / P. Edmonds.

Galaxy Cluster Abell 2029 Had Violent Past, Chandra Reveals

May 14, 2026 by News Staff

Deep X-ray observations of Abell 2029 — sometimes described as the most relaxed galaxy cluster in the Universe — uncovered evidence of an ancient...

In November 2025, 3I/ATLAS passed between ESA’s Juice spacecraft and NASA’s Europa Clipper spacecraft. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Southwest Research Institute.

Europa Clipper and Juice Team Up to Observe Interstellar Comet 3I/ATLAS

May 13, 2026 by News Staff

When the interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS passed between ESA’s Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (Juice) spacecraft and NASA’s Europa Clipper spacecraft in November...

Gravitational waves observed by Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) twin detectors were produced during the final fraction of a second of the merger of two black holes to produce a single, more massive spinning black hole. Image credit: T. Pyle / LIGO.

Gravitational Waves Could Become New Tool in Hunt for Dark Matter

May 13, 2026 by News Staff

Researchers have developed a new method to identify whether black hole mergers occurred inside dense clouds of dark matter, potentially opening a fresh...

This image of Messier 77 from Webb’s Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI) highlights its swirling spiral arms, the dust in its disk and its piercingly bright core like never before. The bright orange lines appearing to radiate out from the galaxy’s center are not actually a feature of the galaxy: they are a type of distortion that arises from the optical design of the telescope. Called diffraction spikes, they are created because the intense light from the unresolved AGN is bent (diffracted) very slightly at the edges of Webb’s hexagonal mirror panels and around one of the struts that hold up its secondary mirror. Image credit: NASA / ESA / CSA / Webb / A. Leroy.

Webb Peers into Brilliant Heart of Messier 77

May 11, 2026 by Enrico de Lazaro

New images from the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope capture the barred spiral galaxy Messier 77 as a whirlpool of glowing dust, newborn stars and...

Space junk begins to fall down much faster once the Sun’s activity across the solar cycle reaches approximately 67% of its peak.

Space Junk Falls Faster When Sun Heats Up, New Study Finds

May 6, 2026 by News Staff

Space debris — ranging from defunct satellites and discarded rocket stages to fragments from collisions — poses an ever-increasing threat to...

This Webb/NIRSpec/IFU image shows the slow-rotator galaxy XMM-VID1-2075. Image credit: Forrest et al., doi: 10.1038/s41550-026-02855-0.

Webb Discovers Slow-Rotating Galaxy in Early Universe

May 5, 2026 by News Staff

In today’s Universe, most galaxies are held together by orderly rotation. But among the largest, no-longer star-forming systems, many are instead dominated...

An artist’s conception of the trans-Neptunian object 2002 XV93. Image credit: NAOJ.

Small, Frozen World beyond Pluto Appears to Have Thin Atmosphere

May 4, 2026 by Enrico de Lazaro

A team of astronomers in Japan has detected a thin atmosphere around (612533) 2002 XV93, a trans-Neptunian object about 500 km in diameter — an object...

Astronomers Spot Dozens of Potential ‘Tatooine’ Worlds

May 4, 2026 by Enrico de Lazaro

The existence of circumbinary planets — exoplanets that orbit binary stars — has only been firmly established over the past 15 years. Observations...

Hubble’s photo of Jupiter displays the ever-changing landscape of its turbulent atmosphere. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / Amy Simon, NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center / Michael H. Wong, University of California, Berkeley / Joseph DePasquale, STScI.

Jupiter is Little Smaller Than We Thought

May 4, 2026 by News Staff

Using data from NASA’s Juno spacecraft, planetary scientists have produced the most precise measurements of Jupiter’s size in half a century and found...

This Hubble image shows NGC 3137, a spiral galaxy some 53 million light-years away in the constellation of Antlia. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / D. Thilker / PHANGS-HST Team.

Hubble Captures Spiral Galaxy Packed with Brilliant Star Clusters: NGC 3137

May 1, 2026 by Enrico de Lazaro

Astronomers using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope have captured this vivid image of the spiral galaxy NGC 3137, which is located in the constellation...

Aggarwal et al. show that the energy released from dark matter decay could alter the chemistry of early galaxies enough to cause some of them to directly collapse into black holes rather than forming stars. Image credit: Aggarwal et al., doi: 10.1088/1475-7516/2026/04/034.

Dark Matter May Have Jump-Started Universe’s First Giant Black Holes

Apr 29, 2026 by News Staff

New research by astronomers from the University of California, Riverside, Sam Houston State University and the University of Oklahoma suggests decaying...

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