Astronomy News

Sun May Have Escaped Milky Way’s Crowded Core Billions of Years Ago

An artist’s impression of a migration of the Sun and its stellar twins from the center of the Milky Way approximately 4 to 6 billion years ago. Image credit: NAOJ.
Mar 13, 2026 by News Staff

Using a vast catalog of Sun-like stars built by ESA’s Gaia mission, astronomers have found strong evidence that our home star traveled outward with thousands of stellar counterparts roughly 4 to 6 billion years ago, offering new clues to the formation of the Milky Way’s central bar. An artist’s impression of a migration of the Sun and its stellar twins from the center of the Milky Way approximately 4 to 6 billion years ago. Image credit: NAOJ. “While...

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A planetary collision around star Gaia20ehk. Image credit: Andy Tzanidakis.

Astronomers Witness Aftermath of Catastrophic Planetary Collision

Mar 11, 2026 by News Staff

An unusual flickering of a young F-type star called Gaia20ehk and an expanding cloud of dust around it suggest that a catastrophic planetary crash unfolded...

GRB 230906A occurred in a tiny galaxy in a stream of gas located about 4.7 billion light-years from Earth. Image credit: NASA / CXC / Penn State Univ / S. Dichiara / ESA / STScI / ERC BHianca 2026 / Fortuna and Dichiara, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 / SAO / P. Edmonds.

Astronomers Observe Neutron Star Crash in Unexpected Environment

Mar 11, 2026 by News Staff

Using NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory and other telescopes, astronomers have traced a short-duration gamma-ray burst event called GRB 230906A to a faint...

This VLT image shows the stars and gas surrounding Sagittarius A*, a supermassive black hole in the center of the Milky Way Galaxy. Image credit: ESO / D. Ribeiro, MPE GC Team.

VLT Discovers Third Gas Cloud near Milky Way’s Central Black Hole

Mar 10, 2026 by Enrico de Lazaro

The newly-identified gas cloud, dubbed G2t, follows nearly the same orbit as two known clouds, suggesting they were all expelled by a pair of massive stars...

An artist’s impression of 3I/ATLAS is shown as it passes near the Sun, illuminating one side of the comet; on the side of the comet closer to the Sun, the methanol gas is shown in blue, with icy dust grains still present in the gas; on the dark side of the comet, the hydrogen cyanide is shown in orange. Image credit: NSF / AUI / NRAO / M.Weiss.

3I/ATLAS is Unusually Rich in Methanol, ALMA Observations Show

Mar 9, 2026 by News Staff

Astronomers using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) have detected hydrogen cyanide (nitrogen-bearing organic molecule commonly seen...

Vishal Gajjar & Grayce C. Brown report one of the first quantitative frameworks for assessing the impact of stellar environments on the detectability of narrowband technosignatures. Image credit: Sci.News.

Stellar ‘Space Weather’ Could Be Blurring Radio Signals from Extraterrestrial Civilizations

Mar 9, 2026 by News Staff

Stellar activity and plasma turbulence could distort narrow radio signals before they leave their home planetary systems, potentially explaining part of...

Webb captured the auroral footprints of Io and Europa, providing spectral measurements for the first time, and revealing extreme changes in the physical properties within Io’s auroral footprint that are likely linked to the electrons crashing into the top of Jupiter’s atmosphere. Image credit: NASA / ESA / CSA / Webb / NIRCam / Jupiter ERS Team / Judy Schmidt / Katie L. Knowles, Northumbria University.

Webb Captures Io’s and Europa’s Auroral Footprints in Jupiter’s Atmosphere

Mar 5, 2026 by News Staff

The NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope conducted a clockwise scan around the entire limb of Jupiter, chasing aurora as it rotated into view. This...

Section of the Line Intensity Map created by charting the distribution and concentration of excited hydrogen (via the Lyman alpha wavelength) in the Universe around 10 billion years ago. The stars mark where HETDEX has found galaxies. The inset simulates the structure present in this map once it is zoomed in on and background noise is removed from the data. Image credit: Maja Lujan Niemeyer / Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics / HETDEX / Chris Byrohl / Stanford University.

Astronomers Find Hidden Structures in Early Universe

Mar 5, 2026 by News Staff

Using spectral data from the Hobby-Eberly Telescope at McDonald Observatory, astronomers have produced the most detailed 3D map yet of faint cosmic structures...

In this image, Hubble captures the very core of the billowing gas in the Cat’s Eye Nebula. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / Z. Tsvetanov.

Hubble and Euclid Telescopes Highlight Hidden Complexity of Cat’s Eye Nebula

Mar 4, 2026 by News Staff

New images from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope and ESA’s Euclid mission have revealed the complex, multi-shell structure of the extraordinary planetary...

This is a mosaic image, one of the largest ever taken by Hubble of the Crab Nebula, a 6-light-year-wide expanding remnant of a star’s supernova explosion. Japanese and Chinese astronomers recorded this violent event nearly 1,000 years ago in 1054, as did, almost certainly, Native Americans. Image credit: NASA / ESA / J. Hester / A. Loll, Arizona State University.

Astronomer Deciphers Crab Pulsar’s Zebra Stripes

Mar 2, 2026 by News Staff

New research from the University of Kansas untangles a decades-old astrophysical puzzle, showing how competing forces — gravity’s pull and magnetospheric...

This VLT/HAWK-I image shows the emission nebula RCW 36; while the dark clouds in the middle of the image make up the head and body of the bird of prey, the filaments extending away from the body to the left and right compose its wings; below it, is a mesmerising blue nebula with massive newly born stars, whose intense radiation make the gas around them glow brightly. Image credit: ESO / do Brito do Vale et al.

VLT Focuses on Brown Dwarfs and Infant Stars in RCW 36

Mar 2, 2026 by Enrico de Lazaro

Using the High Acuity Wide-field K-band Imager (HAWK-I) on ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT), astronomers have captured a new image of the emission nebula...

This is an artist’s concept of the Jupiter’s moon Ganymede; two auroral ovals can be seen over northern and southern mid-latitudes. Image credit: NASA / ESA / G. Bacon, STScI / J. Saur, University of Cologne.

Ganymede’s Auroral Patches Reveal Shared Physics with Earth’s Aurorae

Mar 2, 2026 by News Staff

Scientsts from the United States, Europe and China have used the Ultraviolet Spectrograph (UVS) onboard NASA’s Juno spacecraft to map detailed patch...

This image of the interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS was captured by the JANUS camera aboard ESA’s Juice spacecraft on November 6, 2025, just seven days after the comet made its closest approach to the Sun. At the time, Juice was about 66 million km (41 million miles) away from the comet. The inset in the image shows the same data, but processed to highlight the coma structure. The arrows in the top left indicate the direction in which the comet was moving (blue) and the relative direction of the Sun (yellow). Image credit: ESA / Juice / JANUS.

Juice Spies Interstellar Comet 3I/ATLAS

Feb 28, 2026 by Natali Anderson

The JANUS science camera aboard ESA’s Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (Juice) has captured new images of the interstellar object 3I/ATLAS. This image of the...

These Webb images show PMR 1, a planetary nebula some 5,000 light-years away in the constellation of Vela. Image credit: NASA / ESA / CSA / STScI / Joseph DePasquale, STScI.

Webb’s Infrared Vision Reveals Planetary Nebula that Looks Strikingly Like Celestial Brain

Feb 27, 2026 by Enrico de Lazaro

The unmatched sensitivity of the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope in both near- and mid-infrared light sheds new light on PMR 1, a little-studied...

This image shows the complex distribution of molecular gas in the Central Molecular Zone (CMZ) of the Milky Way. Image credit: ALMA / ESO / NAOJ / NRAO / Longmore et al. / Minniti et al.

ALMA Produces Largest and Most Detailed Image Ever Taken of Milky Way’s Center

Feb 25, 2026 by News Staff

With the record-setting image from the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), astronomers have mapped the molecular heart of our Milky Way...

Schematic of the expansion of the Universe from the Big Bang to the present day. Image credit: NASA / EFBrazil.

Astrophysicists Propose New Method to Measure Hubble Constant

Feb 25, 2026 by Enrico de Lazaro

Astrophysicists from the University of Illinois and the University of Chicago have developed an innovative method to measure the Hubble constant —...

This Webb image shows NGC 5134, a spiral galaxy some 65 million light-years away in the constellation of Virgo. Image credit: NASA / ESA / CSA / Webb / A. Leroy.

Webb Focuses on Spiraling Star Factory: NGC 5134

Feb 24, 2026 by Enrico de Lazaro

Astronomers using the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope have produced a spectacular infrared image of the spiral galaxy NGC 5134. This Webb image...

The main image at left shows a combined Webb and Hubble view of the spiral galaxy NGC 1637, with the region of interest in the top right; the remaining three panels show a detailed view of a red supergiant star before and after it exploded; the star is not visible in the Hubble image before the SN 2025pht explosion, but appears in the Webb image; the July 2025 view from Hubble shows the glowing aftermath of the explosion. Image credit: NASA / ESA / CSA / STScI / C. Kilpatrick, Northwestern / A. Suresh, Northwestern / J. DePasquale, STScI.

Webb Identifies Supernova Progenitor Star in NGC 1637

Feb 23, 2026 by News Staff

Using the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope, astronomers have for the first time identified the progenitor of a nearby supernova — a red supergiant...

Tomassini et al. characterized the physical and morphological properties of the binary system AFGL 4106, which is composed of two evolved massive stars. Image credit: ESO / Tomassini et al.

VLT Reveals Secrets of Old Stellar Couple

Feb 23, 2026 by Enrico de Lazaro

A stunning new image from the SPHERE (Spectro-Polarimetric High-contrast Exoplanet Research) instrument on ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) reveals the...

Tiranti et al. mapped the vertical structure of Uranus’ upper atmosphere, uncovering how temperature and charged particles vary with height across the planet. Image credit: NASA / ESA / CSA / Webb / STScI / P. Tiranti / H. Melin / M. Zamani, ESA & Webb.

Webb Reveals Hidden Layers of Uranus’ Upper Atmosphere

Feb 21, 2026 by News Staff

For the first time, astronomers have mapped the vertical structure of Uranus’ ionosphere, uncovering unexpected temperature peaks, weakened ion densities,...

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