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This VLT/SPHERE image shows the clearest image ever of what likely is Betelgeuse B. Image credit: ESO / Montargès et al.

Astronomers Directly Image Betelgeuse’s Long-Suspected Stellar Companion

Jul 28, 2026 by Enrico de Lazaro

After a century of speculation, astronomers using ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) have captured the clearest evidence yet that the red supergiant Betelgeuse...

This Hubble image shows NGC 4654, an intermediate spiral galaxy some 55 million light-years away in the constellation of Virgo. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / D. Thilker / J. Lee / PHANGS-HST Team.

Hubble Spots Spiral Galaxy Warped by Cosmic Forces

Jul 27, 2026 by Enrico de Lazaro

A stunning new image captured by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope shows the lopsided intermediate spiral galaxy NGC 4654, whose unusual shape was sculpted...

This illustration shows the stellar system CD-35 2722, with the newly found exomoon at the center; the star has about half the mass of our Sun, and it is orbited by a brown dwarf, the reddish-brown object seen here in the foreground (right). Image credit: ESO / M. Kornmesser.

Planetary-Mass Exomoon Found Circling Brown Dwarf

Jul 26, 2026 by Natali Anderson

Astronomers using ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) have discovered a gas giant around a brown dwarf in the stellar system CD-35 2722. The discovery blurs...

Using supercomputer simulations of galaxies like the Milky Way, Batrakov et al. found that galaxies with slowly rotating stellar haloes are more likely to have experienced a major ‘disk flip,’ where our Galaxy’s disk changed its orientation by more than 90 degrees. Image credit: Batrakov et al.

Our Milky Way Galaxy Likely Underwent Disk Flip after Ancient Galactic Collision: Study

Jul 22, 2026 by News Staff

A head-on collision with another galaxy billions of years ago may have dramatically reoriented the Milky Way’s disk, according to new supercomputer simulations...

This artist’s concept depicts a near-Earth asteroid with an elongated orbit; a few objects such as these can exhibit significant perturbations in their motion around the Sun and, like 1998 SH2, could turn out to be regular comets with a weak tail and coma. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech.

Puzzling Near-Earth Asteroid Turns Out to Be Comet with Weak Tail

Jul 21, 2026 by News Staff

The near-Earth object (875163) 1998 SH2, which is currently classified as an asteroid, has revealed a hidden identity: it’s actually a comet in disguise,...

Whitaker et al. found Omega Centauri’s first stellar-mass black hole, which has a visible star companion that is shown in greater detail. Image credit: ESA / NASA / Maximilian Häberle, MPIA / Joseph DePasquale, STScI.

Astronomers Find Omega Centauri’s First Stellar-Mass Black Hole

Jul 20, 2026 by News Staff

After decades of searching, astronomers have pinpointed the first of an estimated 10,000 stellar-mass black holes thought to lurk in Omega Centauri, the...

An artist’s concept of rocky planets LHS 1140b and LHS 1140c. Image credit: Melissa Weiss / Harvard & Smithsonian’s Center for Astrophysics.

Potential Atmosphere Detected on Habitable-Zone Exoplanet LHS 1140b

Jul 16, 2026 by Enrico de Lazaro

Using spectral data from the Magellan Clay telescope at Las Campanas Observatory, astronomers detected helium escaping from LHS 1140b, a rocky exoplanet...

An artist’s illustration of exoplanets orbiting Barnard’s star. Image credit: International Gemini Observatory / NOIRLab / NSF / AURA / P. Marenfeld.

Barnard’s Star Planetary System May Be Filled with Water-Poor Rocky Worlds

Jul 16, 2026 by News Staff

A new analysis suggests the four sub-Earth exoplanets orbiting Barnard’s star — the Sun’s nearest single-star neighbor — are likely packed...

This illustration depicts Faraday rotation in the afterglow of a gamma-ray burst. A powerful jet (upper left) sends polarized radio waves outward through the thin wall of a surrounding bubble of magnetized gas called an HII region. As the light passes through this material, its polarization angle is twisted by the magnetic field. Because the effect is stronger at longer wavelengths, the red and blue waves, which represent different radio wavelengths, exit the bubble oscillating in different directions. By measuring this difference, astronomers were able to map the magnetic environment surrounding GRB 260310A for the first time. Image credit: NSF / AUI / NRAO / M. Weiss

Astronomers Detect Gamma-Ray Burst’s Magnetic Fingerprint

Jul 15, 2026 by News Staff

Using NSF’s Very Large Array (VLA), astronomers made the first radio detection of polarized light and Faraday rotation from a gamma-ray burst afterglow,...

This artist’s concept shows the Beta Pictoris system with the discovered giant exoplanet Beta Pictoris d at the right. Image credit: NASA / ESA / CSA / STScI / Ralf Crawford, STScI.

Astronomers Discover and Directly Image Third Planet in Beta Pictoris System

Jul 15, 2026 by News Staff

Named Beta Pictoris d, the newly-discovered world is 100 times fainter than Beta Pictoris b — the first planet discovered around the A5-type star...

This Hubble image shows the elliptical galaxy NGC 4696. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / A. Fabian.

Webb Catches Supermassive Black Hole Feeding from Cosmic Gas Streams

Jul 14, 2026 by News Staff

New images of the giant elliptical galaxy NGC 4696 from the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope reveal gas filaments funneling material into a spinning...

An artist’s impression of a red dwarf with a white dwarf binary companion peeking out from behind. Image credit: Mark A. Garlick / University of Warwick.

Astronomers Discover Four New White Dwarfs in Solar Neighborhood

Jul 14, 2026 by News Staff

Using near-UV spectroscopic data from the Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (STIS) on the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, astronomers discovered four...

This composite image of the Milky Way’s central region shows the location of the molecular cloud G+0.693-0.027. Image credit: Ashley Barnes / Izaskun Jiménez-Serra / Juan García de la Concepción.

Astronomers Detect Sugar in Interstellar Space for First Time

Jul 13, 2026 by Natali Anderson

Using the Yebes 40-m and IRAM 30-m radio telescopes, astronomers have discovered erythrulose, a four-carbon sugar commonly found in raspberries and sunless...

Extended Orion nebula shell sampled by HI emission from the combined VLA and FAST observations (shown in red), Hα emission from the European Southern Observatory Digitized Sky Survey (shown in green), and 3.4-μm emission registered by the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) satellite (shown in blue). Image credit: Juan D. Soler, University of Vienna / NRAO / VLA / NASA / WISE.

Astronomers Uncover Hidden Structures Surrounding Orion Nebula

Jul 10, 2026 by Enrico de Lazaro

Using the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA) s and the Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Radio Telescope (FAST), astronomers have created the sharpest-ever...

This artist’s impression shows how the gas giant exoplanet inside the disc of Beta Pictoris may look. Image credit: L. Calçada / ESO.

Astronomers Probe Chemistry of Giant Exoplanet Beta Pictoris b

Jul 9, 2026 by Enrico de Lazaro

Using the upgraded GRAVITY+ instrument on ESO’s Very Large Telescope Interferometer (VLTI), astronomers have measured the ratio of carbon isotopes in...

This collage shows 15 of the 31 newly discovered quasars by ESA’s Euclid space telescope. EUCL J172902.75+641018.1 and EUCL J125308.55+705432.3 are visible on the first row, the first and second from the left, respectively. Image credit: ESA / Euclid / Euclid Consortium / NASA / Euclid Science Ground Segment / Antoine Basset, CNES.

Euclid Discovers Earliest Quasars Ever Seen

Jul 8, 2026 by News Staff

Astronomers using ESA’s Euclid space telescope have discovered 31 ancient quasars from a time when the Universe was just 670 to 800 million years old....

The ground-based image of Centaurus A from ESO (top left) puts the near-infrared and mid-infrared views from Webb into context. Image credit: ESO / NASA / ESA / CSA / STScI / A. Pagan, STScI.

Webb Reveals Hidden Heart of Centaurus A

Jul 8, 2026 by Enrico de Lazaro

Celebrating four years of science, the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope has pierced the thick dust of the giant galaxy Centaurus A to reveal its...

This image shows part of the spectrum of the interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS, captured in December 2025 with the UVES instrument on ESO’s Very Large Telescope. Image credit: ESO / C. Opitom / Manfroid et al. / O. Hainaut.

Interstellar Comet 3I/ATLAS Likely Originated in Outskirts of Ancient Planetary System

Jul 6, 2026 by Natali Anderson

Astronomers using ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) have measured carbon and nitrogen isotope ratios in 3I/ATLAS, the third known interstellar visitor...

This Hubble image shows NGC 6426, a globular cluster some 67,000 light-years away in the constellation of Ophiuchus. Image credit: NASA / ESA / A. Dotter, Dartmouth College / Gladys Kober, NASA & Catholic University of America.

Hubble Peers into 13-Billion-Year-Old Globular Cluster

Jul 6, 2026 by Enrico de Lazaro

Astronomers using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope have captured this vivid image of NGC 6426, an ancient globular cluster in the Milky Way’s outer...