Astronomy News

Interstellar Comet 3I/ATLAS Formed in Ultra-Cold Planetary System, ALMA Reveals

This image from the Subaru Telescope shows the interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS. Image credit: NAOJ.
Apr 28, 2026 by News Staff

Water is made of two hydrogen atoms and one oxygen atom, hence its H2O formula. In typical water molecules, though, those hydrogen atoms have just one proton at their core. In cometary water, a high ratio of its water molecules contain deuterium (D), a form of hydrogen with the standard issue proton plus a neutron. With more than 30 times deuterated water or semi-heavy water (HDO) seen in solar system comets, 3I/ATLAS preserves evidence of radically...

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This DECam image shows the Sombrero Galaxy, a popular target for amateur observing and astronomical research. Image credit: CTIO / NOIRLab / DOE / NSF / AURA / T.A. Rector, University of Alaska Anchorage & NSF’s NOIRLab / D. de Martin & M. Zamani, NSF’s NOIRLab.

Sombrero Galaxy Shines in Stunning New Image from Dark Energy Camera

Apr 27, 2026 by Enrico de Lazaro

The Dark Energy Camera, a powerful 570-megapixel camera mounted on NSF’s Víctor M. Blanco 4-m telescope at Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in...

An artist’s impression of Epsilon Indi Ab with water clouds atop its ammonia-dominated atmosphere. Image credit: E.C. Matthews, MPIA / T. Müller, HdA.

Webb Spots Icy Clouds on Distant Jupiter-Like Exoplanet

Apr 23, 2026 by News Staff

Using the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope, astronomers have detected water-ice clouds swirling through the atmosphere of Epsilon Indi Ab, a cold...

This Hubble shows the Trifid Nebula. Image credit: NASA / ESA / STScI / J. DePasquale, STScI.

Hubble’s 36th Birthday Image Shows Trifid Nebula

Apr 20, 2026 by News Staff

A new anniversary image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope reveals surprisingly fast evolution in a turbulent stellar nursery called the Trifid Nebula,...

Gaztañaga proposes a new dark matter mechanism in which relic black holes originate from a pre-Big-Bounce collapse phase.

Black Holes from Before Big Bang Could Still Exist Today as ‘Cosmic Fossils’

Apr 20, 2026 by News Staff

New research by Professor Enrique Gaztañaga from the University of Portsmouth and the Institute of Space Sciences in Barcelona suggests some black holes...

A small portion of DESI’s year-five map in which the large-scale structure of the Universe, created by gravity, is visible; each dot represents a galaxy; the denser areas indicate regions where galaxies and galaxy clusters have clumped together to form the strands of the cosmic web; also seen are large voids between the filaments. Image credit: DESI Collaboration / DESI Member Institutions / DOE / KPNO / NOIRLab / NSF / AURA / R. Proctor / M. Zamani, NSF’s NOIRLab.

Record-Breaking Map Charts Universe in 3D Like Never Before

Apr 16, 2026 by News Staff

Astronomers using the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) on NSF’s Nicholas U. Mayall 4-m telescope have produced the largest high-resolution...

An artist’s impression of the warm giant exoplanet TOI-201b and its parent star. Image credit: Sci-News.com.

Astronomers Observe Shape-Shifting Planetary System: TOI-201

Apr 16, 2026 by News Staff

The TOI-201 system consists of a super-Earth, a warm Jupiter, and a more massive brown dwarf at 5.8-, 53-, and 2,900-day orbital periods, respectively. An...

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.

Astronomers Propose New Way to Find Alien Life without Knowing What It Looks Like

Apr 15, 2026 by News Staff

A new ‘agnostic biosignature’ method searches for patterns across exoplanets, suggesting alien life could be detected by how it spreads and reshapes...

This image from the Subaru Telescope shows the interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS. Image credit: NAOJ.

Interstellar Comet 3I/ATLAS Shows Shifting Chemistry after Perihelion

Apr 15, 2026 by Natali Anderson

Observations from the Subaru Telescope on January 7, 2026, revealed a surprisingly low carbon dioxide-to-water ratio, suggesting the composition of the...

This artist’s impression shows an imagined view from the surface one of the three exoplanets orbiting the ultracool dwarf star TRAPPIST-1 38.8 light-years from Earth. These alien worlds have sizes and temperatures similar to those of Venus and Earth. In this view one of the inner planets is seen in transit across the disc of TRAPPIST-1. Image credit: M. Kornmesser / ESO.

Two Earth-Size Worlds in TRAPPIST-1 System Reveal Stark Divide Between Day and Night

Apr 13, 2026 by News Staff

New Webb observations of two exoplanets TRAPPIST-1b and TRAPPIST-1c show blistering days and frozen nights, offering the first detailed climate maps of...

The POSS I red image on July 19, 1952 at 8:52 (UT) containing the triple transient just above center. Image credit: Solano et al., doi: 10.1093/mnras/stad3422.

Mysterious Flashes in 1950s Skies Linked to Nuclear Tests and UAP Sightings: Study

Apr 10, 2026 by Natali Anderson

A new statistical analysis of archival sky surveys from the early Cold War has found that mysterious, short-lived bursts of light in the night sky were...

These composite images show protoplanetary disks Tau 042021 (left) and Oph 163131 (right). Image credit: NASA / ESA / CSA / Webb / Hubble / ALMA / ESO / NAOJ / NRAO / G. Duchêne / M. Villenave.

Webb Captures Striking Edge-On Views of Two Planet Nurseries

Apr 8, 2026 by Enrico de Lazaro

New images from the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope reveal two young stars surrounded by planet-forming disks, Tau 042021 (left) and Oph 163131...

The Jupiter-sized planet TOI-5205b has a surface temperature of 737 K and orbits its parent star, TOI-5205, at a distance of 0.02 AU. Image credit: Sci.News.

Giant Exoplanet TOI-5205b Has Carbon-Rich, Oxygen-Poor Atmosphere, Webb Observations Show

Apr 7, 2026 by News Staff

Using the Near-Infrared Spectrograph (NIRSpec) onboard the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope, astronomers have characterized the atmosphere of TOI-5205b,...

An enormous halo of hydrogen gas found in HETDEX data and superimposed over its location as seen in deep imaging from the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope; present 11.3 billion years ago, this system glows from the combined light of many galaxies within it, with the brightest region represented in red. Image credit: Erin Mentuch Cooper, HETDEX / NASA / ESA / CSA / STScI.

Astronomers Find Vast Reservoirs of Hydrogen around Early Galaxies

Apr 6, 2026 by News Staff

Astronomers with the Hobby-Eberly Telescope Dark Energy Experiment (HETDEX) have detected enormous hydrogen halos, called Lyman-alpha nebulae, around more...

The Milky Way Galaxy with the position of SDSS J0715-7334 marked with a star symbol; the solid red line shows the path the star has taken through our Galaxy; the dashed blue line shows the path expected for a star born in the Large Magellanic Cloud. Image credit: Vedant Chandra / SDSS Collaboration / ESA / Gaia / A. Moitinho, A. F. Silva, M. Barros, C. Barata, University of Lisbon / H. Savietto, Fork Research.

Astronomy Students Discover Most Pristine Star Ever Found

Apr 6, 2026 by News Staff

The newly-discovered star, SDSS J0715-7334, formed in the halo of the Large Magellanic Cloud and migrated to our Milky Way Galaxy billions of years ago,...

A model of the inner Solar System showing the asteroids discovered by Rubin in light teal; known asteroids are dark blue. Image credit: NSF / DOE / Vera C. Rubin Observatory / NOIRLab / SLAC / AURA / R. Proctor / NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio / ESA / Gaia / DPAC / M. Zamani, NSF’s NOIRLab.

Vera C. Rubin Observatory Discovers Over 11,000 New Asteroids

Apr 3, 2026 by News Staff

Astronomers using the Vera C. Rubin Observatory have discovered over 11,000 new asteroids, including hundreds of trans-Neptunian objects and 33 previously...

This Hubble image shows IC 486, a barred spiral galaxy some 380 million light-years away in the constellation of Gemini. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / M.J. Koss / A.J. Barth.

Hubble Space Telescope Focuses on IC 486

Apr 2, 2026 by Enrico de Lazaro

The Hubble team has released a beautiful close-up shot of the barred spiral galaxy IC 486. This Hubble image shows IC 486, a barred spiral galaxy some...

An artist’s impression of an ultrahot Jupiter. Image credit: Sci-News.com.

Ultra-Hot Jupiter WASP-189b Mirrors Its Star’s Chemistry, Astronomers Find

Apr 1, 2026 by News Staff

Using the Immersion Grating Infrared Spectrometer (IGRINS) on the Gemini South telescope at the International Gemini Observatory, astronomers have directly...

NASA’s Parker Solar Probe approaching the Sun. Image credit: NASA’s Scientific Visualization Studio.

Closer Look at the Sun Reveals More Chaotic Magnetic Heart

Apr 1, 2026 by News Staff

A new analysis of data from NASA’s Parker Solar Probe shows that protons and heavy ions react differently to solar magnetic reconnection events, suggesting...

These Webb (left) and Hubble (right) images reveal Saturn in infrared and visible light. Image credit: NASA / ESA / CSA / STScI / A. Simon, NASA-GSFC / M. Wong, University of California / J. DePasquale, STScI.

Webb and Hubble Telescopes Capture Saturn in Unprecedented Detail

Mar 26, 2026 by News Staff

By combining infrared observations from the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope with visible-light imagery from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope,...

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