Tag Archive for 'Dust'

The types of collisions within young stellar systems known as extreme debris disks are relevant to scientists’ understanding of our own Solar System, which is thought to have undergone similar impact events that created our Moon and shaped Earth’s initial state. Image credit: NASA / ESA / CSA / Joseph Olmsted, STScI.

Strange Dusty Disks around Young Stars May Be Wreckage of Moon- and Mars-Sized Collisions

Oct 2, 2026 by Enrico de Lazaro

New observations of 21 extreme debris disks suggest the dust comes from violent impacts between planet-building bodies, and could even flag star systems...

Map of the six north polar locations analyzed by P. Mohan & A.R. Khuller, where water ice is exposed at the Martian surface. Image credit: P. Mohan & A.R. Khuller, doi: 10.1038/s44453-026-00054-9.

Water Ice at Mars’ North Pole is Considerably Cleaner than Previously Believed

Sep 30, 2026 by Enrico de Lazaro

A new analysis of orbital and lander data from Mars suggests the exposed north-polar water ice contains less than 3% dust, far below earlier estimates...

Mid-infrared image of the IRS 3 environment, observed with VLT/NACO and Webb/MIRI/MRS. Image credit: Peißker et al., doi: 10.1051/0004-6361/202660243.

Water and Dust Found Surviving near Milky Way’s Central Black Hole

Aug 14, 2026 by Enrico de Lazaro

Using data from the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope, astronomers found that IRS 3 — a bloated giant star orbiting just 0.55 light-years to...

Mishra et al. suggest that AGN dust tori host the largest populations of planets in the Universe. Image credit: ESO.

Dusty Accretion Disks around Supermassive Black Holes May Be Secret Planet Factories

Aug 13, 2026 by News Staff

Astronomers from New Mexico State University, Nicolaus Copernicus Astronomical Center and CUNY Borough of Manhattan Community College propose that the...

This Webb image shows the MoM-BH*-1 object. Image credit: NASA / ESA / CSA / Webb / Naidu et al., doi: 10.1038/s41586-026-10846-4.

Astronomers Find Black Hole Star in Early Universe

Aug 12, 2026 by Enrico de Lazaro

Roughly 660 million years after the Big Bang, a strange bright red spot has been hiding in plain sight in one of the deepest fields ever imaged by the...

Ankylosaurus magniventris, a large armored dinosaur species, witnesses the impact of an asteroid, falling on the Yucatan peninsula 66 million years ago. Image credit: Fabio Manucci.

Dinosaur-Killing Asteroid Didn’t Just Strike Earth, Its Dust Cloud Cooked It

Jul 29, 2026 by News Staff

The Chicxulub impact not only plunged Earth into an impact winter but also produced a dust blanket that later overheated the planet, according to new research...

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...

The optical and infrared image from Hubble show the region around the X-ray dot, while the Chandra X-ray image shows the close up. Image credit: NASA / CXC / Max Plank Inst / Hviding et al. / ESA / STScI / HST / CXC / SAO / N. Wolk.

Newly-Discovered ‘X-ray Dot’ Object May Reveal What Mysterious ‘Little Red Dots’ Really Are

Apr 29, 2026 by News Staff

An unusual object discovered by NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory may represent a missing link between hidden ‘black hole stars’ and fully exposed...

This VLT/MUSE image shows part of the Triangulum galaxy, a spiral galaxy located about 3 million light-years away in the constellation of Triangulum. Image credit: ESO / Feltre et al.

VLT Zooms in on Nearby Triangulum Galaxy

Mar 23, 2026 by Enrico de Lazaro

A new close-up of the Triangulum galaxy, captured with ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT), traces the tangled gas and dust that shape how stars are born...

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...

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...

This Hubble image shows the Egg Nebula. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Bruce Balick, UWashington.

Hubble Captures Clearest View Yet of Egg Nebula

Feb 10, 2026 by Enrico de Lazaro

A new image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope reveals for the first time the delicate interplay of cosmic dust and stellar winds in the Egg Nebula,...

Hydrocarbons play a key role in shaping the chemistry of the interstellar medium, but their enrichment and relation with carbonaceous grains and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons still lack clear observational constraints. García-Bernete et al. report on the Webb infrared observations of the local ultra-luminous infrared galaxy (ULIRG) IRAS 07251-0248, which revealed the extragalactic detection of small gas-phase hydrocarbons. Image credit: García-Bernete et al., doi: 10.1038/s41550-025-02750-0.

Webb Detects Unexpected Richness of Hydrocarbons in Obscured Core of Nearby Ultra-Luminous Galaxy

Feb 8, 2026 by News Staff

Astronomers using the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope have uncovered an unprecedented richness of small gas-phase hydrocarbons — such as...

This Webb image shows a portion of the Helix Nebula. Image credit: NASA / ESA / CSA / STScI / A. Pagan, STScI.

Webb Peers Deep into Iconic Helix Nebula

Jan 20, 2026 by News Staff

The new infrared image from the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope reveals the complex structure of gas and dust shed by a white dwarf in the center...

This ARKS gallery of faint debris disks reveals details about their shape: belts with multiple rings, wide smooth halos, sharp edges, and unexpected arcs and clumps, which hint at the presence of planets shaping these disks; and chemical make-up: the amber colors highlight the location and abundance of the dust in the 24 disks surveyed, while the blue their carbon monoxide gas location and abundance in the six gas-rich disks. Image credit: Sebastian Marino / Sorcha Mac Manamon / ARKS Collaboration.

ALMA Captures Sharpest Views Yet of Exoplanetary Debris Disks

Jan 20, 2026 by News Staff

Astronomers using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) have produced the unprecedented high-resolution images of 24 debris disks —...

The Hubble image shows the Circinus Galaxy, a spiral galaxy about 13 million light-years away in the southern constellation of Circinus; a close-up of its core from Webb shows the inner face of the hole of the donut-shaped disk of gas disk glowing in infrared light; the outer ring appears as dark spots. Image credit: NASA / ESA / CSA / Webb / Hubble / Enrique Lopez-Rodriguez, University of South Carolina / Deepashri Thatte, STScI / Alyssa Pagan, STScI / NSF’s NOIRLab / CTIO.

Webb Peers into Heart of Circinus Galaxy

Jan 13, 2026 by Enrico de Lazaro

Astronomers using NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope have captured the most detailed infrared view yet into the center of the Circinus Galaxy, one of...

This Hubble image shows the debris ring and dust clouds cs1 and cs2 around Fomalhaut. Image credit: NASA / ESA / P. Kalas, UC Berkeley / J. DePasquale, STScI.

Hubble Captures Collision of Two Planetesimals around Fomalhaut

Dec 19, 2025 by News Staff

Fomalhaut — the 18th brightest star visible in night sky — is orbited by a compact source, Fomalhaut b, which has previously been interpreted...

This composite image of the interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS was captured on November 6, 2025 by the UVS instrument on board NASA’s Europa Clipper spacecraft from a distance of around 164 million km (103 million miles). Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / SwRI.

Europa Clipper Captures Unique View of 3I/ATLAS

Dec 18, 2025 by News Staff

Scientists using the Ultraviolet Spectrograph (UVS) instrument aboard NASA’s Europa Clipper spacecraft have observed 3I/ATLAS, only the third confirmed...

Characterization of a presolar spinel-hibonite grain from the asteroid Bennu. Image credit: Nguyen et al., doi: 10.1038/s41550-025-02688-3.

Scientists Find Presolar Stardust in Samples from Asteroid Bennu

Dec 10, 2025 by News Staff

Researchers have detected an unexpectedly high abundance of presolar grains — dust from stellar explosions predating our Solar System — in...

Detection of electric discharges in dust devils by the SuperCam instrument on board NASA’s Perseverance rover on Mars. Image credit: Nicolas Sarter.

Perseverance Detects Triboelectric Discharges during Martian Dust Devils and Storms

Dec 1, 2025 by News Staff

Using data captured by the SuperCam microphone aboard NASA’s Perseverance rover over two Martian years, planetrary scientists have detected 55 triboelectric...

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