AstroPhysics & Cosmology

Images taken with the MIRI infrared camera on the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) have made it possible to observe the first galaxies in long-wavelength infrared light for the first time.

Deep-field images from NASA's James Webb Space Telescope revealed 300 unusually energetic early galaxy candidates, offering new insights into how the universe formed and evolved over 13 billion years ago.

A new kind of stellar explosion provides a novel way to probe the distant Universe, according to new

If black holes are actually droplets of dark energy that convert stellar matter into this mysterious and dominant force, many "cosmic hiccups" could soon be cured.

NASA's Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE) telescope has detected unexpected X-ray polarization from the "heartbeat black hole," formally known as IGR J17091-3624.

To study the origin and evolution of the universe, physicists rely on theories that describe the statistical relationships between different events or fields in spacetime, broadly referred to as cosmological correlations. Kinematic parameters are essentially the data that specify a cosmological correlation—the positions of particles, or the wavenumbers of cosmological fluctuations.

This week, researchers pinned down the age of a complete Homo-genus skull found in Greece in 1960 to at least 286,000 years old. Medical researchers reported that the majority of chronic pain patients discontinue cannabis use within one year. And engineers prototyped solar trees, a new solar technology designed with natural tree morphology that can be incorporated into natural branches in the upper canopies of trees while allowing light to penetrate to underlying vegetation.

A highly sensitive quantum sensor from Jena has traveled nearly 9,000 kilometers: by truck to Hamburg, by ship across the Atlantic, and finally overland to Vassouras, Brazil.

A galaxy in the early universe was rich with oxygen, astronomers have found. The discovery raises questions about how early life could have first appeared in the universe.

Nature is the foremost international weekly scientific journal in the world and is the flagship journal for Nature Portfolio. It publishes the finest peer-reviewed research in all fields of science and technology on the basis of its originality, importance, interdisciplinary interest, timeliness, accessibility, elegance and surprising conclusions. Nature publishes landmark papers, award winning news, leading comment and expert opinion on important, topical scientific news and events that enable readers to share the latest discoveries in science and evolve the discussion amongst the global scientific community.

Nature is the foremost international weekly scientific journal in the world and is the flagship journal for Nature Portfolio. It publishes the finest peer-reviewed research in all fields of science and technology on the basis of its originality, importance, interdisciplinary interest, timeliness, accessibility, elegance and surprising conclusions. Nature publishes landmark papers, award winning news, leading comment and expert opinion on important, topical scientific news and events that enable readers to share the latest discoveries in science and evolve the discussion amongst the global scientific community.

Astronomers suggest 'little red dot' galaxies formed from rare, slowly spinning dark matter halos, offering a physical explanation for their traits.

Exoplanets, which are planets orbiting stars outside our solar system, could also serve as tools to investigate dark matter, researchers say.

Astronomers using AI have captured a once-in-a-lifetime cosmic event: a massive star’s violent death triggered by its black hole companion. The explosion, known as SN 2023zkd, not only produced a brilliant supernova but also shocked scientists by glowing twice, after years of strange pre-death brightening. Observed by telescopes worldwide, the event provided the strongest evidence yet that black holes can ignite stellar explosions.

Astronomers may have uncovered the origins of the mysterious “little red dots,” some of the strangest galaxies seen in the early universe. These tiny but brilliant objects, discovered by the James Webb Space Telescope, appear far too compact and bright to fit existing models of galaxy and black hole formation. A new study suggests they may have formed within rare dark matter halos that spin unusually slowly, creating conditions that squeeze matter into incredibly dense structures. If true, these galaxies could provide vital clues about how the first black holes and galaxies came into being.

Scientists are rethinking the universe’s deepest mysteries using numerical relativity, complex computer simulations of Einstein’s equations in extreme conditions. This method could help explore what happened before the Big Bang, test theories of cosmic inflation, investigate multiverse collisions, and even model cyclic universes that endlessly bounce through creation and destruction.

As missions like Kepler and TESS discovered more rocky exoplanets in recent years, scientists looked forward to the launch of the JWST. The powerful space telescope has the ability to gather infrared spectra of exoplanet atmospheres, a key need in understanding the planets being discovered. It was hoped that these atmospheric characterizations would advance our understanding of habitability.

Comets are like the archeological sites of the solar system. They formed early on, and their composition helps us understand what the area around the early Sun was like, potentially even before any planets were formed. A new paper from researchers at a variety of US and European institutions used the Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA) to capture detailed spatial spectral images of comet 12P/Pons-Brooks, which is very similar to the famous Halley’s comet, and might hold clues to where the water on the Earth came from.

This powerful side-by-side comparison shows just how bright a star explosion is.

The universe captured by Hyper Suprime-Cam (HSC), the ultra-wide field of view camera, is truly magnificent. In this image, two spiral galaxies in the lower right immediately catch the eye: NGC 7537 (right) and NGC 7541 (left). This galactic pair, located in the direction of Pisces, appears to be separated by about 160,000 light-years in the sky.

The impending merger of the two galaxies hints at what might be in store for the Milky Way and the Andromeda galaxy if and when they collide.

A weird and extremely violent new type of supernova in which a massive star was "stripped to the bone," offers a rare glimpse of the interior of a massive star prior to its death.

In 2022, astronomers announced the discovery of GJ 3929b. It's a rocky planet, similar to Earth in both mass and size. Astronomers have examined the planet with the JWST and concluded that it's a barren world with no atmosphere.

Some stars in the universe grow to 300 times larger our own sun. But how do they get so big, and how do they sustain their mass?

More than 5,000 planets have been discovered beyond our solar system, allowing scientists to explore planetary evolution and consider the possibility of extraterrestrial life. Now, a UC Riverside study published in Physical Review D suggests that exoplanets, which are planets orbiting stars outside our solar system, could also serve as tools to investigate dark matter.

The JWST has found another moon orbiting Uranus. It's the planet's 29th known moon, and it bears the uninspiring, temporary name S/2025 U1. It's too small and faint to be detected by the Hubble, or by Voyager 2, the only spacecraft to visit the ice giant.

Researchers at Durham and collaborators in the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) mission have proposed a bold new theory that black holes could be converting matter into dark energy.

Surveying exoplanets could provide a new way to hunt for superheavy dark-matter particles The post Exoplanets suffering from a plague of dark matter could turn into black holes appeared first on Physics World.

We're often told it is "unscientific" or "meaningless" to ask what happened before the Big Bang. But a new paper by FQxI cosmologist Eugene Lim, of King's College London, UK, and astrophysicists Katy Clough, of Queen Mary University of London, UK, and Josu Aurrekoetxea, at Oxford University, UK, published in Living Reviews in Relativity, proposes a way forward: using complex computer simulations to numerically (rather than exactly) solve Einstein's equations for gravity in extreme situations.

Scientists have identified a never-before-seen supernova, SN2021yfj, which exploded after losing nearly all of its outer layers. Instead of light elements, it revealed silicon and sulfur from deep within the star—direct proof of a layered stellar structure. The discovery challenges existing theories and suggests stars may die in more exotic ways than textbooks predict.

Hubble’s newest view of the spiral galaxy NGC 2835 adds a stunning twist to a familiar sight. By capturing light in a special wavelength called H-alpha, astronomers have revealed glowing pink nebulae that mark where stars are born and where they fade away.

Massive stars have always puzzled scientists—how do they grow so quickly despite fierce radiation pushing material away? New high-resolution ALMA observations suggest that instead of relying solely on accretion disks, young stars may be fueled by colossal gas “streamers.” These vast cosmic highways carry matter across thousands of astronomical units, potentially overwhelming feedback effects and sustaining stellar growth.

Author(s): Marric StephensSuperconducting sensors can detect single low-energy photons. Researchers have now used this capability in a dark matter experiment. [Physics 18, s104] Published Wed Aug 20, 2025

A new theoretical study by University of Virginia astrophysicist Jonathan Tan, a research professor with the College and Graduate School of Arts & Sciences’ Department of Astronomy, proposes a comprehensive framework for the birth of supermassive black holes.

An international research team has reported remarkable findings from an XRISM observation of the black hole X-ray binary 4U 1630–472, located in our galaxy. XRISM is an X-ray astronomy satellite developed by Japan in collaboration with the United States and Europe and was launched from the Tanegashima Space Center on September 7, 2023.

In 2009, NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory released a captivating image: a pulsar and its surrounding nebula that is shaped like a hand. Since then, astronomers have used Chandra and other telescopes to continue to observe this object. Now, new radio data from the Australia Telescope Compact Array (ATCA) has been combined with Chandra's X-ray data to provide a fresh view of this exploded star and its environment, to help understand its peculiar properties and shape.

"Even if only a few of these objects are confirmed to be in the early universe, they will force us to modify the existing theories of galaxy formation."

Uranus' 29th moon was hidden inside the planet's dark inner rings, new observations from the James Webb Space Telescope reveal.

A rare supernova let scientists glimpse a star's interior, revealing a dense silicon-sulphur shell and unexpected helium that should have vanished earlier.

An international team of astronomers led by Matus Rybak (Leiden University, Netherlands) has proven, thanks to accidental double zoom, that millimeter radiation is generated close to the core of a supermassive black hole. Their findings have been accepted for publication in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics and are available on the arXiv preprint server.

An international team of scientists, led by Northwestern University astrophysicists, has detected a never-before-seen type of exploding star, or supernova, that is rich with silicon, sulfur and argon. The study, "Extremely stripped supernova reveals a silicon and sulfur formation site," is published in the journal Nature.

The rare blast peeled back the inner layers of a dying star, offering clues to how the elements that make up life on Earth were forged.

Chinese astronomers have spotted a hidden supermassive black hole in the background of a peculiar gravitational wave event from a black hole merger, hinting that all three singularities were locked in a never-before-seen triple system.

The mysterious substance called dark matter is intrinsically invisible. It cannot be directly observed—rather, its presence is inferred by its gravitational influence on the universe, such as binding galaxy clusters together and moving stars around their galaxy faster than they should.

Hubble has taken the clearest image to date of the interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS, which is racing through our solar system at 130,000 miles per hour. Astronomers are using Hubble and other telescopes to better understand its icy nucleus and chemical composition.

For decades, scientists have puzzled over why so little sulfur appears in space, even though it is one of the most common elements in the universe and vital to life. A new study suggests that the missing sulfur may be locked away in icy dust grains, forming unusual molecular shapes like crown-like rings and hydrogen-linked chains. These hidden forms make sulfur difficult to detect with telescopes, helping explain why its presence has been underestimated for so long. Researchers now believe they may be closing in on solving a mystery that has lingered in astronomy for years.

Using the powerful James Webb Space Telescope, scientists have spotted a moon nestled near Uranus’s rings that’s so small you could walk around it

A distant galaxy nicknamed "Cosmic Grapes" is bursting with massive star-forming clumps — far more than expected — offering fresh clues about how galaxies grew in the early universe.

Nadeen Ayoub will make history as the first woman to represent Palestine at Miss Universe 2025 in Thailand — here are 10 quick facts about the trailblazing contestant.

Astronomers have discovered what may be a massive star exploding while trying to swallow a black hole companion, offering an explanation for one of the strangest stellar explosions ever seen.

A University of Queensland researcher has developed a new mathematical model to explain the evolution of the universe which, for the first time, includes collapsing regions of matter and expanding voids.

Astronomers using NASA's James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) have discovered a newfound moon orbiting icy Uranus, the seventh planet from the sun.

A new kind of stellar explosion provides a novel way to probe the distant universe, according to new results published today in Nature Astronomy.

The universe has a habit of disproving “unassailable” facts

Astronomers from Seoul National University, South Korea and elsewhere report the detection of 62 new luminous quasars as part of the All-sky BRIght, Complete Quasar Survey (AllBRICQS). The discovery was detailed in a research paper published August 8 on the arXiv preprint server.

While observing the Halley-type comet 12P/Pons-Brooks with ALMA and NASA's Infrared Telescope Facility, researchers determined that the comet's water is strikingly similar to the water on Earth.

An international group of researchers led by Tel Aviv University (TAU) astronomers observed a flare caused when a star falls

Answers to some of cosmology's most pressing questions are obscured by simple dust. It concerns the Cosmic Noon, a period of time that began around 2 billion years after the Big Bang, when nearly all galaxies experienced a burst of growth and rapid star formation.

Miss Universe 2017 contestant Kseniya Alexandrova has died at 30 after a car crash involving an elk. See photos of the Russian model and learn key facts about her life, career and tragic passing.

This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image zooms in on the feathery spiral arms of the galaxy NGC 45, which lies just 22 million light-years away in the constellation Cetus (the Whale).

Miss Universe star Kseniya Alexandrova dies after a car crash in Russia, with reports suggesting an elk may have caused the tragic accident.

Joe McEntee explores the surprising links between solar physics and sports science The post Big data, big wins: how solar astrophysics can be a ‘game-changer’ in sports analytics appeared first on Physics World.

By analyzing the data from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) and the Hubble Space Telescope (HST), astronomers from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and elsewhere have probed the properties of a massive and old galaxy designated SMILES-GS-191748. Results of the study, published August 7 on the pre-print server arXiv, shed more light on the nature of this galaxy.

A new technique measuring magnetic fields of some of the largest structures in the universe could be the key to identifying the elusive dark matter particles. But the story begins with something tiny – a theoretical fundamental particle called an axion. Axions were first proposed by theoretical physicists in the late 1970s to explain subatomic […]

Large dark matter particles hitting Jupiter’s largest moon would form distinctive craters in its icy surface, and upcoming space missions might be able to spot them

"It's a discovery that underlines things may be different from what they appear to us at first glance."

Physicists from the University of Copenhagen have begun using the gigantic magnetic fields of galaxy clusters to observe distant black holes in their search for an elusive particle that has stumped scientists for decades.

In a first, scientists have recreated the formation of the first ever molecules in the universe to learn more about early star formation.

Aug. 16, 2025: Our weekly roundup of the latest science in the news, as well as a few fascinating articles to keep you entertained over the weekend.

The Universe's early galaxies were engulfed in halos of high-energy cosmic rays. It's likely because they had tangled and turbulent magnetic fields. These fields accelerate cosmic rays to higher energies.

Unexpected X-ray polarization challenges long-held ideas about how black holes behave.

Ursa Major III, the faintest object in our galaxy, orbits the Milky Way at a distance of more than 30,000 light years. Until now, it was considered a dwarf galaxy, thought to consist mainly of dark matter due to its large mass. However, an international team of astrophysicists from the University of Bonn and the Institute for Advanced Studies in Basic Sciences in Iran has found evidence suggesting that it is actually a compact star cluster containing a black hole core. The study has been published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters.

Astrophysicists have found evidence of an alternative formation process for this cosmic mystery.

There's a gap in black hole masses, and experts believe here is where 'lite intermediate black holes' reside.

Deep-field images from NASA's James Webb Space Telescope revealed 300 unusually energetic early galaxy candidates, offering new insights into how the universe formed and evolved over 13 billion years ago.

The Webb telescope found that a far-off little red dot is the oldest known black hole, shrouded by gas that could help explain the ruby color.

Physicists from the University of Copenhagen have begun using the gigantic magnetic fields of galaxy clusters to observe distant black holes in their search for an elusive particle that has stumped scientists for decades.

What if the universe began with a fireworks show? A new theory suggests that supermassive black holes, the mysterious giants found at the heart of galaxies, were born from the universe's very first stars in a spectacular flash of light that ionised all of space before vanishing forever. This dramatic "Pop III.1" model could finally explain how these giant stellar remnants grew so impossibly large so quickly after the Big Bang, while potentially solving several major puzzles plaguing modern astronomy, from the Hubble Tension to the nature of Cosmic Dawn itself.

Two exotic new theories suggest dark matter could be either made from tiny black holes or formed by Hawking radiation at the cosmic horizon.

Physicists have begun using the gigantic magnetic fields of galaxy clusters to observe distant black holes in their search for an elusive particle that has stumped scientists for decades.

Hubble has captured the faint beauty of NGC 45, a spiral galaxy in Cetus whose glowing pink star-forming clouds reveal hidden activity. It belongs to the rare class of low surface brightness galaxies, dimmer than the night sky yet rich in gas and dark matter.

Supercomputer simulations are helping scientists sharpen their understanding of the environment beyond a black hole’s "shadow," material just outside its event horizon.

The exoplanet TRAPPIST-1 d intrigues astronomers looking for possibly habitable worlds beyond our Solar System because it is similar in size to Earth, rocky, and resides in an area around its star where liquid water on its surface is theoretically possible. But according to a new study using data from the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope, it does not have an Earth-like atmosphere.

As another world around TRAPPIST-1 shows no signs of an atmosphere, astronomers urge us not to give up hope for an Earth-like atmosphere on one of the other worlds in the system.

With help from AI, astronomers have spotted a never-before-seen kind of supernova that seems to have been blowing up just as it was trying to gobble down a black hole.

Only a fraction of the size of the Milky Way, these galaxies have thus far been too faint for most telescopes to spot.

Using NASA's Chandra and ESA's XMM-Newton space observatories, Indian astronomers have explored the population of ultraluminous X-ray sources in the galaxy NGC 5813, which resulted in the detection of a new source of this type. Results of the observational campaign were published August 7 on the pre-print server arXiv.

Mathematicians use algebraic and positive geometry to link particle physics and cosmology, offering new tools beyond Feynman diagrams to explain the universe.

Astronomers have discovered what may be a massive star exploding while trying to swallow a black hole companion, offering an explanation for one of the strangest stellar explosions ever seen.

A distant galaxy nicknamed "Cosmic Grapes" is bursting with massive star-forming clumps — far more than expected — offering fresh clues about how galaxies grew in the early universe.

Researchers discover high-velocity clouds in the nearby spiral galaxy M83. These clouds are moving at speeds significantly different

When black holes are disrupted by things like infalling matter or gravitational waves, they vibrate like a bell struck with a clapper. The vibrations decay over time as the black hole returns to an equilibrium state. Astrophysicists can measure these vibrations to learn more about the black hole.

New research shows how the 'dancing' behaviour of dwarf satellite galaxies can predict mergers between their hosts. A distant pair of galaxies is undergoing the same type of merger that Milky Way/Andromeda will undergo. Can the behaviour of their dwarf satellites tell astronomers what will happen when the MW and Andromeda merge?

We know little about how young galaxies and their black holes grew up.

How can the behavior of elementary particles and the structure of the entire universe be described using the same mathematical concepts? This question is at the heart of recent work by the mathematicians Claudia Fevola from Inria Saclay and Anna-Laura Sattelberger from the Max Planck Institute for Mathematics in the Sciences, recently published in the Notices of the American Mathematical Society.

Artificial intelligence helps astronomers observe what may be the first known case of a star exploding while interacting with a black hole.