AstroPhysics & Cosmology

Pink, purple and blue white dwarfs also exist, upending common ideas about these end-of-life stellar remnants The post White dwarf star glows an eerie green appeared first on Physics World.

A groundbreaking new supercomputer simulation is revealing how the universe escaped its cosmic dark age and transformed into a cosmos filled with stars and galaxies. Called Lumina, it recreates 2 billion years of early cosmic history across a region 1.6 billion light-years wide, capturing extraordinary details that previous simulations could not.

NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope just revealed a mystery in our cosmic neighborhood. In a paper published in The

Astronomers saw something strange in a distant star system—or rather what’s strange is what they see. Solving the mystery could reveal new astrophysics

A proposed tabletop quantum sensor could match the precision of the best satellite measurements of frame dragging, a subtle effect predicted by Einstein's general relativity.

Around 12 million light-years away, the supermassive black hole of the galaxy Centaurus A is hurling two enormous plasma jets into space at nearly the speed of light. These so-called jets are brighter at their edges than at their center. The reason for this was previously unclear but has now been explained by a team from the Chair of Astronomy at the University of Würzburg. The research is published in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics.

For over a century astronomers have speculated that comets could have delivered organic molecules necessary for life to Earth, but new modeling shows these molecules wouldn't have survived impact.

Some stars, called Luminous Blue Variables, can be confused with supernovae explosions. They exhibit similar outbursts, but unlike supernovae, which explode once and then are gone forever, these stars have periodic outbursts. New research found that one of these 'supernova impostors' is in a binary relationship with a black hole or a neutron star, and that explains its periodic outbursts.

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.

NASA's Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope could capture images 30% sharper than — and remain operational for twice as long as — initially expected. Researchers say these "remarkable" developments could greatly enhance the volume and quality of the data they will analyze.

This dazzling collection of ancient stars could hold clues to the Milky Way's past.

In a study published in Optics Communications, a research group led by Yu Tao from the Changchun Institute of Optics, Fine Mechanics and Physics (CIOMP) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences proposed a new analytical phase readout algorithm for deep frequency modulation interferometry (DFMI).

A provocative new cosmological model suggests the Universe could be 26.7 billion years old and might not need dark matter or dark energy to explain its behavior. University of Ottawa researchers tested the theory against several major astronomical observations, finding that it could explain galaxy rotation, cosmic expansion, and the formation of early elements.

NASA's new UVEX space telescope will study the universe in ultraviolet light to reveal the violent and turbulent events that bubble under what appears to be a cosmic sea of tranquility.

A century-old theory about the origins of life on Earth may be wrong. New research from the University of Cambridge suggests that comets traveled too fast and struck at unfavorable angles for the fragile molecules needed for life to survive, making successful delivery extraordinarily unlikely. Surprisingly, Mars may have had a better chance of receiving these cosmic ingredients, although even there the odds were slim. The findings point toward asteroids or chemical processes on Earth as more plausible sources of life's building blocks.

Author(s): Sophia ChenStars collapsing directly into black holes might explain the surprising number of merging black holes of about 10 solar masses. [Physics 19, s149] Published Tue Nov 10, 2026

The LISA (Laser Interferometer Space Antenna) observatory, now in development, will detect gravitational waves, the tiny ripples in space-time caused by orbiting masses. Now two studies led by NASA astrophysicists show in new detail how LISA could reveal a new and unique population of exoplanets—worlds beyond our solar system—throughout our galaxy.

The oldest pair of compact quasars ever observed has been found only 900 million years after the Big Bang. Scientists say there is no theoretical explanation for how the pair of actively feeding black holes grew so massive at such an early time in the history of the universe. The pair of quasars has been given the Hawaiian nickname Nāpōwawāʻenakaulua.

An international team of researchers, led by Jonathan Freundlich (University of Strasbourg, Astronomical Observatory), has revealed how a dense cosmic environment depletes galaxies of their gas. By mapping the molecular gas in a galaxy group located 7 billion light-years away, they found that the galaxies in this group harbor, on average, gas reservoirs reduced by more than half compared to similar isolated galaxies. The results of this study are published in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics.

When the most massive stars in the universe die, they often detonate in fiery supernovae, dramatically blasting most of their matter into space. The remaining stellar cores collapse into neutron stars and, sometimes, black holes. However, theories suggest that some massive stars might die without a bang, instead directly collapsing inward to become neutron stars or black holes.

The MeerKLASS international collaboration achieves the first direct measurement of the large-scale clustering of cosmic hydrogen in the Universe.

Black hole jet ejections are powerful outbursts of high-energy photons and particles that provide insights into extreme astrophysical processes. However, predicting when they will occur remains difficult. In a study, researchers from Japan analyzed observations of four black hole binary systems, identifying decreases in the accretion disk's inner radius and changes in emitted X-ray variability as possible predictors for jet ejection. Their findings could help astronomers forecast these phenomena more accurately and coordinate timely observations.

In 2031, Japan's Hayabusa2 spacecraft will arrive at the near-Earth asteroid 1998 KY26: a tiny body that is accelerating in a way that astronomers have struggled to explain. Some studies have suggested that the asteroid is pushed along by water escaping from it as gas, making it an as-yet theoretical "dark comet."

We've been waiting a long time for the Extremely Large Telescope's first light, scheduled for March 2029. Telescopes this large, powerful and costly always have multiple science goals, and that's true for the ELT. One of its science goals is to study fundamental aspects of the universe, including dark matter.

Mid-infrared observations with the Subaru Telescope have revealed the shape and surface temperature of the nucleus of Comet 2P/Encke. By analyzing how the nucleus's thermal emission changed as it rotated, the researchers found that the nucleus is elongated, with a long axis of about 7 kilometers and a short axis of about 3 kilometers. They also determined that the surface temperature at the time of observation was 328 ± 7 Kelvin (about 55°C).

Using NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory, astronomers have discovered what is triggering repeated outbursts from a giant, unstable star.

New research suggests that Little Red Dots, which have puzzled astronomers since the JWST began discovering them, could host primordial black holes born during the Big Bang.

Tiny levitated magnets are able to avoid contact friction, making them useful for detecting extremely weak forces and magnetic fields and acting as ultralow-noise quantum sensors and precision measurement tools. Combining levitation with extreme cold further reduces unwanted motion that can make faint signals hard to detect.

A new study of more than three dozen dwarf galaxies has surprised researchers with just how little oxygen they have been able to retain over cosmic time. The results reveal that we still have major gaps in our understanding of galaxy evolution.

Using the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), a team of astronomers identified 104 magnified stellar events in a galaxy known as the Dragon, located around 6.5 billion light-years away. This discovery more than doubles the previous record of 44 such detections in the same galaxy. Because these kinds of events reveal some of the most luminous stars and likely the presence of dark matter, this study offers a rare look at the galaxy's stellar population along with a possible hint at the nature of dark matter.

Primordial black holes are hypothetical objects that could have formed directly from dense clumps of matter in the very early universe. If they exist, their dramatic origins would set them apart from the black holes we see today, which form when massive stars collapse. Some theories suggest that "stupendously large" primordial black holes could account for a significant share of the universe's elusive dark matter.

Kelly Holley-Bockelmann was one of the top astrophysicists in the country until President Trump’s policies affected every part of her work.

An alternative model in which the universe is 26.7 billion years old and needs neither dark matter nor dark energy has held up against several major cosmology tests, according to a new University of Ottawa study. The research, titled "A Big Bang Nucleosynthesis Consistency Test of the CCC+TL Cosmology," is published in the journal Universe.

A figure in red trudges across a blanket of white. Snow squeaks under the scientist's feet, too dry to be slick or soft. Only a line of flags and a few large buildings—the scientist's destination—break up the landscape. The sun hovers on the horizon, never quite setting against a blue sky devoid of clouds.

On Nov. 6, 1572, the German astronomer Wolfgang Schulër observed a supernova later caleld the Tycho supernova with his bare eyes. Here's why it mattered.

Ultra-Diffuse Galaxies are strange because they're as large as the Milky Way, but have far fewer stars. It's as if they're puffed up for some reason. Determining what's going on with them could help confirm the Lambda-CDM model. A new proposed instrument for the Extremely Large Telescope could give astronomers their best look yet at these strange galaxies.

The Andromeda galaxy is one of the most distant things you can see with the naked eye. The difficult part isn't finding it. It's believing that faint smudge really is another galaxy.

Optical cavities are pairs of light-trapping mirrors and underpin the operation of lasers, atomic clocks and many types of precision sensors. If the distance between the mirrors is changed rapidly enough, some theories predict that the waves inside them should bunch together into short, intense pulses. So far, however, this prediction has never been tested directly.

Astronomers have filtered out starlight from James Webb Space Telescope observations to see a giant exoplanet emerge in the darkness.

Flashback to 1977. Jimmy Carter was U.S. president, Star Wars was a box office hit, and the two Voyager spacecraft departed on an historic Grand Tour of the solar system. Now, teams at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory are working to keep the missions active, as they push the boundaries of interstellar space beyond the solar system.

Gravitational lensing is one of astronomy's best tricks for seeing the early universe. When a massive galaxy cluster sits in between the observer and a distant object, its gravity bends and magnifies the distant object's light, acting like a giant natural magnifying glass. Galaxies that would otherwise be too faint to spot suddenly come into view because of gravitational lensing.

A Rescue Window for Hubble The Hubble Space Telescope has no engine to hold its orbit. Atmospheric drag

In the first fraction of a second following the Big Bang, matter existed as a trillion-degree plasma of quarks and gluons—subatomic particles that zinged around at close to the speed of light. This roiling soup lasted for just a few microseconds before the particles coalesced into more stable protons and neutrons.

Investigating a scientific question is often a complex process. As an astrophysicist studying some of the most energetic phenomena in the universe, I know that finding answers requires much more than reading scientific papers or understanding existing theories. Astrophysical research involves collecting observations, analyzing data, building physical models and comparing their predictions with observations. These tasks require different scientific tools, databases and modeling software and can take considerable time even for experienced researchers.

This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image provides a lesson in galactic history. The sparkling collection of stars is named Messier 30 (M30) after the French astronomer Charles Messier, who cataloged M30 and other diffuse objects that might be mistaken for comets in the early telescopes of Messier's time. M30 lies about 27,500 light-years away in the constellation Capricornus.

When astronomers looked at photos of the early universe taken by the James Webb Space Telescope, they found something odd: an overabundance of bright galaxies about 400 to 500 million years after the Big Bang. But these galaxies should have been far less common so soon after the Big Bang. Researchers may have figured this out: Powerful ultraviolet (Lyman-alpha) radiation produced by dense clusters of young stars acted like a leaf blower, driving light-blocking gas and dust out of the galaxy and thereby making the galaxies appear brighter.

Newton's theory of gravity has described the tides accurately for centuries. But could a tiny trace of Einstein's general relativity also be hidden in them? In a new study, a mathematician at Freie Universität Berlin has outlined how a targeted approach could be used to search for effects of this nature.

Johns Hopkins researchers searching the expanse of the universe for the existence of the first black holes are zeroing in on little red dots that may hold the key to the theoretical phenomenon.

Finding dim exoplanets hidden in the glare of their stars is an ongoing challenge in astronomy. Telescopes use coronagraphs to block out starlight, but even they have their limitations. Researchers have developed a new technique with the JWST that can find dim exoplanets more easily than ever.

Tiny Worlds Beyond Neptune Planet formation models predict a crowd of small icy bodies in the far reaches

Author(s): Susan CurtisUsing sheets of light to corral waves of ultracold atoms, researchers have created an experimental platform for studying the event horizons of black holes. [Physics 19, 149] Published Wed Nov 04, 2026

It's unlikely that anybody made a specific mistake; this is probably the result of, well, space being hard.

The reentry of NASA's dead Swift space telescope is the end of an era for rapid-response space science.

An international research project is bringing scientists closer to mapping the universe. The MeerKLASS Collaboration has reported its first measurement of the large-scale clustering of cosmic hydrogen, advancing a technique that could transform how cosmologists chart the universe.

When astronomers looked at photos of the early universe taken by the James Webb Space Telescope, they found something odd: an overabundance of bright galaxies. Based on what they knew about the early universe, such galaxies should have been far less common in the few hundred million years following the Big Bang.

One of NASA's premier space telescopes plunged to Earth on Wednesday, ending its 22-year investigation of the universe's biggest explosions.

By modeling the James Webb Space Telescope’s tiny movements, a new technique can reveal up to 15 times fainter alien worlds

NASA's Swift space telescope crashed back to Earth today (Nov. 4), three months after a private spacecraft was supposed to boost the observatory to a higher orbit.

So far, observations by instruments including the James Webb Space Telescope have revealed the presence of surprisingly massive black holes in the early universe. Even less than a billion years after the Big Bang, some of these bodies already weighed billions of times the mass of the sun, and to date, astronomers are unclear as to how they could have grown so large so quickly.

Even the world's most powerful telescopes have their blind spots. Although NASA's James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) can peer billions of years into the past, it still struggles to photograph planets orbiting nearby stars. Stars shine with such extraordinary brightness that their glare overwhelms nearby planets' faint glow.

NASA is exploring a daring plan to save the legendary Hubble Space Telescope from its eventual fiery plunge into Earth's atmosphere. After more than 35 years of groundbreaking discoveries, Hubble is slowly losing altitude, and without intervention, it could fall back to Earth as early as 2033 or 2034. To keep the iconic observatory operating, NASA is asking private space companies to propose innovative ways to boost Hubble into a higher orbit, upgrade its capabilities, or safely dispose of it when its mission finally ends.

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The Hubble Space Telescope is healthy but is being pulled down toward Earth by atmospheric drag. NASA is considering options to extend the iconic telescope's work.

Collisions between stars in the early universe were common, and this could explain the growth of supermassive black holes and the existence of strange Little Red Dots seen by the James Webb Space Telescope.

Using the Hubble Space Telescope, astronomers have investigated a cosmic cat's tail formed when two Pluto-sized bodies smashed together.

Astronomers are finding more dusty disks around white dwarf stars, and some of them are home to asteroids. But how these rocky asteroids are turned to dust and form these rings isn't clear. New research shows that the white dwarf's gravity alone can't shred them to dust.

Astrophysicists think that the supermassive black holes (SMBH) we see in the modern universe are the result of a long, drawn-out process. That process is referred to as the hierarchical black hole mergers framework. It explains how some SMBHs can reach such staggering masses. Some of the most massive appear to have billions of solar masses.

Almost 22 years after it was launched, NASA's Swift Observatory is now about to fall back to Earth on Wednesday after attempts to push it back into a higher orbit failed. NASA announced that the aging space telescope is anticipated to re-enter Earth's atmosphere at approximately 3:30AM ET (give or take 11 hours), and that it expects most of the spacecraft to burn up, but some components will likely survive re-entry. The observatory weighs around 3,200 pounds and measures in at 5.6 meters (18.4 feet) high and 5.4 meters (17.7 feet) wide, though much of the latter includes its deployable solar arrays. The risk of surviving components causing … Read the full story at The Verge.

A faint red object spotted by the James Webb Space Telescope originally appeared to offer a possible glimpse of the universe's first galaxies. But images taken about 3½ years apart revealed a giveaway: The object, nicknamed Capotauro, had moved.

Astronomers using the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) have confirmed a massive, dust-rich galaxy called Leviathan in the early universe. Seen when the universe was roughly 1.5 billion years old, the galaxy has its stars spread out rather than in a concentrated fashion. A paper, describing its strange stellar distribution, was posted to the arXiv preprint server on Oct. 19.

Scientists at CERN's Large Hadron Collider have uncovered compelling new evidence that even relatively small atomic collisions can recreate the extraordinary state of matter that filled the universe moments after the Big Bang. Known as quark-gluon plasma, this exotic substance forms at temperatures more than 100,000 times hotter than the center of the Sun, causing ordinary particles to break apart into their fundamental building blocks.

Scientists have discovered a possible loophole in the laws that normally prevent black holes from splitting apart, suggesting that extremely fast-spinning black holes might divide into two. The surprising finding raises the possibility of an entirely new black hole phenomenon that future telescopes could potentially detect.

Author(s): Sarah Burke-SpolaorResearchers have used radio observations of rapidly spinning neutron stars to search for signals from supermassive black hole pairs at the dawn of galaxy formation. [Physics 19, 146] Published Mon Nov 02, 2026

Scientists examining data collected by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope have found that dozens of small galaxies contain far less oxygen than their stars are estimated to have produced. The researchers, including a Rutgers astrophysicist, studied 37 dwarf galaxies, which are much smaller than the Milky Way and considered to be nearby, within 22 million light-years of Earth. The results were published in The Astrophysical Journal.

Astrophysicists think that black holes grow through a hierarchical merger framework. But the elusive Intermediate Mass Black Holes are the missing link between stellar mass black holes, and the gargantuan supermassive black holes like the one at the center of the Milky Way. The JWST may have found the ancient sources of IMBH heavy seeds: young massive clusters in the high-redshift Universe.

The findings are another clue towards understanding the origins of 3I/ATLAS and the planet-forming conditions around other stars.

NASA’s Hubble and James Webb Space Telescopes have uncovered surprising clues about the solar system’s origins by studying 27 tiny, distant objects beyond Neptune. Scientists discovered that these ancient building blocks of planets have remained remarkably unchanged for billions of years, while their unexpected sizes and numbers challenge existing theories of planet formation.

Astronomers have determined that VVV CL001, a metal-poor globular cluster near the center of the Milky Way, is about 13.4 billion years old, making it one of the oldest known star clusters in our galaxy. The cluster lies behind thick clouds of interstellar dust, which made its distance and age difficult to establish. The paper, outlining the methodology for estimating its age and distance, was posted to the arXiv preprint server on Oct. 20. It has been accepted for publication by Astronomy & Astrophysics.

Gravity is a cruel mistress, slowly dragging the famed telescope ever closer to its ultimate demise with every day. Hubble is in no immediate danger of burning up in the Earth's atmosphere, but its time will run out in the early to mid 2030s unless its orbit is boosted. So NASA is taking proposals from the private sector to see if anyone can save it. In a post on NASA's site, Administrator Jared Isaacman said: "Hubble still has important science ahead of it, and we should be looking at every reasonable opportunity to keep it delivering for as long as possible … If there are innovative and cost-effective ways to extend the life of an asset … Read the full story at The Verge.

Hubble has no engine of its own, and it is slowly sinking. NASA now wants companies to say how they could lift the 36-year-old telescope higher, service it, or steer it down safely, the agency said on Friday. The request for information went out on 29 October, and responses are due by 30 November. NASA’s […] This story continues at The Next Web

It's unclear at the moment exactly when and where the Swift observatory will plunge to Earth. But researchers definitely have their eyes peeled.

The Cat's Head Nebula shows its ghostly insides and sinister red eye in rival views from the Hubble and James Webb space telescopes.

A mysterious particle overlooked for decades may hold the key to why matter survived the Big Bang, allowing stars, planets, and life to exist. Scientists believe this forgotten neutrino reshaped the early universe and may have left detectable gravitational wave signals that could help unlock the cosmos’s deepest mysteries.

Scientists have created a miniature universe in the laboratory that could help answer one of the biggest mysteries in physics: What is time, and where does it come from? Using 24,000 ultracold atoms, a University of Birmingham researcher built an isolated quantum system that repeatedly expands and contracts, mimicking the Big Bang and a possible Big Crunch. Remarkably, the experiment showed that time could emerge from changes happening inside the system, without relying on an external clock.

A surprising discovery by astronomers using the Hubble Space Telescope is challenging a leading explanation for how the early universe emerged from a dense fog of hydrogen roughly 13 billion years ago. Scientists once believed powerful winds from exploding stars helped radiation escape galaxies and clear that cosmic fog, but new observations reveal that these winds actually block radiation instead.

Scientists have recreated a primordial state of matter from the dawn of the universe by colliding oxygen nuclei at nearly the speed of light. The surprising results show that this exotic substance can form in smaller, lower-energy collisions than previously demonstrated, challenging the known boundaries of early-universe physics.

From ghosts to skeletons and even spiders, the cosmos is full of scary surprises

The space agency solicited ideas for reboosting Hubble four years ago, but they didn't go anywhere.

"He wore his heart on his sleeve, which made him a man to rely on, to admire and, in my case, love."

We all know that black holes can collide. It has happened since black holes began to form, early in cosmic time. The result is always a clash that gives off gravitational waves and a giant bang. Since black holes have such strong gravity, it's almost impossible to imagine a way that any force could break one apart. Yet, that's the task that a group of scientists in Europe set for themselves.

A tiny glass chip developed by researchers at Heriot-Watt University has linked two telescopes together to enable them to act as a single powerful instrument, marking an important step toward a new generation of astronomical technology.

In March 2026, NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope detected a GRB with an unusual light signature. Its initial gamma radiation was dim, and the afterglow exhibited unusual, delayed peaks. As it turns out, we were seeing it from a side angle, and the GRB actually packed one billion years of the Sun’s energy output into a thin beam.

Have you been keeping up to date with physics news? Try our short quiz to find out The post Quiz of the week: what does a new study reveal about primordial black holes? appeared first on Physics World.

For decades, astronomers treated the interstellar medium as a static backdrop to the goings-on of the universe. Now, a wave of 3D mapping is bringing the interstellar medium’s dynamic nature into focus. The post A New Map of ‘Empty’ Space Challenges a Tranquil Picture of the Galaxy first appeared on Quanta Magazine

Astronomers using the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) have found evidence that a distant, exceptionally blue galaxy may allow most of its ionizing radiation to escape into space. Known as EBG-1, the gravitationally lensed galaxy is seen at a redshift of 9.244, about 530 million years after the Big Bang. The paper was posted to the arXiv preprint server on Oct. 16.

When we think of extraterrestrial intelligence that might be out there among the stars, we tend to think of creatures not too unlike us, though maybe with gray skin, probably bald and with big black eyes. We focus on the familiar, humanoids. But there are many intelligent species on Earth that are nonhumanoid: dolphins, crows, pigs and—with swarm if not individual intelligence—ants and bees. The film "Arrival" conceived of hexapod beings more capable than humans and with a more sophisticated communication system.

It’s Halloween, and nothing is scarier than our terrifying universe