AstroPhysics & Cosmology

Black holes are some of the most mysterious objects in the universe, but they aren't always silent. When two black holes are close enough to each other, they spiral toward one another, eventually crashing in an enormous explosion and forming a single, larger black hole.

A supermassive black hole is also coming together at the heart of this galaxy maelstrom.

Earlier this year, the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) completed observations that mapped 47 million galaxies across 11 billion light-years, allowing astronomers to better evaluate the large-scale structure of the visible universe. After studying these data, astronomers Francesco Sylos Labini and Marco Galoppo say the universe may not look the same in all directions. Their results, published in Nature, contradict a fundamental assumption in modern cosmology.

For a long time, astrophysicists thought that the Universe's first stars, called Population III stars, were uniformly massive. It seemed like the conditions they formed in were calm and serene, which favoured massive stars. But new research based on high-resolution simulations show that conditions were more chaotic than thought, and gas cloud turbulence means that Population III stars were not all massive. This affected the metallicity of the next stars to form.

A new study claims that the universe isn’t entirely the same no matter where you look—a radical proposal

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Gravity, the force that attracts objects toward each other, is currently framed by Albert Einstein's theory of general relativity. This framework describes gravity as the curvature of spacetime, the invisible four-dimensional fabric of the universe.

This striking pair of galaxies located 80 million light-years from Earth lies in the constellation Leo against a backdrop of distant galaxies. The barred spiral galaxy NGC 3504 is seen on the right, and the spiral galaxy NGC 3512 is on the left. Although the two galaxies are thought to be physically close to one another, no clear evidence of ongoing gravitational interaction has been found.

Twelve million light years away, a galaxy is living fast and burning bright, forging new stars ten times quicker than our own Milky Way in a frenzy that cannot possibly last. Now the James Webb Space Telescope has cut clean through its veil of dust to count an astonishing 16.5 million of its stars, one by one. So what is driving the Cigar Galaxy to burn so furiously?

Scientists have detected the "fingerprints" of a black hole's event horizon—the boundary from which nothing can escape—for the first time, according to research published Wednesday.

'I feel like we were encouraged to fail in the best way possible, where we never felt any idea was too crazy for this team.'

New experimental evidence demonstrates that discrete space-time crystals can be realized in classical soft-matter systems, thereby moving beyond the traditional complexities of quantum mechanics.

The JWST looked back in time and saw 6 galaxies merging into one. At the heart of the assembly, a supermassive black hole is lurking. It all happened when the Universe was only about 1.5 billion years old, and the red-shifted light is just reaching us now.

If, in space, no one can hear you scream, it seems that you can actually hear the sound of a crash when two black holes collide. Using the loudest gravitational wave ever heard, two Australian scientists and colleagues have been the first to witness the previously elusive "event horizon" at the actual moment of collision, right before all light and sound are swallowed by the newly formed black hole for eternity.

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What if consciousness isn’t limited to brains like ours? Philosophers Eric Schwitzgebel and Jeremy Pober argue that consciousness could arise in many different forms of life, even in beings built from radically different materials than those found on Earth. Drawing on the vastness of the universe and the likely existence of countless alien civilizations, they suggest it would be surprisingly Earth-centric to assume that only Earth-like biology can support conscious experience.

NASA's James Webb Space Telescope is finding clues that are leading scientists toward the origins of the interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS.

A research team from Hiroshima University, the University of Colorado, and other collaborators have demonstrated that space-time crystals—exotic structures that, under external drive, loop endlessly through both space and time—can be created using everyday liquid-crystal materials.

The area surrounding our galaxy’s central supermassive black hole contains three strangely different populations of stars – but one hidden black hole could explain all of them

Planet hunters and stargazers will both benefit from the Euclid space telescope's newest image, which was released after 26 hours of deep-space observations.

A faraway galaxy has been caught blowing away the cosmic fog of hydrogen that filled the universe once upon a time.

We may not know what dark matter is, but we keep getting whiffs of it. “We are reaching

Astronomers using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope have found something they never expected—ultraviolet light from a galaxy that existed just 1.4 billion years after the Big Bang. That galaxy contains tightly clustered young stars that produce ionizing light capable of transforming the opaque, neutral gas within and immediately around the galaxy, clearing our view. This suggests that similar galaxies in the early universe were responsible for clearing the neutral fog of hydrogen gas that once filled the cosmos.

Located 12 million light-years away and undergoing rapid star formation, edge-on spiral galaxy Messier 82 (M82) is a scientifically unique sight to behold, and now NASA's James Webb Space Telescope has revealed previously unseen details.

Astronomers have discovered a huge reservoir of cold molecular gas, the direct fuel for star formation, in REBELS-25, a massive, star-forming galaxy.The team, led from ​​Leiden University, focused on REBELS-25, seen when the universe was only about 700 million years old, around 5% of its current age. Astronomers use “redshift” to describe this distance, which measures how much the universe’s expansion has stretched a galaxy’s light to redder wavelengths.

Astrophysicists have found what is likely the very first pair of sibling supernova remnants. One is the well-known Jellyfish Nebula, and the other was long thought to be hidden in the bright glare from the Jellyfish. The pair are connected by a bright filament of gas.

The go-to tracking and sharp autofocus afforded by the Odyssey Pro allowed me to start taking sharp images of the deep sky. It's now available from Unistellar with 15% off.

After the historic Artemis 2 crew looping around the moon back in April, kids everywhere are eager to follow in their footsteps. This Astronaut star projector is the perfect way to bring the wonder of their new heroes home, and with this Prime Day deal, it’s an absolute bargain.

It feels like every few months we get to report on another academic paper coming out singing the praises of the Solar Gravitational SGL (SGL). Partly, this is due to Dr. Slava Turyshev’s astounding productivity in terms of pumping out academic articles, but partly because such a ground-breaking mission has lots of positive aspects, but also challenges that need to be addressed. A new paper, available in pre-print on arXiv from Dr. Turyshev, stresses an often overlooked feature of the SGL - how useful it can be at imaging things other than far away exoplanets.

New study confirms accelerating expansion of the universe The post Cosmic crisis averted as supernovae put dark energy back on track appeared first on Physics World.

Learn how the Roman Space Telescope will complete final checks in Florida before launching toward its deep-space observing post.

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Research led by the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai, along with Professor Subir Sarkar from the University of Oxford, questions the widely accepted argument that the expansion rate of the universe is accelerating and that this is driven by "dark energy" arising from the quantum vacuum. Their letter has been published in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.

There are multiple ways to form black holes. The one most commonly taught in high school physics classes is that they are created from the collapse of a dying star. But there is another class of black holes, known as primordial black holes (PBHs), that could have been created immediately after the Big Bang by matter collapsing in on itself. Or that's the theory, at least. Though long theorized, we've never actually seen one of them, though scientists have suggested that they might account for the missing mass of the universe, which we otherwise describe as "dark matter."

Astronomers have detected a flickering quasar called J0439+1634 as it appeared only 850 million years after the Big Bang. That discovery raises fresh questions about black hole formation and activity in the early Universe. The flickering light of this distant cosmic lighthouse showed that black hole at the heart of the quasr has a flat, pancake-shaped accretion disk. That shape is more familiar in modern-day quasars, which leads astronomers to wonder how these objects formed so quickly in the infant cosmos?

The Nancy Roman Grace Telescope has arrived at NASA's Kennedy Space Center for final preparations ahead of launching to join the orbital ranks of Hubble, Webb, Spitzer and Chandra.

The JWST found a galaxy cluster from 10 billion years ago that's far more developed than it should be, according to cosmological models. The cluster is also the most distant strong gravitational lens that we know of. Detailed observations across the spectrum show that the cluster is still undergoing mergers.

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Astronomers have used the James Webb Space Telescope to catch an extraordinary glimpse of a massive galaxy taking shape in the early universe. They identified a compact group of at least six galaxies that are likely to merge into a single enormous system. At the heart of this cosmic construction site lies a growing supermassive black hole.

The expansion of the universe is still accelerating under the influence of dark energy, despite recent claims to the contrary averting a cosmological crisis, according to new research.

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Just a few hundred million years after the Big Bang, the universe was a dark and simple place. There were no galaxies like the Milky Way, no planets, and no heavy elements such as carbon or oxygen. Instead, vast clouds of primordial hydrogen and helium drifted through space, slowly falling into invisible cocoons of dark matter known as "minihalos." Within these halos, the very first stars—called Population III stars—were born.

The evidence is mounting: this interstellar visitor is even older and weirder than anyone thought

There are multiple ways to form black holes. The one most commonly taught in high school physics classes is that they are created from the collapse of a dying star. But there are another class of black holes, known as Primordial Black Holes (PBHs) that could have been created immediately after the Big Bang by matter collapsing in on it. Or that’s the theory at least. Though long theorized, we’ve never actually seen one of them, though scientists have suggested that they might account for the missing mass of the universe, which we otherwise describe as “dark matter”. But a new paper, available in pre-print on arXiv from researchers at Oakland University in Michigan and Rice University in Texas, calls that theory into question, at least for a certain type of PBH.

Recent observations suggest that dark energy is changing over time. Theorists wonder if dark matter is, too. The post A Dark Dimension Could Link Two of the Universe’s Great Unknowns first appeared on Quanta Magazine

Astronomers have discovered a "remarkable" bow-and-arrow-shaped radio galaxy with an enormous arc-like structure extending nearly 1.8 million light-years across. The newly identified system, detailed in a new paper published today in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society: Letters, has a "highly unusual" and asymmetric structure unlike those seen in standard radio galaxies.

The Orion A region has never looked as colorful and vibrant.

New observations from the James Webb Space Telescope show that ancient galaxies lived fast and died young because of intense, collision-driven winds.

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New research has failed to rule out self-annihilating dark matter as the source of a hotly debated gamma-ray emission known as the Galactic Center Excess radiating from the heart of the Milky Way.

Astronomers have followed a faint, cosmic trail of gas to a third galaxy that has no dark matter. In

The group leading the charge in the search for extraterrestrial life has given the all clear: An interstellar comet looks to be completely natural and free of any alien tech.

A technique called echo mapping suggests supermassive black holes, like that at the heart of the Milky Way, are surrounded by clusters of dark matter.

Researchers reported this week a deadly outbreak of plague in Siberia 5,500 years ago, revealing that Yersinia pestis evolved lethal genetic traits far earlier than suspected. A drug developed for heart tissue repair may also help kidney tissue repair and regeneration. And neighborhood socialization opportunities could shape children's brain development.

A stunningly concentrated and hefty galaxy cluster, from a time in the universe's history when such massive structures aren't expected to have fully formed yet, is challenging cosmic evolution theories. Across a series of three recent papers, a team led by researchers from IPAC—a science and data center for astrophysics and planetary science at Caltech—have revealed that the cluster is the most distant example of strong gravitational lensing with a galaxy cluster.

NASA's Swift space observatory is falling out of orbit. Can a commercial company build a spacecraft in nine months to save it?

The Bullet Cluster has so far been considered evidence of the existence of dark matter. An international team of researchers has now analyzed new data and current images from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). According to the team, the observations are also consistent with an alternative explanation that does not involve dark matter. If the latter is, in fact, present, it is likely to be in smaller quantities than postulated so far.

New data suggest the Bullet Cluster's lensing may be explained with fewer or no dark matter assumptions, reviving an alternative gravity model.

A distant galaxy nicknamed Shadow Blaster may have revealed a surprising source of cosmic neutrinos: extreme star formation instead of a supermassive black hole. The discovery suggests that hidden, dust-filled starburst galaxies could account for a significant fraction of the Universe’s high-energy neutrinos.

Astronomers may have found the remains of two long-dead stellar siblings

The James Webb Space Telescope has found nearby brown dwarfs masquerading as far-distant galaxies. The discovery reinforces how, in astronomy, what you see isn’t always what you get

Astronomers may be closing in on a long-standing cosmic mystery: why some of the universe’s biggest galaxies seem to have far fewer stars than expected. Using NASA- and JAXA-supported XRISM observations of a galaxy called NGC 4151, researchers found strong evidence that supermassive black holes can unleash powerful winds that blow away the raw material needed to make new stars.

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Long-duration gamma-ray bursts are some of the most energetic events in the universe, releasing more energy in just a few seconds than the sun emits in 10 billion years. Los Alamos National Laboratory scientists, having discovered gamma-ray bursts more than 50 years ago, continue to add to the understanding of these mysterious events.

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"If confirmed, Shadow Blaster would be the first-ever individual dusty star-forming galaxy directly linked to a high-energy neutrino event."

A new study of two supernova remnants, the debris left behind after stars explode, suggests the explosions came from stellar siblings that once orbited each other. The first star's detonation sent its binary companion hurtling through space, and then, after traveling for thousands of years, the surviving star blew up, too.

Using the James Webb Space Telescope, astronomers have discovered that one of the coldest exoplanets ever discovered, the so-called Pink Planet, harbors a salty surprise.

This NASA Hubble Space Telescope image features a galaxy cluster called CL0016+1609, or MACS J0018.5+1626, that is very bright at X-ray wavelengths and is one of the most extensively studied clusters at X-ray and radio wavelengths. X-ray observations of this cluster revealed that it is two clusters merging along our line of sight.

Switch off fusion and, for ten thousand years, nothing happens. Then the Sun begins a slow, strange death: shrinking, briefly brightening, and coasting on gravitational heat for tens of millions of years. And the neutrinos give the whole thing away in just eight minutes.

'He was a joy to work with on set, he really was. He was a lot of fun and there was this charismatic presence every day.'

Two U.S. physicists have suggested that the nine concentric rings surrounding the galaxy LEDA 1313424, also known as the Bullseye galaxy, could have emerged through the quantum behavior of particles of dark matter. Through analysis published in The Astrophysical Journal, Pierre Sikivie and Yuxin Zhao at the University of Florida argue that the extraordinary structure wasn't created by a collision between galaxies, as previous theories had suggested—but by a Bose-Einstein condensate of axions.

A new study reveals why black holes let out massive radio "burps" years after eating stars, giving astronomers a chemical blueprint to predict them early.

This is today’s edition of The Download, our weekday newsletter that provides a daily dose of what’s going on in the world of technology. The search for dark matter has been blown wide open For decades, physicists have hunted for weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs), a leading candidate for dark matter. But their search has…

Newborn star clusters are a deciding factor in shaping interstellar medium, study finds.

A new theory suggests the universe is constantly recording its own history in the fabric of spacetime. If correct, this cosmic memory could help solve some of the biggest puzzles in physics, from black holes to dark matter and the universe’s ultimate fate.

Underneath an Apennine massif, below the Jinping Mountains of Sichuan, and at the bottom of a South Dakota mine, there is a cosmic hunt afoot. Isolated deep beneath these rocky shields, massive detectors filled with liquid xenon aim to make the first direct detections of dark matter, the long-sought invisible substance whose gravity has sculpted…

Astronomers have revealed new details about how young stars shape their galactic surroundings in a new study. Researchers analyzed about 18,000 star-forming regions in nearby spiral galaxies using data from powerful instruments like the James Webb Space Telescope, Hubble Space Telescope and the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array, whose observations were made as part of the PHANGS survey—a collaboration aimed at better understanding galactic evolution.

Dr. Shing-Chi Leung, assistant professor of physics at SUNY Polytechnic Institute, has published the article "Primordial Black Hole Triggered Type Ia Supernovae II: Comparison with Supernova Remnants and Galactic Chemical Evolution" in The Astrophysical Journal. The paper was co-authored by SUNY Poly student Seth Walther, a senior majoring in electrical and computer engineering and applied mathematics with a minor in physics; Alexander Kusenko (UCLA); Ken'ichi Nomoto (Kavli IPMU, recipient of the 2026 Shaw Prize in Astronomy and the 2026 Gruber Cosmology Prize); and Tomoharu Suzuki (Chubu University).

Who ordered the roasted exoplanet? Astronomers using the James Webb Space Telescope found a world that really puts the "hot" in "Hot Jupiter."

Pairing atom-based sensors cancels overwhelming laser noise, revealing faint signals that future detectors could use to probe hidden cosmic phenomena.

We're still in the definition phase of the Habitable Worlds Observatory (HWO), but it seems like every week a new research group comes out with a paper helping to shape what is becoming one of the most important space telescopes of the 2040s. A new paper posted to the arXiv preprint server from a team of researchers led by Daniel Jaffe of the University of Texas at Austin contributes to this ongoing definition work by arguing that it's time HWO adopted a high-resolution near-IR spectroscopy capability—which sounds great in practice, but so far hasn't been attempted because of technological limitations. But, according to the paper, two recent inventions finally make a working version of an extremely high-resolution exoplanet hunter viable.

A prototype quantum sensor developed by researchers at Imperial has demonstrated for the first time that a key principle behind next-generation quantum detectors can work under realistic conditions.

A galaxy appears to be missing the invisible substance thought to hold these objects together, further challenging long-held assumptions about how galaxies form

We’re still in the definition phase of the Habitable Worlds Observatory (HWO), but it seems like every week a new research group comes out with a paper helping to contribute to what is shaping up to be one of the most important space telescopes of the 2040s. A new paper from a team of researchers led by Daniel Jaffe of the University of Texas at Austin contributes to this ongoing definition work by arguing that it’s time HWO adopted a high-resolution near-IR spectroscopy capability, - which sounds great in practice, but so far hasn’t been attempted due to technological limitations. But, according to the paper, two recent inventions finally make a working version of an extremely high resolution exoplanet hunter viable.

An international research collaboration between the University of Vienna and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in the United States has used machine learning to re-examine one of the most debated signals in astrophysics. The so-called Galactic Center Excess (GCE), a faint, roughly spherical glow of gamma rays at the center of the Milky Way, has fascinated physicists for more than a decade. The new results suggest that an explanation in terms of dark matter cannot currently be ruled out. The results have now been published in the journal Physical Review Letters.

Gemini North telescope on Maunakea helps uncover strongest evidence yet that distant star-forming galaxies contribute to the production of one of the Universe’s most mysterious ghost particles.

Neutrinos are one of the fundamental particles of the universe. They live a ghostly existence with no electric charge, very little mass and extremely few interactions with matter. They are also the most abundant particles with mass in the universe and can be created through a variety of processes, such as the decay of heavy particles, nuclear reactions in the sun and the explosions of stars.

Author(s): Israel Gabay, Omer Luria, Edward Balaban, Amir D. Gat, and Moran BercoviciLarge-aperture telescopes are currently limited by launch vehicle constraints. The Fluidic Telescope (FLUTE) concept seeks to overcome this by using liquid mirrors which, in microgravity, naturally relax into a precise spherical shape. However, necessary telescope maneuvers subject the liquid to body forces that perturb this interface. This study provides an experimentally validated analytical model for such liquid dynamics by solving for the non-self-adjoint problem of a thin liquid film pinned in a circular domain. Using the model to simulate decades of operation, we show that while edge disturbances build up, the inner 80% of the aperture remains optically precise for over 20 years. [Phys. Rev. Fluids 11, 064003] Published Tue Jun 16, 2026