Telescopes

The dual black hole system, dubbed LID-1166, is the first close-separation pair of its kind confirmed this early in the universe. The discovery could help to explain how the earliest black holes grew so large, so fast.

First glimpsed as “little red dots” in deep-space images from the James Webb Space Telescope, these giant, gas-shrouded black holes are full of surprises

Little red dots have puzzled astronomers since their discovery in James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) data from the universe's deep past. Their "powering engines" might resemble a newly discovered phenomenon dubbed a "black hole star"—an early, rapidly growing black hole wrapped in dense gas. This object, described in a study published today in Nature by researchers at the Institute of Science and Technology Austria (ISTA) and international collaborators, may help explain how billion-solar-mass black holes formed so soon after the Big Bang.

During early calibration tests, the MOTHRA telescope’s array of lenses, which will soon number 1,140, captured stellar debris dissolving into space around the Helix Nebula.

This dying star appears to have a face of gas and a mane of space dust

New images from the James Webb telescope show a galaxy with a trio of supermassive black holes. Two of them appear to be locked in a tight tango.

New images from the James Webb telescope show a galaxy with a trio of supermassive black holes. Two of them appear to be locked in a tight tango.

I'll admit to using AI for things it was probably never designed for. When my van threw a fault I couldn't immediately figure out—one that seems notorious for trips back and forth to a repair shop—I ended up in a long (but cheaper) back-and-forth with an AI system, working through the symptoms. The same happened with a run of gutters and with stud framing in my house. It isn't magic, and perhaps more often than I'd like, it's wrong, but as a way of thinking through a problem with something that's read more manuals than I ever will, it has earned its place in the toolbox. So I read this next story with some sympathy and interest.

Time on a large professional telescope is one of the scarcest resources in science. Astronomers wait months for a few hours, and every one of those hours is a running argument with the weather, the Moon and the atmosphere. Point at the wrong target at the wrong moment and the data comes back soft, washed out, or useless, with the next chance half a year away. A team has now handed that argument to a machine. Their system was trained not on the rules astronomers use but on what astronomers actually did, night after night, for years.

A new James Webb telescope study suggests the universe's enigmatic "little red dots" may not have vanished after all — they may simply look different as we observe them across cosmic time.

The PLATO (PLAnetary Transits and Oscillations of stars) mission from the European Space Agency (ESA) has successfully completed

For the first time, scientists have directly observed a 150-year-old predicted phenomenon on the sun's surface that could explain why the sun's atmosphere is far hotter than its surface.

A new study analyzing the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) spectra of more than 1,400 galaxies suggests a surprisingly small group of "leaky" galaxies was responsible for cosmic reionization. The paper outlining this work was posted to the arXiv preprint server on July 24.

NASA's Roman Space Telescope wasn't designed for asteroid hunting, but its massive field of view makes it a powerful addition to Earth's planetary defense network.

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. NASA’s new dark energy space telescope can also detect killer asteroids   At the end of August, NASA is set to launch the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope from Kennedy Space…

At the end of August, NASA is set to launch the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope from Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Its quest is to help us better understand how the universe works, from the glue-like dark matter that keeps galaxies together to the elusive dark energy that drives the expansion of the cosmos.…

Every night, astronomers must carefully assess changing weather, the intensity of moonlight and shifting atmospheric conditions before deciding

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The most famous giant spiral galaxy in the universe has been revealed not to be the star factory it once was, just as NASA's Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope is set to unlock even more breathtaking cosmic insights.

Katalyst Space's LINK spacecraft is recovering from an unexpected spin in orbit, and will need a little more time to rescue NASA's falling Swift observatory.

Every night, astronomers must carefully assess changing weather, the intensity of moonlight and shifting atmospheric conditions before deciding where to point a telescope. It's a constant balancing act designed to squeeze as much science as possible from every precious hour beneath dark skies. Now, Northwestern University, University of Chicago and Fermilab scientists have developed a new artificial intelligence (AI) tool that automatically determines where a telescope should point.

The formation and evolution of individual stars in a galaxy shape the evolution of the galaxy itself. Stars and stellar remnants make up the vast majority of a galaxy's mass, so it's not surprising that the stellar population affects the evolution of galaxies. In the Milky Way's disk and bulge, stars and dead stars make up about 85% of the baryonic mass.

A spacecraft meant to push NASA’s Swift Observatory to a higher orbit malfunctioned and started tumbling several days ago. Engineers think it can still succeed.

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A century-old mystery about the night sky's famous "shoulder star" may finally be solved, as astronomers capture the sharpest image yet of a small star tucked close beside the dying Betelgeuse.

Astronomers want to know how universal the initial mass fraction (IMF) of galaxies is. To do they that, they need to discern binary stars in other galaxies, a difficult task. Researchers used the JWST to study the Small Magellanic Cloud and determine how many binary stars are there, since they can confuse measurements of the IMF.

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A private spacecraft launched to boost the decaying orbit of NASA’s Swift Observatory is now suffering from potentially mission-ending malfunctions

The spacecraft rushing to the rescue of an aging and sinking NASA telescope has run into its own problem.

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Scientists have reacted with alarm to news that the British government will cut funding to the world-famous radio telescope at the Jodrell Bank Observatory, a UNESCO World Heritage Site in northwest England that has been helping explore the cosmos for almost 70 years.

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Jupiter's moon Io is the most volcanically active planetary body in the solar system, boasting hundreds of active volcanoes that spew molten lava into space. This activity results from a process called tidal heating, in which Jupiter's massive gravity constantly stretches and compresses the much smaller moon during its noncircular orbit.

Jupiter’s moon, Io, is the most volcanically active planetary body in the solar system, boasting hundreds of active volcanoes spewing molten lava into space. This occurs from a process called tidal heating where Jupiter’s massive gravity constantly stretches and compresses the much smaller moon during the latter’s non-circular orbit. However, a lesser-known fact is that Io’s volcanic gases fuel Jupiter’s aurorae by traveling along Jupiter’s magnetic field lines, resulting in Jupiter’s bright aurorae observed by spacecraft and Earth-based telescopes. But what if this same phenomenon could be used to detect Io-like exomoons, also called exo-Ios, orbiting Jupiter-like exoplanets?

A new study using data from NASA's Hubble Space Telescope finds that star formation in the nearby Andromeda galaxy has undergone a 500-million-year decline, with an even steeper drop in the last 40 million years. Andromeda, a spiral galaxy comparable in size to our Milky Way, is close enough to be seen with the unaided eye from areas with dark skies. Located about 2.5 million light-years from Earth—practically our cosmic backyard—Andromeda offers an opportunity for astronomers to examine its stellar populations in detail, leading to a better understanding of the past of galaxies like our own.

Jodrell Bank Observatory, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, risks closure by 2028 due to funding cuts, threatening its role in UK radio astronomy and impacting thousands of scientists.

Whether you're carrying a phone, a mirrorless camera or a smart telescope, here are some tried and tested ways to capture the Aug. 12, 2026, total solar eclipse.

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Sub-Neptune exoplanets, exoplanets that are slightly smaller than Neptune, have been designated as the most common type of planet in the Milky Way Galaxy based on their vast discovery numbers, totaling almost 3,300 out of the more than 6,300 confirmed exoplanets to date. Despite these numbers, the characteristics of sub-Neptunes remain relatively unknown. This is primarily due to our own solar system not having its own sub-Neptune to use as an analog, along with their atmospheres being thick and hazy. As a result, this makes telescopic observations, even from powerful instruments like NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope, extremely difficult.

A giant planet had been hiding inside one of astronomy’s most closely studied planetary systems, concealed by a bright disk of cosmic dust. Webb revealed Beta Pictoris d through atmospheric traces of carbon monoxide, water vapor, and methane, showcasing a promising new method for finding elusive exoplanets.

Combining over 20 years of archival data from Hubble with new data from the James Webb Space Telescope, a team of astronomers has found the first of the "missing" black holes.

NASA is about to launch a space observatory that could help settle some of the biggest mysteries in modern astronomy. The Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope will study how the universe began, what it is made of and how it has evolved over time.

Astronomers using the James Webb Space Telescope have captured one of the clearest views yet of how an early supermassive black hole may grow within a network of young galaxies. The compact active galaxy, seen just a billion years after the Big Bang, lies beside a 12,000-parsec-long filament containing multiple galaxies that are expected to merge within a few hundred million years.

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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. Shape-shifting mirrors on NASA’s new space telescope could unveil Jupiters like our own When NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope launches, as early as the end of next month, it will…

When NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope launches, as early as the end of next month, it will attempt one of astronomy’s most precise disappearing acts to date. The telescope will carry the first space-bound “active” coronagraph, an instrument that effectively erases most of the light from a star during photography. It will allow astronomers…

A new simulation study suggests that the Antarctic 12-m Terahertz Telescope (ATT12), a next-generation facility led by University of Tsukuba, could uncover between 1 and 10 million dusty star-forming galaxies throughout cosmic history.

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The James Webb telescope peers through a warped bubble of space-time to study galaxies from the first billion years after the Big Bang.

When supermassive black holes (SMBH) in a certain mass range eat a star, they first tear it apart in a Tidal Disruption Event (TDE). By detecting TDE across cosmic time, astronomers can chart the growth of SMBH as the Universe aged. The Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope will help, by finding about 100 TDEs every year.

Astronomers using NASA's James Webb Space Telescope have discovered a giant planet outside our solar system, called an exoplanet, hiding within one of the most intensely studied planetary systems in the Milky Way galaxy.

NASA's James Webb Space Telescope has revealed new details about the blistering lava planet 55 Cancri e, where temperatures are high enough to melt rock. The data indicate the planet likely has a hydrogen-rich atmosphere shaped by gases escaping from its molten interior, with signs that volcanic outgassing may even create temporary clouds.

Blue and white stars shine brilliantly against a crimson background of glowing gas in this July 3, 2026, image of stellar nursery LH 95 from NASA's Hubble Space Telescope.

Scientists have long suspected that this star cluster was a hotspot for a certain kind of black hole. But for decades, they had been unable to spot any

How do black holes at the centers of galaxies form and grow over time? To answer this question, scientists need to detect and study supermassive black holes at great distances that existed much earlier in the universe's history. New research suggests NASA's Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, which is on track to launch Aug. 30, 2026, will be able to detect these distant, ancient black holes that existed up to 11 billion years ago.

The planets that appear most common in the universe could have a lot of water—but it could be hiding where telescopes can't detect it, according to a new study led by scientists with the University of Chicago.

The massive globular star cluster Omega Centauri has puzzled astronomers for decades. It should be filled with black holes left behind by exploding stars, yet evidence for them is scarce. Now, astronomers using archival data from NASA's Hubble Space Telescope and supporting observations from NASA's James Webb Space Telescope have finally located the first stellar-mass black hole in this cluster. Discovering the first of this missing black hole population will help refine current theories on black hole formation within environments such as Omega Centauri. The team's findings were published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters.

An JWST image of the nearby Centaurus A galaxy reveals star dust, collision scars and the fingerprint of a black hole.

For nearly a century, astronomers have known that the universe is expanding. In the late 1990s, two independent teams, the Supernova Cosmology Project, led by Saul Perlmutter, and the High-Z Supernova Search Team, led by Brian Schmidt and Adam Riess, discovered something strange: The expansion is speeding up. The finding earned them the 2011 Nobel Prize in Physics. The leading explanation for this acceleration is "dark energy," a mysterious force usually modeled as a constant called Lambda, pushing space apart. Combined with cold dark matter, this gives us the LCDM model, the standard picture of the cosmos for the past 25 years.

For the first time, scientists have used NASA's IXPE (Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer) to directly measure the magnetic fields of PSR J1101−6101, a pulsar located within what is often referred to as the Lighthouse Nebula. The results provide new insight into the structure of some of the most extreme objects in the cosmos, as NASA continues to explore the secrets of how the universe works. A paper describing the results was published Thursday in The Astrophysical Journal.

This image from NASA's Hubble Space Telescope showcases Messier 3 (M3), one of the Milky Way's most massive globular clusters, or spherical collections of gravitationally bound stars.

With its ability to observe the red-shifted light from early galaxies, the JWST has revealed some surprises. Many massive galaxies in the early Universe had ceased star formation and were already quenched hundreds of millions of years sooner than thought. By examining their morphology, new research shows that mergers that were previously hidden from view are responsible.

Astronomers studying a population of unusually X-ray-silent and overmassive black holes discovered by the James Webb Space Telescope have found that they may not be as massive as they appear. The new paper, outlining a plausible scenario that would produce such black holes, was published in Astronomy & Astrophysics on June 19.

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Euclid is only 1.5 years into its Euclid Wide Survey and has found 31 new quasars from the Universe's first 800 million years. Though the Survey isn't specifically aimed at finding ancient quasars, it's proving to be remarkably effective at it. This large sample of quasars will help with the study of ancient galaxies and supermassive black holes.

A collection of newfound objects discovered by the Euclid telescope more than doubles the number of known quasars from the universe's first billion years.

Researchers working with data from the South Pole Telescope have released a major catalog of galaxy clusters, giving scientists a powerful new tool for studying how the universe grew and changed over billions of years. The findings are published on the arXiv preprint server.

An Orbital Rescue for Swift NASA and Arizona startup Katalyst launched a robotic spacecraft over the Pacific to

Astronomers using the James Webb Space Telescope have identified what may be the most distant barred spiral galaxy ever discovered, dating to a time less than 1.2 billion years after the Big Bang. The paper outlining its properties was posted to the arXiv preprint server on June 23.

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Using the James Webb Space Telescope, astronomers have created the most detailed map of the cosmic web ever.

Celebrating the United States' 250th anniversary, NASA released a stunning Hubble portrait of Messier 3, an ancient globular cluster with more than 500,000 stars. The remarkable cluster is helping scientists unravel the Milky Way's past thanks to its rare stars and possible origins in a long ago cosmic merger.

Hubble has captured a spectacular view of LH 95, where about 2,500 young stars are still on their journey to becoming full-fledged stars. Scientists discovered these growing stars can keep pulling in gas and dust for millions of years, extending an important stage of stellar development. The region also contains multiple generations of stars living side by side, offering fresh clues about how star formation unfolds over time.

NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has captured a spectacular red, white, and blue view of one of the Milky Way's oldest star clusters to celebrate the nation's 250th anniversary. Hidden within the ancient cluster are clues to how exploding stars helped transform the young universe into one capable of forming planets and, eventually, life.

July 4, 2026: Our weekly roundup of the latest science in the news, as well as a few fascinating articles to keep you entertained over the weekend.

NASA’s Swift space telescope is reaching the end of its two-decade run in orbit – unless a satellite launched on 3 July can give it a lifesaving boost

An international team of astronomers reports the discovery of a new massive barred spiral galaxy. The newfound galaxy, designated M1149-BSG-z5, was identified using the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). The finding was detailed in a paper published June 23 on the preprint server arXiv.

More than 500,000 stars blaze red, white, and blue in this image from NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, released in celebration of the United States' 250th anniversary. The image showcases Messier 3 (M3), one of the Milky Way galaxy's most massive globular clusters, or spherical collections of gravitationally bound stars. Globular clusters are made up of ancient stars that formed at roughly the same time from the same cloud of gas, giving those stars similar ages. Around 150 known globular clusters are sprinkled around the outer regions of the Milky Way.

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A three-armed spacecraft rocketed into orbit Friday to rescue a NASA telescope that's in danger of crashing back to Earth.

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A refrigerator-size spacecraft will try to grab onto Swift and nudge it to a higher orbit, enabling it to continue observing powerful cosmic explosions.

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Researchers say the surprising discovery of the faraway galaxy MXDFz4.4 could help explain how the cosmos went from opaque to transparent billions of years ago.

A new study has identified a very specific wavelength of light missing from both Pluto and Saturn's largest moon, Titan. The surprising signal suggests that these worlds harbor an unknown molecule that has not yet been seen anywhere in the solar system or beyond.