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Unprecedented gamma-ray burst hints at rare black hole

A team of astronomers have observed an explosion in the universe unlike any ever witnessed before. The gamma-ray bursts from outside the Milky Way galaxy repeated several times over the course of a day. Gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) are the most powerful explosions in the universe, normally caused by the catastrophic destruction of stars, but no […]

Methane gas found on dwarf planet Makemake

A Southwest Research Institute-led team has reported the first detection of gas on the distant dwarf planet Makemake, using NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). This discovery makes Makemake only the second trans-Neptunian object, after Pluto, where the presence of gas has been confirmed. The gas was identified as methane.

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Cosmic accident solves Jupiter–Saturn silicon puzzle

Why has silicon, one of the most common elements in the universe, gone largely undetected in the atmospheres of Jupiter, Saturn, and gas planets like them orbiting other stars? A new study using observations from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope sheds light on this question by focusing on a peculiar object that astronomers discovered by […]

Comet or alien spaceship? Astrophysicist explains what we know about interstellar traveler 3I/Atlas

The eyes of every astronomer widened this year when an interstellar traveler was discovered in our solar system.

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AI drives discovery of new exoplanets in distant systems

Over the course of more than two decades, researchers at the University of Bern have developed the so-called “Bern model,” a suite of computer programs that can numerically simulate the formation of planetary systems, thus shedding light on system architecture. These models are, however, very complex: each simulation from the Bern model can take a […]

New AI tool predicts vision loss risk in astronauts—before launch

Since the dawn of human spaceflight, scientists have carefully studied the effects of space and microgravity on astronauts. After decades of observations and examinations, one truth is certain: space is brutal on the human body. Muscles atrophy, bones lose mass, limbs stretch and—more unknown—eyesight can degrade in ways not yet fully understood.

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Perseverance meets the megabreccia

Last week, the Perseverance rover began an exciting new journey. Driving northwest of the Soroya ridge, Perseverance entered an area filled with a diverse range of boulders that the science team believes could hold clues to Mars’s early history.

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Sunset SpaceX launch could make for unique show if weather allows

A SpaceX launch on the Space Coast just after sunset Monday could mean the return of the unique jellyfish effect over Florida’s skies.

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Using pulsar accelerations to detect a dark matter sub-halo in the Milky Way for the first time

Dr. Sukanya Chakrabarti, the Pei-Ling Chan Endowed Chair in the College of Science at The University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH), and her team have posted a new paper to the arXiv preprint server that for the first time uses binary and solitary pulsars to constrain properties of a dark matter sub-halo in our own […]

Supermassive black holes shrouded by dust in the early universe

Astronomers have discovered “dust-shrouded supermassive black holes” in the early universe, less than 1 billion years after the Big Bang—a type of object that had previously escaped detection.

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Enceladus’s plumes: Experiment questions ocean origin of organics

Organic molecules detected in the watery plumes that spew out from cracks in the surface of Enceladus could be formed through exposure to radiation on Saturn’s icy moon, rather than originating from deep within its sub-surface ocean.

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A rocky planet in its star’s ‘habitable zone’ could be first known to have an atmosphere—here’s what we found

New research using NASA’s powerful JWST telescope has identified a planet 41 light years away which may have an atmosphere. The planet is within the “habitable zone,” the region around a star where temperatures make it possible for liquid water to exist on the surface of a rocky world. This is important because water is […]

Life after microgravity: Astronauts reflect on post-flight recovery

Space changes you. It strengthens some muscles, weakens others, shifts fluids within your body, and realigns your sense of balance. NASA’s Human Research Program works to understand—and sometimes even counter—those changes so astronauts can thrive on future deep space missions.

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Beware of the ‘gravitational keyhole’: How to find the safest spots to deflect a hazardous asteroid

Selecting the right spot to smash a spacecraft into the surface of a hazardous asteroid to deflect it must be done with great care, according to new research presented at the EPSC-DPS2025 Joint Meeting in Helsinki. Slamming into its surface indiscriminately runs the risk of knocking the asteroid through a “gravitational keyhole” that sends it […]

White dwarf orbiting a blue straggler star detected

Using the Hubble Space Telescope (HST), Italian astronomers have observed five blue straggler stars in the globular cluster 47 Tucanae. Their results show that one of these stars has a white dwarf companion. The discovery is presented in a paper published Aug. 28 on the arXiv preprint server.

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