Astronomers detect radio signals coming from an exoplanet for the first time

Exoplanets are exotic worlds orbiting distant stars far beyond our solar system. Ever since the first ones were discovered in the 1990s, astronomers have turned their attention to these distant worlds to understand more about them. Now, for the first time, scientists have detected radio signals coming directly from one of these planets, a massive […]

3I/ATLAS has an extreme taste for heavy water

More and more details about 3I/ATLAS are filtering through the scientific process as time goes on. Our third known interstellar visitor attracted the attention of some of the world’s most powerful observatories when it was discovered in July 2025, and some of those telescopes found something peculiar—the isotopes it contained appeared different. A new paper […]

The tilt in Earth’s axis makes the apparent position of continents shift with the seasons

Most kids learn in elementary school that the seasons are caused by Earth rotating on a tilted axis during its yearly orbit around the sun. The substantial tilt, about 23.5 degrees, is thought to be the result of an ancient planetary body, Theia, smashing into Earth about 4.5 billion years ago, in the same cataclysmic […]

Milky Way’s first microblazar may produce fastest particles in the galaxy

An international team of astronomers from ASTRON, JIVE, the University of Amsterdam and other institutions has found the first so-called “microblazar” in the Milky Way. This stellar system is composed of a massive star and a black hole with a jet that is pointed toward Earth. The researchers also identified the region where the jet […]

A 42-light-year X-ray tail links a pulsar to previously ‘orphan’ gamma rays

Understanding the origin, acceleration and propagation of high-energy cosmic rays has been a century-old mystery in astrophysics. Recently, joint observations from China’s Einstein Probe (EP) satellite and the Large High Altitude Air Shower Observatory (LHAASO) showed an extraordinarily long X-ray tail near a pulsar about 4,600 light-years (27 quadrillion miles) from Earth—one that had never […]

Jupiter uses a surprisingly complex system to fend off particles from the sun

A University of Iowa-led research team has reported in a new study the most detailed observations to date of the bow shock at Jupiter, our solar system’s gas giant. The findings from NASA’s Juno mission reveal key differences between Jupiter’s bow shock and Earth’s. They also may lead to a better understanding of the physics […]

Student-led missions deploy free-flying light sails from CubeSats in low Earth orbit

Students in Cornell’s Space Systems Design Studio (SSDS) have released mission results for two unique light-sail experiments. These sails are slightly larger than a pizza box and harness momentum from photons to accelerate to high velocities. With ChipSats onboard—gram-scale spacecraft that fit in the palm of your hand—the sails can become free-flyers. They origami-fold into […]

Early Mars rocks reveal at least three separate water episodes

When NASA’s Perseverance rover reached the inner edge of Mars’ Jezero Crater in September 2023, mission scientists were surprised by what they found. The geologic area, called the “Margin Unit,” stretches along the shoreline of an ancient Martian lake, so they expected sedimentary rocks, which would have formed as layers of sand piled on top […]

Earth’s center of mass drifts less than we thought

Where is Earth’s center of mass? The answer seems trivially obvious. It’s right in the middle of the planet. Ah, but that kind of thinking won’t get you a paper in the Geophysical Journal International. It’s also not a trivial question. Knowing Earth’s center of mass to within millimeters reveals some interesting facts about our […]

Solar Orbiter catches the sun’s missing high-speed vibrations

The sun’s magnetic fields are a twisty, curvy, ever-changing mess. In particular, our star’s polar regions host areas called polar coronal holes, which contain invisible magnetic highways that stretch into interplanetary space. But there’s a lot we don’t know about how those highways actually work, particularly how they give the particles that form the fast […]

Superdense neutron star caught feeding on a blue hypergiant’s stellar wind

Using data from the Japan–led XRISM (X-ray Imaging and Spectroscopy Mission) observatory, astronomers have directly observed a giant star’s outflow, called a stellar wind, being captured by its compact companion and providing the power source for strong X-ray flares. The research is part of NASA’s exploration of the extreme universe to better understand how the […]

A ‘rebellious’ exoplanet orbits in the opposite direction of its star

A star and its planets form when a cloud of gas and dust collapses in on itself somewhere in space. The cloud then forms a disk around the nascent star, within which the planets will form. This protostar and its disk then rotate in the same direction.

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Researchers measure the environment where the first supermassive black holes formed

When the James Webb Space Telescope pointed its powerful instruments toward the early universe, scientists were surprised by what it found. At high-redshift (z) values, corresponding to less than 1 billion years after the Big Bang, astronomers witnessed an abundance of galaxies that hosted what appeared to be the “seeds” of supermassive black holes (SMBHs). […]

The Red Planet has a purple side

Oxidized iron dominates the Martian color palette. The dusty reds, ochers, browns and tans give the planet its nickname: the Red Planet. But new images of Mars’ south polar region show something different. Swirls of pink, purple and red highlight the region and a feature named Thyles Rupes, an icy crag with cliffs higher than […]

Venus ate its moon: How Earth’s ‘twin’ could have swallowed a rocky satellite

Scientists have long speculated why Venus, with a size, mass and structure similar to Earth’s, doesn’t have a moon. New UC Riverside research shows that our hungry twin likely swallowed it.

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