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A student-led experiment sets new limits in the search for axions

In the era of precision cosmology, research often means big science: large observatories, highly complex instruments, international collaborations and substantial funding. Yet even in such an advanced field, progress is still possible—including in the search for elusive dark matter—through more agile approaches, driven by small teams and young researchers, supported by institutions and a good […]

Weighing in on the mystery of the gravitational constant

The time had come to open the envelope, but Stephan Schlamminger, a physicist at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), wasn’t sure he wanted to know the secret number that lay inside. For the past 10 years, Schlamminger had spent most of his working hours trying to measure a single quantity, known as […]

Webb’s Little Red Dots may reveal how giant black holes formed soon after the Big Bang

The launch of NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) in 2021 pushed the horizon of seeing the early universe, unveiling cosmic events just a few hundred million years after the Big Bang. Among the most striking discoveries are supermassive black holes—some reaching 100 million times the mass of our sun.

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Methane emerges from interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS as it exits the solar system

Interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS is now on its way out of our solar system, never to return. The comet was only the third-ever detected object to originate from outside our solar system. Traveling at high speeds, it looped around the sun within 1.5 AU (one AU, or astronomical unit, is the distance between Earth and the […]

New open-source Python-based software boosts space-weather modeling

University of Birmingham experts have created open-source computer software that helps scientists understand how fast-moving particles behave when they interact with electromagnetic waves in space. Understanding how these particles behave in Earth’s radiation belts is crucial because high-energy electrons can damage satellites, while radiation belt dynamics affect space weather forecasts. Better models help protect astronauts, […]

From sunsets to the night sky: How technology can help you to notice nature in new ways

On a chilly yet beautifully clear evening last November, I sat on a video call with colleagues and happened to mention the live feed from the International Space Station—a real-time broadcast from onboard cameras as the station orbits Earth.

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Are aliens real? Scientists have been hunting for extraterrestrial life since the time of Aristotle

Do aliens exist? Could Earth really be the only planet hosting intelligent life?

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eROSITA disentangles the solar system’s X-ray glow from deep-space signals

Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics scientists have been able to disentangle the X-ray glow originating in our solar system from similar emission reaching us from deep space, using data from the SRG/eROSITA space telescope. Four sky maps obtained between 2019 and 2021 from a vantage point approximately 1.5 million km from Earth—approximately four times […]

Uranus’s two outer rings show starkly different origins

Astronomers using the W. M. Keck Observatory on Maunakea, Hawaiʻi Island are revealing new insight into the composition and origins of Uranus’s two outer rings. Using data from the Keck Observatory Archive (KOA), combined with observations taken by the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) and the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), researchers constructed the first complete […]

Boots on the moon and beyond. Where next after Artemis II mission success?

It is tempting to view the Artemis II splashdown as the exclamation point on a successful lunar mission. And from launch to completion, it was indeed a textbook voyage of discovery for four astronauts, shared with enthralled millions watching across the globe.

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Solar flares’ domino effect isn’t limited to the sun, 16,000-star sweep reveals

Our sun is a roiling mass of energy, with solar flares exploding on its surface, sending gas, plasma, and light that blasts across the solar system. When radiation from extra-powerful flares breaks through Earth’s outer protective magnetosphere, it can affect satellites and even electric grids and cause the aurora borealis—lighting up the night sky.

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Titan’s lakes may spawn 10-foot waves in gentle winds, new model suggests

On a calm day, a light breeze might barely ripple the surface of a lake on Earth. But on Saturn’s largest moon, Titan, a similar mild wind would kick up 10-foot-tall waves. This otherworldly behavior is one prediction from a new wave model developed by scientists at MIT. The model is the first to capture […]

ALMA confirms rare quasar pair at redshift 5.7 in merging galaxies

Using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), astronomers have discovered a close pair of quasars, which is a result of a distant massive galaxy merger. The detection of the quasar pair was detailed in a research paper published April 7 on the arXiv pre-print server.

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‘Dancing jets’ from black hole reveal an immense power equivalent to 10,000 suns

New Curtin University-led research has used a radio telescope that spans Earth to snap images that measure the immense power of jets from black holes, confirming scientists’ theories of how black holes help shape the structure of the universe.

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‘Interstellar glaciers’: NASA’s SPHEREx maps vast galactic ice regions

NASA’s SPHEREx (Spectro-Photometer for the History of the Universe, Epoch of Reionization, and Ices Explorer) mission has mapped interstellar ice at an unprecedented scale. Covering regions in our Milky Way galaxy more than 600 light-years across, the ice was found inside giant molecular clouds—vast regions of gas and dust where dense clumps of matter collapse […]