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Risks of solar storms may be underestimated, warn researchers

The effects of extreme space weather may be larger than previously thought, research in the journal Nature reveals. The paper, titled “Regression to the mean can explain saturation of geomagnetic storms,” is led by Dr. Nithin Sivadas of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center and co-authored by Dr. Maria Walach from Lancaster University.

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GRS 0917+75 is a giant radio galaxy, observations find

European astronomers have conducted optical and radio observations of an enigmatic radio source designated GRS 0917+75. As a result, they found that GRS 0917+75 is a giant radio galaxy and determined its properties. The new findings were published July 3 on the preprint server arXiv.

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Faintest planet ever imaged from Earth found after more than 10 years of hide-and-seek

A team of astronomers has discovered a third planet orbiting the star Beta Pictoris. The new planet, Beta Pictoris d, is 100 times fainter than Beta Pictoris b—the first planet discovered in the same system—and is among the lightest exoplanets ever imaged from the ground. After spotting the planet using the European Southern Observatory’s Very […]

A new stellar census strengthens the case for a 13.8-billion-year-old universe

Astronomers have used the ages of more than 155,000 stars in the Milky Way to independently estimate the age of the universe, and their findings may be good news for the standard cosmological model. The new research was reported in a paper submitted to the arXiv preprint server on July 1.

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Are we missing the universe’s ‘noosignatures?’

Astrobiology has long been split into two camps: a search for “biosignatures” and a search for “intelligence.” These look for very different things, but they also leave a huge gap in between. It took 3.5 billion years for us to go from the first microbe to a civilization that sent radio waves into the cosmos. […]

Astronomers uncover the earliest known signs of galaxy-building in action

Astronomers at Durham University have made a major advance in understanding how galaxies formed and evolved in the early universe. Using powerful new observations, the team discovered the most distant example ever found of a compact, star-forming structure at the heart of a galaxy, dating back more than 9 billion years.

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Photo: Hubble sees crimson cloud and stars

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.

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With an eye toward exploration, researchers map moon’s regolith thickness

New research by lunar scientists from Brown University provides critical new insights into the thickness of the moon’s regolith, the layer of loose dust and rock that drapes the entire lunar surface.

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Roman telescope will spot distant black holes that shred stars

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, […]

VLA sky survey sets new standard for high-resolution, wide-area radio astronomy

The U.S. National Science Foundation National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NSF NRAO) has completed observations for the Very Large Array Sky Survey (VLASS), the most detailed radio survey of the sky ever conducted, providing an unprecedented view of the dynamic radio universe.

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The spin of Pluto’s moon, Charon, may be slowing down

Evidence of the slowing of Charon’s spin period (despinning) is recorded in tectonic features on the surface of Pluto’s icy moon, according to a modeling study published in Nature Communications. The findings offer insights into the early thermal evolution of Charon and other icy satellites in the outer solar system.

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US-Russian crew blast off for 8-month stint on the International Space Station

A U.S.-Russian space crew blasted off successfully Tuesday on a mission to the International Space Station.

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Magnetic fingerprint of a cosmic explosion detected for the first time

Astronomers have made a series of landmark observations of one of the universe’s most violent events. Using the U.S. National Science Foundation Very Large Array (NSF VLA) radio telescope, which is operated by the U.S. National Science Foundation National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NSF NRAO), the team detected polarized light from a gamma-ray burst (GRB) afterglow […]

How supermassive black holes feed themselves

Astronomers are closer to solving the mystery of how supermassive black holes feed themselves thanks to new images from the James Webb Space Telescope, or JWST. The images provide the clearest view ever seen of gaseous filaments connecting a galaxy’s hot atmosphere to the rotating disk of gas that feeds its central supermassive black hole. […]

Data-driven tool can find mineral biosignatures on other worlds

A technique for judging whether a common mineral formed through biological activity could aid the search for ancient life on Earth and Mars. Apatite is a ubiquitous phosphate mineral found in terrestrial and extraterrestrial environments. It is a major component of teeth and bones, but it also occurs in igneous rocks and sedimentary phosphorites.

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