Astrophysics

Dark Galaxy. The illustration was prepared using DALEE and is not a scientific image.

Galaxies without stars? Researchers home in on the universe's darkest halos

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Astrophysicists have long suspected that small, non-star-forming dark matter halos may exist, but no one knew the exact mass limit at which the transition occurs.
Artist's impression of the exoplanet Kepler-186f, which is the first known Earth-sized planet orbiting a star in the "habitable zone" – the range of distances from a star where liquid water might exist on the surface of an orbiting planet. Credit: NASA/Ames/SETI Institute/JPL–Caltech

Empty skies, big answers: What zero results teach us about life in the universe

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Even if life is not found on other planets, clever survey designs and careful statistics can still reveal how rare, or common, life really is in the universe.
Artist's impression of a large ocean-covered planet orbiting a red dwarf star A. Smith, N. Madhusudhan (University of Cambridge)

Chemical clues on distant planet present “strongest evidence yet” for life outside solar system

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The James Webb Space Telescope has detected possible chemical signs of life in the atmosphere of an exoplanet, but researchers warn it's still too early to tell.
Illustration illustrating a planet orbiting two brown dwarfs at 90 degrees. Illustration: ESO

A planet has been discovered orbiting a pair of stars at a perfect 90-degree angle.

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Principal Investigator: “The findings prove that the extreme conditions in which planets formed in perpendicular orbits are indeed possible in nature.”
The Abel Space Telescope captured this vivid image of the spiral galaxy Messier 77 — a galaxy in the constellation Cetus, about 45 million light-years away. The red and blue stripes in the image highlight regions of star formation along the spiral arms, while dark dust lanes extend across the star-filled center of the galaxy. Credit: NASA, ESA & A. van der Hoeven.

This galaxy was mistakenly identified as a nearby star cluster – then the Hubble telescope revealed its “arms”

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New photo of Messier 77 reveals glowing filaments reminiscent of octopus tentacles, clarifying its true identity as a spectacular spiral galaxy
The disk of hot plasma surrounding Sagittarius A* – the Milky Way’s central black hole – constantly flickers and bubbles, as shown in this artist’s illustration. Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, Ralph Crawford (STScI)

The black hole at the center of the Milky Way is not resting – it is constantly bubbling.

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Long-term James Webb observations reveal dynamic changes in the plasma disk surrounding Sagittarius A*
A vast spiral galaxy alongside the Milky Way for a scale comparison of the universe. Credit: Bagchi and Ray et al/Hubble Space Telescope

Monstrous jets from black hole in spiral galaxy may foretell Milky Way's terrifying future

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A giant spiral galaxy with powerful jets from a black hole has shocked scientists, because it shows that even galaxies like ours can release dangerous radiation at some point.
A fiery star and planet in space with a powerful solar flare in the background of twinkling stars.

Violent eruptions from Proxima Centauri could endanger life on nearby planets

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New research using the ALMA telescope reveals that frequent and extremely intense bursts of radiation from Proxima Centauri could destroy the atmospheres of nearby planets and make them uninhabitable.
A perfect cosmic circle captured by Webb shows a distant spiral galaxy twisted around a closer elliptical galaxy. This Einstein ring provides a glimpse into the warped nature of spacetime. Credit: ESA/Webb, NASA & CSA, G.

Webb captures perfect Einstein ring that reveals hidden galaxy

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A stunning new image from the James Webb Space Telescope reveals a cosmic illusion called an Einstein ring, where the light from a distant galaxy is distorted into a perfect circle by the gravity of a closer galaxy.
Spiral galaxies photographed by Webb rotating in the same direction relative to the Milky Way (in red) and in the opposite direction (in blue). Credit: Shamir, Lior, Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 2025 under CC BY 4.0

Does the mystery of galaxy rotation challenge the Big Bang assumptions?

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A new study has found that two-thirds of distant galaxies rotate clockwise, a surprising imbalance compared to the random distribution that would have been expected.
Radiation from active galactic nuclei (AGN), usually thought to be deadly, may actually help life thrive – by strengthening the protective ozone layer in oxygen-rich atmospheres, thus making planets more resilient. Credit: IRLab/NSF/AURA/J. daSilva/M. Zamani

Black holes may contribute to the flourishing of life on nearby planets

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New research reveals that radiation from active galactic cores can strengthen the protective ozone layer in oxygen-rich atmospheres and protect life from extinction.
This illustration shows a reconstruction of what the Firefly Galaxy looked like about 600 million years after the Big Bang without the stretching and distortion caused by gravitational lensing. It is based on images and data from the web. Credit: ASA, ESA, CSA, Ralf Crawford (STScI), Lamiya Mowla (Wellesley College), Guillaume Desprez (Saint Mary's University)

Webb Telescope Discovers Milky Way's Ancient Twin Twinkling from Cosmic Dawn

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The "Firefly" galaxy, discovered by the James Webb Space Telescope, existed just 600 million years after the Big Bang—with a mass similar to the young Milky Way. Gravitational lensing enabled a seamless observation
The composition of the universe. Illustration: depositphotos.com

Hidden change in dark energy could rewrite the laws of physics

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Dark energy may not be constant after all. DESI analysis of millions of galaxies shows signs that it may be evolving, suggesting a huge shift in cosmology
: First image: Researchers led by astronomers from the University of Michigan have discovered the smallest and faintest galaxy (encircled by a white ellipse) orbiting the Andromeda galaxy. Credit: CFHT/MegaCam/PAndAS (Principal Investigator: Alan McConaughey; Image Processing: Marcus Arias) Second image: Map of the Andromeda Galaxy (M31) and its satellite galaxies, with the newly discovered galaxy, Andromeda XXXV, clearly highlighted. Credit: JM Arias et al. Astrophys. J. Lett. (2025)

Mysterious Galaxy "Andromeda XXXV" Subverts the Rules of Galactic Evolution

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Astronomers from the University of Michigan have revealed the smallest and faintest galaxy yet discovered around the Andromeda Galaxy, and their discovery raises new questions about the formation and survival of dwarf galaxies.
This artist's illustration shows a planet (left) that came too close to a white dwarf (right) and was torn apart by tidal forces from the star. The white dwarf is at the center, and a nebula appears as blue gas in the background. The planet is part of a star system that includes another planet in the upper left corner and another in the lower right corner. The engulfed planet may have originally been a considerable distance from the white dwarf, but has drifted inward due to gravitational interactions with other planets in the system. Credit: CXC/SAO/M.Weiss

Planet-devouring star observed for the first time

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Astronomers may finally solve a decades-old mystery: A strange X-ray signal from a dying star at the end of its life may indicate that the white dwarf destroyed a nearby planet.
For a century, astronomers have devoted their energies to studying Barnard's Star in the hope of finding planets around it. First discovered by EE Barnard at Yerkes Laboratory in 1916, this star is the closest single star system to Earth. Now, astronomers have discovered four sub-Earth-mass planets orbiting this star. One of the planets represents the discovery of the lowest-mass planet ever detected using the angular velocity technique, marking a turning point in the search for small planets in close proximity to stars. Credit: International Gemini Observatory/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/P. Marenfeld

Four tiny planets revealed in neighboring solar system after a century of search

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The planets were discovered orbiting Barnard's Star, one of the closest stars to the Sun.
Image of the galaxy NGC 5084, with Chandra X-ray data overlaid on a visible-light image of the galaxy. Chandra data shown in purple. Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC, AS Borlaff, P. Marcum et al. Full optical image: M. Pugh, B. Diaz; Image Processing: NASA/USRA/L. Proudfit

NASA found a supermassive black hole spinning in the wrong direction

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Astronomers have discovered a puzzling cosmic anomaly – a supermassive black hole in the galaxy NGC 5084 that appears completely tilted relative to its galactic structure.
Molecular emission lines from mysterious icy bodies captured by ALMA. The background image is a composite color map of the AE, with 1.2-micron light shown in blue and 4.5-micron light in red, based on AE data from 2MASS and WISE. Credit: ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO), T. Shimonishi et al. (Niigata Univ.)

Alien ice or cosmic relic? Scientists wonder about chilling discovery in deep space

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Scientists have discovered two mysterious interstellar objects containing water-rich ice and organic molecules, but their characteristics do not match any known objects. Are these cosmic relics or a new environment for the formation of living molecules?
A black hole with an accretion disk and energy emissions in deep space.

The secret energy inside every black hole is more powerful than we thought

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Researchers have discovered that black holes can pump and release huge amounts of energy through magnetic fields and magnetized accretion disks, which could change our understanding of galaxy formation and the evolution of the universe.
Hidden in the southern sky, the constellation Vela hides a cosmic gem – the remnant of a spectacular supernova explosion that occurred 11,000 years ago. This mesmerizing image, captured in breathtaking detail by the Very Large Telescope, shows a swirl of pink and orange filaments, reminiscent of a celestial bird frozen in time. (Credit: ESO/VPHAS+ Team: CASU)

A supernova explosion that looks spectacular even after 11,000 years

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When massive stars reach the end of their lives, they explode as supernovae, shedding their outer layers. These explosions send shock waves through the surrounding gas, compressing and reshaping it, creating spectacular displays.
Hidden planet discovered: new hope for finding extraterrestrial life?

Hidden planet discovered: new hope for finding extraterrestrial life?

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HD 20794 d, a planet just 20 light-years away, is in the habitable zone of its star system. Could it support life?
A Jupiter-like planet. Illustration courtesy of the researchers

Discovery of a Jupiter-like exoplanet with an unusual elliptical orbit

Israeli astronomers locate GJ 2126 b, a new planet orbiting an M-dwarf star, utilizing advanced HARPS technology to understand formation and evolution processes
The image shows diffuse gas (yellow to purple) contained within the cosmic filament connecting two galaxies (yellow stars), and extending over three million light-years. Credit: Davide Tornotti/University of Milano-Bicocca

Astronomers recently found a three-million-light-year connection between galaxies

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A new breakthrough in cosmic mapping has revealed the structure of a giant filament, part of a vast cosmic web that connects galaxies.
The artist's concept shows stars near the center of our Milky Way galaxy. Each has a colored trail indicating its speed—the longer and redder the trail, the faster the star. NASA scientists recently discovered a candidate for an extremely fast star, depicted near the center of the image, accompanied by an orbiting planet. If confirmed, this pair would break the speed record for a known extrasolar planetary system. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/R. Hurt (Caltech-IPAC)

NASA detects star and planet flying at record speeds of at least 540 kilometers per second

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The discovery of an extrasolar planet system at an unimaginable speed poses new research challenges in studying galaxy dynamics and the structure of intergalactic space.
LIGO Gravitational Wave Observatory in the US, credit: caltech

LIGO gravitational wave detectors are about to undergo an upgrade

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Scientists have developed an innovative optical system designed to improve the sensitivity of the LIGO detector, the American gravitational wave detector that was a partner, along with the European Virgo, in the initial detection of gravitational waves and in many subsequent discoveries.
A rendering of the OSIRIS-Rex spacecraft leaving the surface of asteroid Bennu after collecting a sample. Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center/CI Lab/SVS

Billion-year-old secret revealed in dust from asteroid Bennu

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Researchers are uncovering secrets of our solar system by analyzing samples from the asteroid Bennu, some of the finest ever collected.
An artist's impression of the two newly discovered planets: an inner super-Earth, seen here transiting in front of its orange host star, and a giant icy planet on the edge of the system. Credit: Thibaut Roger – Université de Genève

Astronomers amazed by the unusual solar system WASP-132

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Two new planets discovered in the WASP-132 system are challenging the conventional understanding of planetary system formation. The discovery includes a nearby super-Earth alongside a hot Jupiter, alongside a distant ice giant, challenging the theory
This Hubble image captures the stunning remains of an exploded star in the distant galaxy LEDA 132905, located more than 400 million light-years away. Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, RJ Foley (UC Santa Cruz)

Hubble captures the dramatic end of a distant supernova

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The Hubble Space Telescope has documented the remnants of the supernova SN 2022abvt in the distant galaxy LEDA 132905, more than 400 million light-years from Earth.
Stars in the Milky Way's thin central disk (the brightest region in this image from the Gaia spacecraft) contain more planets than stars located above and below this plane.

Galactic chaos at cosmic noon hinders planet formation in the Milky Way

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Peak star formation period, period of galactic chaos
To mark the 100th anniversary of Edwin Hubble’s discovery of a Cepheid variable star, named V1, in the neighboring Andromeda galaxy, astronomers collaborated with the American Association of Variable Star Observers (AAVSO) to study the star. AAVSO observers followed V1 for six months, creating a graph—or light curve—that records the star’s periodic rise and fall in brightness. Based on this data, the Hubble Space Telescope was scheduled to observe the star during its weakest and brightest hours. Credit: NASA, ESA, Hubble Heritage Project (STScI, AURA), Robert Gendler.

The star that proved the universe is bigger than we imagined

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A century ago, Edwin Hubble's discovery of the variable star V1 in the Andromeda Galaxy revealed a vast, expanding universe, becoming a turning point in our understanding of the cosmos.
Hypernova shockwave eruptions: Hypernovae are even more violent astronomical phenomena than supernovae, with explosion energies that exceed those of supernovae by more than ten times. These powerful explosions are usually accompanied by powerful jets that create unique shock explosion structures at the poles of the star. The jets not only cause the explosion, but also create strong flow instabilities within the ejected material, which causes further mixing of the star's interior. Recent observational data suggest that the famous supernova 1987A may be associated with a jet explosion, rather than the spherical explosion predicted by previous one-dimensional models. Credit: ASIAA/ Ke-Jung Chen

Predicting stellar explosions: New simulations reveal the physics of supernova shockwave eruptions

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Quasar J0742+2704 (center) became a topic of interest for astronomers in 2020 after it was discovered to have a new jet emanating from the disk around its supermassive black hole. The discovery was made using the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA) radio observatory. Follow-up observations were subsequently made with other observatories, with the aim of determining the properties of the galaxy and understanding what might have powered the jet. **Credit:** NASA, ESA, Kristina Nyland (US Naval Research Laboratory); Image processing: Joseph DePascala (STScI).

Hubble's Spiral Surprise: Quasar Discovery That Disproves Theories

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The Hubble Space Telescope has revealed a quasar inhabiting a spiral galaxy – a surprising discovery that challenges existing understanding of the structure of quasars and the origin of their jets of matter.
A poster depicting all the compounds discovered in the OSIRIS-REx sample. Credit: NASA

Nitrogen-containing organic compounds that support life were discovered in abundance on the asteroid

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Galaxy NGC 1086, located 47 million light-years away, is one of the closest galaxies to have an active galactic nucleus. The image was taken by the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope.

New instrument at VLT shows sharpest ever image of supermassive black hole in action

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Galaxy NGC 1086, located 47 million light-years away, is one of the closest galaxies to have an active galactic nucleus. The image was taken by the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope.
A swirling galaxy with a GD-1 star stream and a dark matter halo. The illustration was created using DALEE and is not a scientific image.

Dark matter solves the mystery of the Milky Way's stellar streams

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New study suggests that a dense subhalo of self-interacting dark matter is responsible for the bulge and gap formations of the GD-1 stellar stream, challenging dark matter theories
The Herbig-Harrow object HH ​​32 in Camelopardalis: gas clouds and star photos.

Hubble's stunning peek into the Orion Nebula reveals a bustling nursery of young stars

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A Dyson ball designed to block the sun and use all its energy. Illustration: depositphotos.com

Could black holes be a source of energy for aliens? New research reveals fascinating possibilities

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Scientists propose a new way to search for advanced civilizations: detecting energy signatures of structures around black holes, which may be visible up to 17,000 light-years away
Schematic overview of a wide orbiting binary system within the Milky Way. As it moves through the galaxy, the ellipticity of its orbit changes due to the gravitational influence of the galaxy and encounters with nearby stars, leading to close encounters (small image). Credit: Jakob Stegmann et al 2024 ApJL 972 L19

The role of galactic gravity in black hole collisions: a groundbreaking study

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New research shows how the host galaxy's gravity affects distant pairs of stars, bringing the black holes into extreme and rare collisions accompanied by powerful gravitational waves
Bodies of water on other planets may be a source of life. Jupiter's moon Europa, where scientists believe an ocean exists beneath the ice, may be a suitable place for life to exist. Source: NASA.

Discovery: even in the ice worlds there is water in a liquid state, which is one of the main conditions for existence of life

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New research sheds light on icy oceanic worlds like Jupiter's moon Europa, focusing on a new thermodynamic concept called "cenotactics"
In this artist's illustration, light from a distant quasar passes through the halo-like halo of a galaxy's circumgalactic medium on its way to Earth, where it is measured by the Hubble Cosmic Source Spectrograph to determine the composition of the halo. Credit: NASA/ESA/A. Field

The carbon in our body apparently went out into the halo of the galaxy and returned on a "cosmic conveyor belt"

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A spiral galaxy with a bright core, new star arms, and surrounding cosmic structures.

Hubble photographed the explosion of a star 650 million light years away

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The Hubble Telescope records a Type Ia supernova explosion in the galaxy LEDA 22057, 650 million light-years away, with new insights into the evolution of white dwarfs
A model of accretion on a disc-shaped galaxy. Color represents the temperature of the gas, and the black lines the flow lines of the gas, when it flows from the hot galactic surrounding medium (about a million degrees) to the galaxy where the gas is relatively cold (about 10,000 degrees). The right panel shows three streamlines in 170D, which highlight the swirling of the gas during the inflow. The top image is a Hubble Space Telescope image of a relatively nearby disk galaxy. Its diameter is about 21 thousand light years, and its distance from us is about XNUMX million light years.

on galactic dynamics

What can be learned from the shape of galaxies about the complex connections between different materials in the universe
Supernova explosions reveal patterns in star formation across the universe. Illustration: depositphotos.com

Supernova explosions reveal patterns in star formation across the universe

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Scientists are cracking the secrets of star formation by following the explosive trails of dead stars. This method could prove that all stars, everywhere in the universe, are created in the same way
The Webb Space Telescope has provided evidence that contradicts existing theories by confirming the existence of long-lived protoplanetary disks in heavy-element-deficient environments, suggesting the need to change our understanding of planet formation in the early universe. Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Olivia C. Jones (UK ATC), Guido de Markey (ESTEC), Margaret Meixner (USRA)

The James Webb Space Telescope challenges theories about the formation of planets in the early universe

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New discoveries indicate that protoplanetary discs can survive longer in environments poor in heavy elements, contrary to previous assumptions
New findings in Omega Centauri indicate many stellar black holes instead of one medium-sized black hole, based on analysis of pulsar data. credit: University of Surrey

Has the mystery been solved? Hidden black hole cluster discovered in Omega Centauri

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Illustration of the Kepler-51 system and its three inner planets, characterized by extremely low density. New observations from NASA's James Webb Space Telescope indicate that at least one more planet exists in the system. Credit: NASA, ESA L. Hustak, J. Olmsted, D. Player F. Summers (STScI).

Another planet from the "cotton ball" family was discovered in the Kepler-51 system

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The black hole of our Milky Way as seen in polarized light. Astronomers have for the first time been able to measure polarity, a hallmark of magnetic fields, so close to the rim of Sagittarius A*. The lines added to the image indicate the direction of polarization, which is related to the magnetic field around the shadow of the black hole. Credit: EHT Collaboration

Strong magnetic fields surround the Milky Way's central black hole

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This image of the Sombrero galaxy, taken by Webb's Medium AA camera, is shown with compass arrows, a scale, and a color key. The image shows wavelengths of medium AA light translated into visible light colors. The color key shows the filters used when they collected the light. The color of each filter name is the color of the visible light used to represent the AA light passing through that filter. The north and east compass arrows show the direction of the image in the sky. Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI

The Webb Space Telescope photographs the Sombrero Galaxy in a new light

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The antenna galaxies are in the process of collisions. Credit: NASA

How cosmic collisions created the largest galaxies in the universe

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The study suggests that these galaxies were formed from large flows of cold gas and collisions between galaxies in the early universe, which led to the formation of stars at an extremely fast rate
WEAVE data are superimposed on an image from the Stephen Quintet's James Webb Space Telescope, with green contours showing data from the LOFAR radio telescope. The orange and blue colors follow the hydrogen-alpha luminosity measured by WEAVE LIFU, which shows where the intergalactic gas is ionizing. The hexagon marks WEAVE's observational coverage, 36 kilofarsecs wide (similar to the width of the Milky Way). Credit: University of Hertfordshire.

A galactic collision at a speed of 3.2 million km/h has been documented in great detail

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The dramatic event took place in the Stefan Quintet group, a galactic group that has been studied for nearly 150 years. The collision created a powerful shock wave, described as "like the supersonic boom of a fighter jet," one of the most impressive energetic processes