Once you can accept the Universe as matter expanding into nothing that is something, wearing stripes with plaid comes easy.

— Albert Einstein

Astronomy

Earth from Space: Gibson Desert, Australia

ESO Top News - Fri, 09/12/2025 - 4:00am
Image: Part of the Gibson Desert in Western Australia is featured in this image, captured by the Φsat-2 mission in June 2025.
Categories: Astronomy

SpaceX launches powerful satellite to orbit for Indonesian telecom company

Space.com - Thu, 09/11/2025 - 10:32pm
It was the 114th Falcon 9 mission of 2025 already.
Categories: Astronomy

Astronomers finally find elusive, dust-shrouded supermassive black holes at ‘Cosmic Dawn’

Space.com - Thu, 09/11/2025 - 6:00pm
"This shows how effective the approach of 'Discover with Subaru Telescope, explore with James Webb' can be."
Categories: Astronomy

108 million degrees! Solar flares are far hotter than thought, study suggests

Space.com - Thu, 09/11/2025 - 4:00pm
The new finding may solve an "astrophysics mystery that has stood for nearly half a century."
Categories: Astronomy

The Messy Habits Of Small Black Holes

Universe Today - Thu, 09/11/2025 - 3:50pm

Stellar mass black holes have only a few solar masses, and are much different from their gigantic counterparts, supermassive black holes. When these modestly-massive black holes are actively accreting matter, new research shows that the process is anything but orderly. Instead, it's characterized by different velocities, different ionization zones, and other complexities.

Categories: Astronomy

The Exoplanet TRAPPIST-1 e Takes Its Turn In The JWST's Spotlight

Universe Today - Thu, 09/11/2025 - 3:50pm

The JWST has begun examining the atmosphere of the habitable zone planet TRAPPIST-1 e. It's not finished yet, but the first observations indicate that the the planet hasn't retained its primary, or original, atmosphere. The TRAPPIST-1 star exhibits powerful flaring that likely stripped it away.

Categories: Astronomy

Is A Young Exoplanet Warping The Disk Around Fomalhaut?

Universe Today - Thu, 09/11/2025 - 3:50pm

Fomalhaut is one of the brightest stars in the night sky and has been observed in great detail for decades. Some research suggests it hosts exoplanets, while other research counters that. The latest observations of the star's disk with ALMA favour the existence of a planet.

Categories: Astronomy

Exoplanet In A Ring Gap Shows How Protoplanets Can Shape Their Environment

Universe Today - Thu, 09/11/2025 - 3:50pm

Circumstellar discs are believed to be key components in planetary formation. However, we have very little actual evidence of planets growing in the “rings” that surround young stars. So planet formation theorists were ecstatic to learn that two new papers in Astrophysical Journal Letters describe a planet that is actively forming in the gap it most likely created in the ring system of a young, Sun-like star.

Categories: Astronomy

Life on Earth Probably Got Some Help From Space

Universe Today - Thu, 09/11/2025 - 3:50pm

After the formation of the Solar System, it took a maximum of three million years for primordial Earth's chemical composition to settle. At the time, there was hardly any water, carbon compounds, or other ingredients necessary for life to emerge. Only a planetary collision that came later would have brought water to Earth, according to a new study by researchers from the Institute of Geological Sciences at the University of Bern.

Categories: Astronomy

Researchers at SwRI Produced a Mission Concept for Exploring Interstellar Objects Like 3I/ATLAS

Universe Today - Thu, 09/11/2025 - 3:50pm

A new development study from the Southwestern Research Institute outlines a possible mission that could rendezvous with and explore the interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS.

Categories: Astronomy

A Glittering Stellar Nursery Shines In New JWST Image

Universe Today - Thu, 09/11/2025 - 3:50pm

This sparkling scene of star birth was captured by the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope. What appears to be a craggy, starlit mountaintop kissed by wispy clouds is actually a cosmic dust-scape being eaten away by the blistering winds and radiation of nearby, massive, infant stars.

Categories: Astronomy

Shining Pismis 24

NASA Image of the Day - Thu, 09/11/2025 - 2:01pm
NASA's James Webb Space Telescope captured newborn stars forming in clouds of dust and gas (colored golden and orange in this image) in a star-forming region called Pismis 24.
Categories: Astronomy, NASA

James Webb Space Telescope studies a 'failed star' named 'The Accident' to solve an old mystery of Jupiter and Saturn

Space.com - Thu, 09/11/2025 - 2:00pm
"Sometimes it's the extreme objects that help us understand what's happening in the average ones."
Categories: Astronomy

A weird cloud forms on Mars each year and now we know why

New Scientist Space - Cosmology - Thu, 09/11/2025 - 1:00pm
Astronomers have struggled to explain why a long and thin cloud forms above Mars’s Arsia Mons volcano each year, until now
Categories: Astronomy

A weird cloud forms on Mars each year and now we know why

New Scientist Space - Space Headlines - Thu, 09/11/2025 - 1:00pm
Astronomers have struggled to explain why a long and thin cloud forms above Mars’s Arsia Mons volcano each year, until now
Categories: Astronomy

Sun dogs, rainbows and glories are celestial wonders – and they may appear in alien skies too

Space.com - Thu, 09/11/2025 - 1:00pm
These celestial wonders can tell us a lot about the state of the atmosphere at home on Earth as well as on other planets.
Categories: Astronomy

Early Neanderthals hunted ibex on steep mountain slopes

New Scientist Space - Cosmology - Thu, 09/11/2025 - 12:00pm
Ancient remains from a cave in Serbia show that Neanderthals were hunting mountain goats 300,000 years ago, adding to evidence of their ability to adapt to different environments
Categories: Astronomy

Early Neanderthals hunted ibex on steep mountain slopes

New Scientist Space - Space Headlines - Thu, 09/11/2025 - 12:00pm
Ancient remains from a cave in Serbia show that Neanderthals were hunting mountain goats 300,000 years ago, adding to evidence of their ability to adapt to different environments
Categories: Astronomy

Infrared instruments could spot exotic ice on other worlds

Space.com - Thu, 09/11/2025 - 12:00pm
Phases of ice that exist naturally only on frozen moons could be detected using infrared spectroscopy, according to new laboratory experiments.
Categories: Astronomy

Best Evidence Yet for Past Life on Mars?

Sky & Telescope Magazine - Thu, 09/11/2025 - 11:47am

The Perseverance has found compounds associated with life on Earth. But whether they indicate life on Mars awaits sample return.

The post Best Evidence Yet for Past Life on Mars? appeared first on Sky & Telescope.

Categories: Astronomy