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I remember the first time I pointed my 25cm telescope at the Ring Nebula in Lyra. Even through modest amateur optics, that surreal view of the ring hanging in space was breathtaking, the glowing embers of a dying star. Planetary nebulae like the Ring have long been favourites among amateur astronomers, not just for their visual beauty but because they represent the end of a star's life. However, new research is revealing equally fascinating structures at the opposite end of stellar evolution, the discs where planets are born, and they're not quite what we expected.

This ESA/Webb Picture of the Month shows eight stunning examples of gravitational lensing. Gravitational lensing, which was first predicted by Einstein, occurs because massive objects like galaxies and clusters of galaxies dramatically warp the fabric of spacetime. When a massive foreground object lines up just so with a background galaxy, the light from the background galaxy bends as it navigates the warped spacetime on its way to our telescopes.

An analysis of the afterglow of the big bang sheds light on how black holes distribute mass in the universe, and why some matter previously seemed to have been missing

An analysis of the afterglow of the big bang sheds light on how black holes distribute mass in the universe, and why some matter previously seemed to have been missing

Black have no hair, but the material surrounding them does, and the two can interact in unusual ways. As observations from the Event Horizon Telescope show, the magnetic fields surrounding a black hole can change extremely fast.

Some habitable worlds orbiting dead stars could be kept alive for aeons thanks to a quirk of Einstein’s theory of gravity

Some habitable worlds orbiting dead stars could be kept alive for aeons thanks to a quirk of Einstein’s theory of gravity

Can you escape your genetic inheritance, and do lifestyle changes actually make a difference? Daniel Cossins set out to understand what the evidence on Alzheimer’s really means for him

Can you escape your genetic inheritance, and do lifestyle changes actually make a difference? Daniel Cossins set out to understand what the evidence on Alzheimer’s really means for him

Interstellar visitor 3I/ATLAS has been constantly changing as it makes its way through our solar system. That’s to be expected, as, for the first time in potentially billions of years, it's getting close to the energy put out by a star. Scientists have been keeping a close watch on those changes, both to ensure there’s nothing unexplainable by our current understanding, but also to compare 3I/ATLAS to both previous interstellar visitors as well as comets in our own solar system. A recent paper from European researchers describes how the changes in a particular material ratio in 3I/ATLAS’ coma fit with our current understanding of cometary geology.

The experience of truly dark skies is one that no one should miss.

The post Get Thee to a Dark Sky Site! appeared first on Sky & Telescope.

Endurance, the wooden ship that Ernest Shackleton took to Antarctica in 1915, wasn't built to withstand frozen seas – and the famous explorer knew it

Endurance, the wooden ship that Ernest Shackleton took to Antarctica in 1915, wasn't built to withstand frozen seas – and the famous explorer knew it

“I would never do that, as a scientist,” Susan Monarez says of being asked to approve changes to vaccine recommendations without knowing the details

Satellite navigation is essential to everything from tracking your morning jog to landing air ambulances. But as reliance on satellite navigation grows, so do the risks associated with its interruption, natural or intentional. In its pursuit of strengthening European resilience in navigation, the European Space Agency (ESA) took part in Jammertest.

Tim Flach captures his fascination with the science of cats in stunning photographs from his new book Feline

The 2025 Nobel prize in physiology or medicine has gone to Mary Brunkow, Fred Ramsdell and Shimon Sakaguchi for their discoveries around how we keep our immune system under control

The 2025 Nobel prize in physiology or medicine has gone to Mary Brunkow, Fred Ramsdell and Shimon Sakaguchi for their discoveries around how we keep our immune system under control

Mathematicians have found a new way to predict how prime numbers behave

Mary E. Brunkow, Fred Ramsdell and Shimon Sakaguchi shared the Nobel prize for their work on peripheral immune tolerance, a process that is key to organ transplants and treatment of autoimmune diseases