Astronomy

When two galaxies merge, the supermassive black holes at their centres should eventually find each other and begin a gravitational dance that lasts millions of years. Despite decades of predictions, astronomers are still hunting for definitive proof these binary systems exist. A new review examines the clues scattered across the universe, from wobbling jets spanning hundreds of thousands of light years to specific spectral signatures, and explores why finding these black hole pairs matters for understanding both the past and future of our own Galaxy.

Record-breaking ocean temperatures have caused widespread bleaching and death among warm-water corals, which could have far-reaching consequences

Record-breaking ocean temperatures have caused widespread bleaching and death among warm-water corals, which could have far-reaching consequences

The JWST has pushed the boundaries of exoplanet characterization. But one thing it hasn't done yet is to determine if rocky exoplanets close to our Solar System can retain their atmospheres. The authors of a new study propose a new "five-scale height challenge" that will help astronomers obtain more precise atmospheric information on rocky exoplanets using Webb.

Betelgeuse, the stunning red star in Orion's shoulder, has been hiding a secret companion for years but proving it has been somewhat challenging. When the elusive "Betelbuddy" (I love that name) reached its maximum separation from the supergiant star last December, astronomers had just one chance before it disappeared behind Betelgeuse for another two years. Using NASA's most powerful space telescopes, researchers finally captured the tiny companion lurking in the overwhelming glare of a star 700 times larger than our Sun. But the real surprise wasn't just finding it, it was discovering what type of object it actually is, and what that reveals about one of the night sky's most famous stars and its puzzling six year brightening cycle.

Between 1 and 7 October, ESA’s ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO) and Mars Express spacecraft turned their eyes towards interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS, as it passed close to Mars.

Science fiction is edging closer to reality. A team of scientists has created a detailed roadmap for transforming Mars from a frozen, lifeless desert into a world where plants could grow and humans might one day breathe without spacesuits. The plan isn't about launching missions tomorrow, it’s about whether we should even try, and what recent breakthroughs in biology, climate engineering, and space launch technology tell us about what's now possible. But there's a catch, terraforming a planet like Mars might erase its geological history forever, destroying any traces of ancient Martian life and eliminating our chance to understand how worlds evolve. The question has shifted from "could we turn Mars green?" to something far more profound "should we?”

What if you could photograph something completely invisible? To our rather limited eyes that’s what astronomers seem to do all the time with infra red and radio astronomy to name a few. But, astronomers can do this in a rather intriguing way with something that does seem to be truly invisible! A team of astronomers have captured the latest "image" of a dark matter object a million times more massive than our Sun, not by seeing it, but by watching how it warps the light from galaxies billions of light years beyond it. Using an Earth sized telescope network they have revealed one of the smallest dark matter clumps ever found, offering a glimpse into the hidden structure of our universe.

A decades-old technique from network science saw something in the papal conclave that AI missed

Despite early, and familiar, copyright growing pains, Sora may be the prelude to AI-generated on-demand TV and movies

Surgeons in China transplanted part of pig liver into a patient with an incurable cancerous tumor, and it functioned for more than a month

The strong nuclear force may abruptly loosen its grip on the fundamental particles that make up matter at a special “critical point” – researchers are now getting a clearer picture of when that point is reached

The strong nuclear force may abruptly loosen its grip on the fundamental particles that make up matter at a special “critical point” – researchers are now getting a clearer picture of when that point is reached

If you want to know where the best leaf peeping will be this year, climate science and weather can provide the answer

Phosphine has caused quite a stir in the astronomical world lately. That was largely due to its (still hotly debated) detection in the atmosphere of Venus. While the only known way for phosphine to be created on terrestrial worlds, like Venus, is through some sort of biological origin, it is relatively common among larger gas giants and even “brown dwarfs” - failed stars larger than Jupiter but not quite large enough to start their own hydrogen fusion process. Previously, we hadn’t yet seen phosphine in the atmosphere of brown dwarf in other solar systems, but a new paper from a diverse group of researchers, available in pre-print form on arXiv, used data collected by the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) to find it for the first time. They also realized the mechanism that made it so hard to spot in the first place - the object’s metallicity.

Applying a daily serum that contains extracts of a tropical plant improved hair density and strand thickness in just 56 days

Applying a daily serum that contains extracts of a tropical plant improved hair density and strand thickness in just 56 days

Week in images: 06-10 October 2025

Discover our week through the lens

By tracing when variations in the human genome first appeared, researchers have found that advances in cognitive abilities may have led to our vulnerability to mental illness