The James Webb Space Telescope has directly observed the key chemical of carbon dioxide in planets outside of our solar system for the first time, scientists announced Monday ..read more

Two different teams of astronomers have detected oxygen in the most distant known galaxy, JADES-GS-z14-0. The discovery, reported in two separate studies, was made possible thanks to the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), in which the European Southern Observatory (ESO) is a partner. This record-breaking detection is making astronomers rethink how quickly galaxies formed in the early universe ..read more

A recent study has shed new light on the dynamic evolution of solar prominences. By integrating high-resolution observational data from the one-meter New Vacuum Solar Telescope (NVST) with spectral observations from NASA's Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph (IRIS) satellite, researchers identified distinct dynamic features in different regions of solar prominences, providing new insights into the origin of counterstreaming flows within these structures ..read more

At the center of most large galaxies, including our own Milky Way, sits a supermassive black hole. Interstellar gas periodically falls into the orbit of these bottomless pits, switching the black hole into active galactic nucleus (AGN)-mode, blasting high-energy radiation across the galaxy ..read more

The James Webb Space Telescope has captured its first direct images of carbon dioxide in a planet outside the solar system in HR 8799, a multiplanet system 130 light-years away that has long been a key target for planet formation studies ..read more

Gravitational lensing often evokes images of a cosmic funhouse mirror: duplicated galaxies, dramatic arcs and distorted shapes. But the web-like, large-scale structure throughout the universe also bends light in a weaker, less obvious way. This phenomenon, known as cosmic shear, can provide clues about the role of dark energy in shaping the universe ..read more

Despite having recently officially ended its science operations in January, Gaia, one of the most prolific star explorers ever, is still providing new scientific insights. A recent paper submitted to The Astrophysical Journal and currently available on the arXiv preprint server took another look at some Gaia data to try to find a unique type of astronomical entity—white dwarf stars that are paired up in a binary with a main sequence one ..read more

A trio of astronomers with the University of Tokyo and Niigata University has discovered a possible new class of interstellar object. In their study, published in The Astrophysical Journal, Takashi Onaka, Itsuki Sakon and Takashi Shimonishi conducted tests surrounding what they describe as two "peculiar embedded icy objects" in interstellar space ..read more

Astronomers have discovered strong evidence for the closest supermassive black hole outside of the Milky Way galaxy. This giant black hole is located in the Large Magellanic Cloud, one of the nearest galactic neighbors to our own ..read more

A fresh look at past data reveals that exoplanets with masses similar to Jupiter formed much sooner than previously thought, according to new research. The Ohio State University study's results provide new information about the timing of accretion—the process of accumulating a large amount of gas as well as solid particles that are rich in carbon and oxygen to make large planets, like Jupiter ..read more