https://phys.org/space-news/astronomy/ en-us The latest science news on astronomy, space, and astrophysics. A mission to raise the orbit of NASA's Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory is poised for launch no earlier than Tuesday, June 30, at 6:23 a.m. EDT (10:23 p.m. UTC+12), from Kwajalein Atoll, part of the Republic of the Marshall Islands in the South Pacific Ocean. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-pegasus-deploy-link-monthslong-orbit.html Astronomy Fri, 26 Jun 2026 16:00:03 EDT news701700302 The subject of today's NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image is an ancient inhabitant of our galaxy. This sparkling scene features a globular cluster: a collection of tens of thousands to millions of stars, all tightly bound together under the influence of gravity. There are more than 150 globular clusters in our galaxy, though there may be others still undiscovered, hidden from view by dust or densely packed fields of stars. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-hubble-spies-ancient-chandelier-cluster.html Astronomy Fri, 26 Jun 2026 15:40:01 EDT news701698470 In May 2024, auroras were observed at unusually low latitudes across the globe, lighting up skies that rarely see such displays. Inside Earth's magnetosphere, the region of space surrounding our planet and dominated by its intrinsic magnetic field, something significant was finally observed. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-superstorm-drew-current-ions-earth.html Astronomy Fri, 26 Jun 2026 14:00:01 EDT news701681641 An international team of astronomers has used the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) and a natural phenomenon known as gravitational lensing to achieve a definitive characterization of LAP1-B, an ultra-faint galaxy from 13 billion years ago. Expanding upon initial detections, this new study revealed a record-breaking low oxygen abundance—merely 1/240th that of the sun. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-chemically-primitive-galaxy-billion-years.html Astronomy Fri, 26 Jun 2026 12:40:05 EDT news697991532 Astronomers from Germany and Turkey have analyzed available data from various space telescopes to investigate an ultraluminous X-ray source designated X-4, which is located in the nearby galaxy NGC 4631. Results of the new study, published June 22 on the preprint server arXiv, yield important insights into the spectral and timing variability of this source. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-ultraluminous-ray-source-whale-galaxy.html Astronomy Fri, 26 Jun 2026 12:20:04 EDT news701690531 Lurking at the heart of the Milky Way, Sagittarius A* (Sgr A*) is a supermassive black hole four million times the mass of the sun, surrounded by a puzzling collection of young, massive stars whose orbits have long defied explanation. Astronomers have proposed various competing theories to account for these stars, but none has been able to explain all of them together. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-story-milky-mysterious-stars.html Astronomy Fri, 26 Jun 2026 09:20:01 EDT news701609326 The Gaia mission has allowed researchers to understand the motions of stars like never before, even revealing possible interactions between our solar system and nearby stars. Planetary Science Institute Senior Scientist Nathan Kaib and collaborator Sean Raymond (Universite de Bordeaux) have found that a recent stellar passage likely triggered a huge increase in comet formation as the star's gravity altered Oort cloud objects' orbits, sending them cascading into the inner solar system. We may even still be feeling the effects of this passage today. This work is being presented at the American Astronomical Society Division on Dynamical Astronomy. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-ancient-stellar-flyby-period-comets.html Astronomy Thu, 25 Jun 2026 19:40:04 EDT news701625061 Nearly every massive galaxy observed hosts a supermassive black hole at its center. NASA's James Webb Space Telescope has discovered that some of these supermassive black holes may even be too big for the galaxy they're found in, challenging astronomers' understanding of these objects and prompting questions about their growth in the early universe. Astronomers are still investigating many key questions about these mysterious and powerful objects, and studying them can help researchers understand how galaxies form and grow. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-supermassive-black-holes-mysterious.html Astronomy Thu, 25 Jun 2026 17:00:02 EDT news701610902 Black holes are some of the most mysterious objects in the universe, but they aren't always silent. When two black holes are close enough to each other, they spiral toward one another, eventually crashing in an enormous explosion and forming a single, larger black hole. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-colliding-black-holes-reveals-signature.html Astronomy Thu, 25 Jun 2026 15:00:10 EDT news701606881 Earlier this year, the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) completed observations that mapped 47 million galaxies across 11 billion light-years, allowing astronomers to better evaluate the large-scale structure of the visible universe. After studying these data, astronomers Francesco Sylos Labini and Marco Galoppo say the universe may not look the same in all directions. Their results, published in Nature, contradict a fundamental assumption in modern cosmology. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-universe-large-scales-desi.html Astronomy Thu, 25 Jun 2026 12:50:01 EDT news701609313 This striking pair of galaxies located 80 million light-years from Earth lies in the constellation Leo against a backdrop of distant galaxies. The barred spiral galaxy NGC 3504 is seen on the right, and the spiral galaxy NGC 3512 is on the left. Although the two galaxies are thought to be physically close to one another, no clear evidence of ongoing gravitational interaction has been found. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-image-galaxy-pair-ngc.html Astronomy Thu, 25 Jun 2026 08:00:08 EDT news701590981 Scientists have detected the "fingerprints" of a black hole's event horizon—the boundary from which nothing can escape—for the first time, according to research published Wednesday. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-fingerprints-black-hole-event-horizon.html Astronomy Wed, 24 Jun 2026 21:20:01 EDT news701536415 An international collaboration has discovered two of the lowest-density giant planets ever detected: rare "super-puff" planets with densities lower than candy floss. The study—led by the University of Oxford, in collaboration with Université Côte d'Azur/Observatoire de la Côte d'Azur and the University of Birmingham—has been published in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-super-puff-planets-lighter-candy.html Astronomy Wed, 24 Jun 2026 21:10:02 EDT news701508781 A new look at the heart of our Milky Way galaxy by Euclid, an ESA (European Space Agency) mission with NASA contributions, overlaps with a region scientists will observe with NASA's Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, launching later this summer. This sneak peek gives astronomers a major jumpstart on a core Roman survey, helping scientists learn more than they could from either telescope alone. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-euclid-mission-view-milky-heart.html Astronomy Wed, 24 Jun 2026 18:50:04 EDT news701540581 A University of Iowa-led physics team has detailed the extreme expansion of a magnetic cloud that originated from a huge, gaseous explosion on the sun. In a new study, the researchers describe the inflated magnetic cloud as recorded by spacecraft in separate, fortuitous locations as the cloud approached Earth. During that interval—spanning some 13 million miles (21 million kilometers)—the cloud expanded by a fifth of its original size during its approach to Earth, as plasma inside the super-expanded bubble heated up. The researchers termed the striking increase in size a "super expansion." https://phys.org/news/2026-06-solar-blast-magnetic-cloud-grew.html Astronomy Wed, 24 Jun 2026 17:50:02 EDT news701537521 In this photo from June 21, 2026, NASA's Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope arrives at the agency's Kennedy Space Center in Florida aboard NASA's Pegasus barge. After offloading and transportation to the spaceport's Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility, Roman will undergo processing ahead of launch, targeted no earlier than Sunday, Aug. 30, 2026. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-image-roman-telescope-kennedy-space.html Astronomy Wed, 24 Jun 2026 17:00:01 EDT news701536021 If, in space, no one can hear you scream, it seems that you can actually hear the sound of a crash when two black holes collide. Using the loudest gravitational wave ever heard, two Australian scientists and colleagues have been the first to witness the previously elusive "event horizon" at the actual moment of collision, right before all light and sound are swallowed by the newly formed black hole for eternity. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-binary-black-hole-probes-event.html Astronomy Wed, 24 Jun 2026 13:20:09 EDT news701519101 For just one day, our dark universe detective, Euclid, turned its gaze toward the light: the extremely bright inner region of our Milky Way galaxy, known as the galactic bulge. This special request came from astronomers who were after what Euclid does best: capturing huge areas of the sky in crisp detail. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-euclid-captures-million-stars-sharpest.html Astronomy Wed, 24 Jun 2026 12:40:01 EDT news701518093 Massive stars much bigger than our sun always come in pairs or groups, not alone. But astronomers don't fully understand how these groupings form. In a new study, astronomers using ALMA have serendipitously discovered a young system containing nine baby stars forming together, and they have detailed a rare glimpse of the formation of such a stellar family in its earliest assembly stage in a paper submitted to the arXiv preprint server on June 2. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-alma-member-stellar-family-formation.html Astronomy Wed, 24 Jun 2026 04:40:01 EDT news701342356 Astronomers using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope have found something they never expected—ultraviolet light from a galaxy that existed just 1.4 billion years after the Big Bang. That galaxy contains tightly clustered young stars that produce ionizing light capable of transforming the opaque, neutral gas within and immediately around the galaxy, clearing our view. This suggests that similar galaxies in the early universe were responsible for clearing the neutral fog of hydrogen gas that once filled the cosmos. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-hubble-early-galaxy-neighborhood-billion.html Astronomy Tue, 23 Jun 2026 17:20:06 EDT news701446185 Located 12 million light-years away and undergoing rapid star formation, edge-on spiral galaxy Messier 82 (M82) is a scientifically unique sight to behold, and now NASA's James Webb Space Telescope has revealed previously unseen details. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-webb-millions-stars-cigar-galaxy.html Astronomy Tue, 23 Jun 2026 16:20:01 EDT news701439373 Dark matter is often portrayed as a cosmic loner, interacting with itself and the rest of the universe only through gravity. But what if dark matter particles also exert a hidden force on one another? https://phys.org/news/2026-06-hidden-dark-cosmic-growth.html Astronomy Tue, 23 Jun 2026 09:20:02 EDT news701423702 Astronomers have reported the discovery of an unusual X-ray transient detected by the Einstein Probe that does not fit any known class of cosmic explosions. The paper presenting its multiwavelength analysis was published in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society on June 13. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-einstein-probe-mysterious-ray-transient.html Astronomy Tue, 23 Jun 2026 04:40:02 EDT news701342332 Research led by the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai, along with Professor Subir Sarkar from the University of Oxford, questions the widely accepted argument that the expansion rate of the universe is accelerating and that this is driven by "dark energy" arising from the quantum vacuum. Their letter has been published in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-pantheon-analysis-supernovae-universe.html Astronomy Mon, 22 Jun 2026 17:50:03 EDT news701367841 There are multiple ways to form black holes. The one most commonly taught in high school physics classes is that they are created from the collapse of a dying star. But there is another class of black holes, known as primordial black holes (PBHs), that could have been created immediately after the Big Bang by matter collapsing in on itself. Or that's the theory, at least. Though long theorized, we've never actually seen one of them, though scientists have suggested that they might account for the missing mass of the universe, which we otherwise describe as "dark matter." https://phys.org/news/2026-06-asteroid-mass-black-holes-cosmic.html Astronomy Mon, 22 Jun 2026 16:40:07 EDT news701353200 Stars form when vast clouds of cold gas in space collapse under their own gravity. But not all gas collapses, and not all clouds form stars equally efficiently. A longstanding puzzle in astrophysics is what controls this process—and a leading suspect has been the role of magnetic fields, which thread through interstellar gas like an invisible scaffolding. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-astronomers-magnetic-skeleton-funneling-gas.html Astronomy Mon, 22 Jun 2026 16:20:09 EDT news701357221 Astronomers have used the James Webb Space Telescope to catch an extraordinary glimpse of a massive galaxy taking shape in the early universe. They identified a compact group of at least six galaxies that are likely to merge into a single enormous system. At the heart of this cosmic construction site lies a growing supermassive black hole. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-webb-birth-giant-galaxy-supermassive.html Astronomy Mon, 22 Jun 2026 14:00:03 EDT news701353072 Just a few hundred million years after the Big Bang, the universe was a dark and simple place. There were no galaxies like the Milky Way, no planets, and no heavy elements such as carbon or oxygen. Instead, vast clouds of primordial hydrogen and helium drifted through space, slowly falling into invisible cocoons of dark matter known as "minihalos." Within these halos, the very first stars—called Population III stars—were born. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-primordial-halo-simulations-reveal-cosmic.html Astronomy Mon, 22 Jun 2026 12:20:06 EDT news701347681 Astronomers have discovered a "remarkable" bow-and-arrow-shaped radio galaxy with an enormous arc-like structure extending nearly 1.8 million light-years across. The newly identified system, detailed in a new paper published today in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society: Letters, has a "highly unusual" and asymmetric structure unlike those seen in standard radio galaxies. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-arrow-radio-galaxy-citizen-scientist.html Astronomy Mon, 22 Jun 2026 10:20:07 EDT news701341441 Using the Multi Unit Spectroscopic Explorer (MUSE) and the Manchester Echelle Spectrograph (MES), astronomers from Turkey and Mexico have investigated a planetary nebula discovered two centuries ago, known as NGC 6563. Results of the observations, published June 15 in a special issue of Galaxies journal, yield important insights into the morphology and kinematics of this nebula. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-planetary-nebula-ear-lobes-rewrite.html Astronomy Sun, 21 Jun 2026 13:20:01 EDT news701085925