https://phys.org/space-news/astronomy/ en-us The latest science news on astronomy, space, and astrophysics. Researchers at The University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH), a part of The University of Alabama System, have identified a promising new method for measuring the mass of galaxies orbiting the Milky Way by using pulsars, some of the universe's most precise natural clocks, to detect tiny gravitational effects across our galaxy. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-pulsars-ultra-precise-gravitational-probes.html Astronomy Fri, 22 May 2026 12:40:04 EDT news698666582 Astronomers from Italy and Brazil have investigated a nearby red dwarf star known as Ross 318 and have discovered an exoplanet orbiting this star, which is at least six times more massive than Earth. The discovery is reported in a research paper published May 11 on the arXiv preprint server. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-astronomers-super-earth-orbiting-nearby.html Astronomy Fri, 22 May 2026 10:20:01 EDT news698641934 Sand clouds form every morning but clear up by nightfall on WASP-94A b, a well-studied gas giant in a constellation located nearly 700 light years away from Earth. Using data from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), research published in the journal Science is among the first to detect cloud cycles on a Hot Jupiter exoplanet. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-astronomers-de-fog-exoplanet-atmospheres.html Astronomy Thu, 21 May 2026 14:00:09 EDT news698571001 A planet that is about the size of Saturn, but with a temperature more like Earth's, has an atmosphere rich in methane, according to a new study using NASA's James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). https://phys.org/news/2026-05-saturn-sized-exoplanet-earth-temperature.html Astronomy Thu, 21 May 2026 11:20:01 EDT news698577061 Astronomers have identified a possible new member of one of astronomy's strangest classes of objects: Odd radio circles (ORCs), enormous ring-like structures visible only at radio wavelengths. The newly discovered source, J1248+4826, appears to be the most compact ORC candidate identified so far, with a ring only about 30,000 parsecs across. The paper was posted to the arXiv preprint server on May 6. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-astronomers-tiniest-odd-radio-circle.html Astronomy Thu, 21 May 2026 07:20:04 EDT news698506438 LSU researchers helped uncover what may be the first clear detection of gamma rays from a superluminous supernova, using data from NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope—a breakthrough that offers new insight into the powerful magnetars believed to drive some of the universe's brightest stellar explosions. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-nasa-fermi-glimpses-power-source.html Astronomy Wed, 20 May 2026 13:00:07 EDT news698496602 On a special night, if you are lucky, you might catch a faint red glow quietly lighting up Japan's sky, stretching low along the horizon and easy to miss if you are not looking carefully. Subtle and diffuse, it probably appears as a soft crimson haze. But behind this glowing beauty are countless charged particles traveling from the sun toward Earth's magnetic field, which then collide with oxygen atoms high above our planet. At these great heights, where the air is extremely thin, the excited oxygen atoms then release their energy as dim red light, creating the auroras we see from the ground. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-space-storms-japan-sky-red.html Astronomy Wed, 20 May 2026 11:40:07 EDT news698494681 The Haystack 37m Telescope has been a landmark in radio astronomy and radar studies of the solar system since its first light in 1964. Over the following four decades, it supported NASA's Apollo landings on the moon, made planetary radar maps of the surface of Venus, contributed to experimental tests of Einstein's general relativity, supported the development of VLBI, and conducted foundational studies of quasars and star-forming regions. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-years-legendary-telescope-black-holes.html Astronomy Wed, 20 May 2026 10:00:01 EDT news698489714 A new European-led telescope could map the dusty, hidden half of the universe, all without using fossil fuels. If you have ever seen the Milky Way in the night sky, you probably noticed that it looks cloudy. That is because towards the center of our galaxy, and of most galaxies, there are vast amounts of dust that make it hard to see what is going on. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-atlast-telescope-reveal-universe.html Astronomy Tue, 19 May 2026 13:40:03 EDT news698411764 Using the MeerKAT radio telescope, an international team of astronomers has discovered 15 new millisecond pulsars in 47 Tucanae—one of the closest and best studied globular clusters. The finding is reported in the latest issue of Astronomy & Astrophysics. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-meerkat-millisecond-pulsars-globular-cluster.html Astronomy Tue, 19 May 2026 09:40:04 EDT news698381494 Cosmologists have long struggled to determine whether the universe's accelerating expansion is being driven by a simple cosmological constant, or whether dark energy's influence is evolving over time. In a new analysis published in Physical Review D, Samsuzzaman Afroz and Suvodip Mukherjee at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai, have identified a subtle impact on the inference of the nature of dark energy, due to a tiny mismatch between a fundamental cosmological distance relation and two key datasets used to measure the properties of dark energy. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-evolving-dark-energy.html Astronomy Tue, 19 May 2026 07:30:01 EDT news698316441 A new study led by researchers at the Institute of Cosmos Sciences of the University of Barcelona (ICCUB) and the Institute of Space Studies of Catalonia (IEEC) reveals how the disks of galaxies like the Milky Way are affected by ancient galactic collisions. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-galactic-collision-reset-milky-disk.html Astronomy Mon, 18 May 2026 14:20:03 EDT news698322680 Astronomers may have found an explanation for one of the biggest mysteries revealed by the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST): why so many galaxies in the early universe appear unexpectedly bright in ultraviolet light. The new study, posted to the arXiv preprint server on May 11, suggests that galaxies more than 13 billion years ago were filled with an unusual kind of dust produced directly by supernova explosions, which could help explain why galaxies appeared so bright. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-supernova-jwst-biggest-puzzles.html Astronomy Mon, 18 May 2026 09:40:02 EDT news698315005 Astronomers have tracked a dramatic "changing-look" active galactic nucleus (AGN) whose central supermassive black hole appeared to switch off and then rapidly reignite. The galaxy, HE 1237−2252, dimmed in X-rays by a factor of 17 within just 18 months before recovering again. The paper outlining its analysis was uploaded to the arXiv preprint server on May 8. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-erosita-seyfert-galaxy.html Astronomy Sun, 17 May 2026 16:00:01 EDT news698064510 Our solar system is currently passing through the Local Interstellar Cloud, a region of highly diluted gas and dust between the stars. On its path, Earth continuously accumulates iron-60, a rare radioactive isotope of iron produced in stellar explosions. This has now been confirmed by an international research team led by the Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR) through the analysis of Antarctic ice tens of thousands of years old. From the steady but time-varying influx, the researchers conclude that the radioactive isotope has been stored within the cloud since a long-past stellar explosion. The results have been published in the journal Physical Review Letters. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-stardust-antarctic-ice-cores-earth.html Astronomy Sun, 17 May 2026 15:20:01 EDT news697946932 Despite being so elusive, neutrinos are produced in abundance in some of the most violent events in the universe. One of their strangest properties is that they can spontaneously switch between three types, or "flavors": a phenomenon known as neutrino oscillation that remains poorly understood in extreme astrophysical environments. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-neutrino-flavor-flips-key-triggering.html Astronomy Sun, 17 May 2026 08:40:03 EDT news697886203 An international team of astronomers has utilized the Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF) and the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) to investigate a binary system designated ZTF J0007+4804. As a result, they have found that ZTF J0007+4804 is the first hot subdwarf-white dwarf system discovered that produces dwarf nova outbursts. The finding is reported in a paper published May 4 on the arXiv preprint server. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-outbursting-hot-subdwarf-binary.html Astronomy Sat, 16 May 2026 14:50:01 EDT news697991015 When NASA scientists first observed a particular radio burst from the sun in August 2025, there was nothing unusual about it. But then the radio burst kept going. Typically, solar radio bursts like these last a few hours to days. But this one was different. By the time it was over, the radio burst had lasted 19 days—far exceeding scientists' expectations and the previous record, which lasted just five days. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-nasa-missions-track-radio-sun.html Astronomy Fri, 15 May 2026 08:50:27 EDT news698053801 We may be more in the dark about dark matter than previously thought, according to a new analysis of distant galaxy clusters. Yale astrophysicist Priyamvada Natarajan, a leading theorist on the nature of black holes and dark matter, says new observational data conflicts with certain assumptions about cold dark matter (CDM)—unseen, slow-moving particles that are inferred by their effect on gravity—and may prompt a fundamental rethinking of dark matter by scientists. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-qa-dark.html Astronomy Thu, 14 May 2026 16:55:12 EDT news697996441 An international team of researchers has developed new stellar and supernova models to explain the mysterious elemental abundance patterns left by billions of supernova explosions around the Perseus constellation, which have been difficult to explain with conventional theoretical models, reports three recent studies published in The Astrophysical Journal. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-uncover-chemical-perseus-cluster-galaxies.html Astronomy Thu, 14 May 2026 16:51:31 EDT news697996262 Scientists have discovered a galaxy as it was 13 billion years ago, 800 million years after the Big Bang. It contains possible evidence of the universe's first stars and is one of the most chemically primitive galaxies observed to date. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-webb-universe-galaxies.html Astronomy Thu, 14 May 2026 14:20:02 EDT news697984547 The twinkling stars in the night sky are not just beautiful to look at. Their flickering reveals something about the varying temperatures and densities in the layers of Earth's atmosphere, which refract the light as it travels toward us. Certain stellar remnants that emit radio waves can exhibit a very similar effect. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-twinkling-pulsar-reveals-invisible-space.html Astronomy Wed, 13 May 2026 16:21:29 EDT news697908061 Researchers have developed a technique to analyze how black holes "ring" when they collide and merge: one of the universe's most dramatic events. When black holes merge, the collision produces a new, larger black hole that "rings" like a plucked guitar string or a bell while it settles into its final, stable shape. But instead of sound waves, the new black hole rings with gravitational waves: ripples in spacetime first predicted by Albert Einstein. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-statistical-technique-uncover-secrets-black.html Astronomy Wed, 13 May 2026 16:07:01 EDT news697907161 Astronomers led by the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian (CfA) have made the first direct detection of turbulence distorting light in the interstellar medium. The findings will help scientists achieve clearer imaging of the supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way galaxy. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-astronomers-turbulence-stars-distorts.html Astronomy Wed, 13 May 2026 15:27:45 EDT news697904339 Silicon carbide (SiC) dust is one of the most important ingredients in cosmic dust, the tiny particles floating throughout the cosmos that eventually give rise to new planets and stars. This compound of silicon and carbon is forged in the atmospheres of dying stars, especially carbon-rich ones, but exactly how has long remained a mystery. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-recreating-dying-stars-reveals-hydrogen.html Astronomy Wed, 13 May 2026 13:40:01 EDT news697890922 When you think of outer space, you're likely picturing stars, planets and moons. But much of space is filled with clouds of gas, plasma and stardust—known as interstellar clouds. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-stardust-antarctic-ice-reveals-tens.html Astronomy Wed, 13 May 2026 10:00:50 EDT news697885201 Gravitational wave researchers working on the world's most sensitive scientific instruments have found a way to tune their detectors using a process akin to the pitch-correction used in music production. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-gravitational-detectors-autotune-harmonize-heavens.html Astronomy Tue, 12 May 2026 20:00:02 EDT news697800651 Cornell astronomers are deploying a new instrument that grants them, for the first time, a better view of the universe's earliest galaxies, which can't be observed individually with traditional ground- or space-based telescopes. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-instrument-faint-early-galaxies-vast.html Astronomy Tue, 12 May 2026 17:00:10 EDT news697815721 The galaxy cluster Abell 2029 is sometimes described as "the most relaxed cluster in the universe." This moniker does not arise from some sort of mellow vibe, but rather because of how calm and undisturbed the superheated gas that pervades the cluster appears to be. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-calm-galaxy-cluster-violent-cosmic.html Astronomy Tue, 12 May 2026 16:20:04 EDT news697810382 Dark matter is thought to make up most of the matter in the universe, but the only way it interacts with its surroundings is through gravity. If two colliding black holes spiral through a dense region of dark matter and merge, gravitational waves rippling across space and time could carry an imprint of that dark matter. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-gravitational-colliding-black-holes-dark.html Astronomy Tue, 12 May 2026 15:40:10 EDT news697809782