https://phys.org/ en-us Latest news from Astrophysical Journal Astronomers using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) were surprised to discover the earliest phases of giant planet formation between the dense layers of gas and dust in the "Gomez's Hamburger" system, referred to as GoHam. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-cosmic-hamburger-rare-edge-view.html Planetary Sciences Mon, 19 Oct 2026 16:20:01 EDT news711643081 The gas orbiting Sagittarius A (Sgr A*), the supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way galaxy, is rich in metals, researchers at McGill University's Trottier Space Institute have found. The metal enrichment probably resulted from stars that exploded and released material into the black hole's surroundings over time, they said. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-webb-reveals-metal-rich-gas.html Astronomy Mon, 19 Oct 2026 16:00:15 EDT news711642481 Seven billion light-years from Earth, there is an unexpected cluster of galaxies. It has two regions in the process of colliding with each other with a combined mass of more than two quadrillion solar masses. Given its mass, the distant cluster has been nicknamed El Gordo, the Fat One. What makes it unusual is that it's extraordinarily large for that period of the universe. How did such a large supercluster form so early? https://phys.org/news/2026-10-distant-supercluster-galaxies-interacting-dark.html Astronomy Fri, 16 Oct 2026 14:00:08 EDT news711367633 In the early moments of the big bang, two elements were forged: hydrogen and helium. Technically, the tiniest traces of light elements such as lithium were produced as well, but nothing of consequence. The early universe was about three parts hydrogen to one part helium. All the heavier elements, from the oxygen in your lungs to the iron in your blood, were created through astrophysical processes—fused in stars, formed in supernovae or scattered by the collisions of neutron stars. Even in the present cosmos, heavier elements are so cosmically rare that astronomers group them all as metals. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-primordial-helium-big.html Astronomy Mon, 12 Oct 2026 15:20:07 EDT news711026702 Astronomers have used radio observations from the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) to catch a dying star in the middle of a dramatic transformation, and the data show a ring that records its final outburst. The new research was posted to the arXiv preprint server on Sept. 18. The paper has been accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-alma-dying-star-mid-outburst.html Astronomy Mon, 12 Oct 2026 11:00:49 EDT news711014745 A Jupiter-sized world just 7.5 light-years away is cloudy, chemically complex and, it turns out, more like home than anyone expected. Using the James Webb Space Telescope, Brittany Miles, assistant astronomer at the University of Arizona's Steward Observatory, led a team that spent 11 hours staring at WISE 0855, the coldest known brown dwarf, collecting a spectrum of its light every 15 minutes. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-discovery-variable-clouds-solar.html Astronomy Fri, 09 Oct 2026 14:20:12 EDT news710767022 NASA's SPHEREx (Spectro-Photometer for the History of the universe, Epoch of Reionization, and ices Explorer) space telescope is shedding light on brown dwarfs, celestial objects that blur the line between stars and exoplanets. New findings published in The Astrophysical Journal show that these dark and cloudy worlds have chemically rich atmospheres not unlike the giant planets in our own solar system. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-spherex-menagerie-brown-dwarfs-atmospheric.html Astronomy Fri, 09 Oct 2026 09:20:05 EDT news710755921 Using data from the DESI Legacy Imaging Surveys, with help from artificial intelligence, an international team of scientists has discovered 70 new gravitational lenses—rare cosmic alignments that act as natural magnifying glasses. The new lenses further expand one of the largest collections of confirmed lenses to date and will allow scientists to study dark matter, galaxy evolution and the structure of the universe. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-largest-2d-universe-scientists-gravitational.html Astronomy Thu, 08 Oct 2026 09:40:12 EDT news710669701 An undergraduate astrophysics student at UC Berkeley has found three unusual galaxies—cataloged as Shapiro Dwarf Galaxies I, II and III. Each galaxy is far from other galaxies and has stopped making stars, a combination that is extremely rare. The discovery, published in The Astrophysical Journal, provides compelling observational evidence of a long-held astronomical theory. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-undergraduate-student-puzzle-isolated-galaxies.html Astronomy Wed, 07 Oct 2026 17:20:11 EDT news710603101 The only known supernova remnant of its kind in the Milky Way has an unexpectedly intricate structure: chains of gas knots resembling pearls on a string, each wide enough to fit the solar system multiple times. Using the Gemini North telescope, an international team co-led by Ilaria Caiazzo, assistant professor at the Institute of Science and Technology Austria (ISTA), captured the most detailed view yet of Pa 30, revealing striking new features of the remnant associated with a historical supernova witnessed nearly 850 years ago. The findings are published in The Astrophysical Journal. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-images-unique-supernova-remnant-reveal.html Astronomy Tue, 06 Oct 2026 12:00:18 EDT news710494434 A nearby star system with two suns could potentially support an Earth-sized planet in a region where liquid water could exist, according to a new paper examining the dynamics of the system. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-qa-earth-planet-suns.html Planetary Sciences Sat, 03 Oct 2026 13:00:01 EDT news709951576 In the early history of our solar system, scientists theorize that a Mars-sized object called Theia smashed into the infant Earth, vaporizing massive amounts of rock and blasting it into space. Some of that material coalesced into the moon, where NASA's Artemis program is returning humans, preparing for Mars and shaping the future of space exploration. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-webb-planet-shattering-collisions.html Planetary Sciences Thu, 01 Oct 2026 18:00:13 EDT news710078942 The center of the Milky Way galaxy is a chaotic place. In addition to the 4-million-solar-mass black hole known as Sagittarius A* (Sgr A*), the region is full of gas, dust, strong magnetic fields and stars in various stages of life—from birth to death. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-cleaner-ray-view-galactic-center.html Astronomy Thu, 01 Oct 2026 10:20:32 EDT news710064541 New research led by the University of Michigan is helping set the stage for future observatories to characterize rocky planets outside our solar system, planets that could prove life isn't confined to Earth. The new research represents the most sensitive modern search for giant planets in a nearby binary system—a system with two stars orbiting each other—known as 70 Ophiuchi AB, or 70 Oph AB. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-suns-giant-planets-nearby-binary.html Astrobiology Tue, 29 Sep 2026 14:20:06 EDT news709903801 Galaxies are like snowflakes: No two are exactly alike, even the spirals. The Hubble Space Telescope took a close look at the distant spiral NGC 4698 and found intriguing hints about its past. For one thing, this member of the Virgo Cluster seems to have a central region that's rotating out of sync with its spiral arms and bulge. Those arms don't seem to connect to the central region, and the bulge itself seems to extend above the plane of the galaxy. In other words, there seems to be a decoupling between the arms and the bulge. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-sync-galaxy.html Astronomy Tue, 29 Sep 2026 09:20:05 EDT news709884841 The Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment (CHIME) has shown for the first time that it can detect the faint glow of hydrogen gas from deep in the universe's past using only its own data. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-hydrogen-distant-dark-energy.html Astronomy Mon, 28 Sep 2026 19:00:04 EDT news709825988 Could you imagine if pagers made a comeback? Sure, your smartphone would still be your notepad-flashlight-camera-personal assistant-MP3 player-wallet-social media browser. But imagine if pagers made it so easy to do that one important thing—pinging your friends and associates—that we all brought them back into our lives, or adopted them for the first time. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-overlooked-era-cosmology-quest-cosmos.html Astronomy Fri, 25 Sep 2026 15:20:01 EDT news709554001 Scientists have long speculated why Venus, with a size, mass and structure similar to Earth's, doesn't have a moon. New UC Riverside research shows that our hungry twin likely swallowed it. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-venus-ate-moon-earth-twin.html Planetary Sciences Sun, 20 Sep 2026 14:30:02 EDT news708620804 The sun is such a constant in our lives that it can be difficult to imagine our star ever changing. But the sun can be quite variable. There are times when its magnetic field is turbulent and generates many sunspots and other times when it is quiet and dormant. Since the 1800s, we've known that these active and passive periods follow an 11-year pattern known as the solar cycle. But even after centuries of observation, we still have a difficult time predicting exactly when solar maximum will occur and just how intense it will be. This is important because solar activity can have a significant impact on our modern technological infrastructure. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-solar-sun.html Planetary Sciences Sun, 20 Sep 2026 13:20:01 EDT news708954893 When JWST's first science results started rolling in, it was a triumph for scientific vision and persistence. For years, the fate of the powerful space telescope was uncertain. It went way over budget, and for 25 years, troubling conversations accompanied its ongoing development. Several times, it seemed like it would be canceled, and in 2011, Congress came close to ending the program. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-dense-galaxies-early-universe.html Astronomy Mon, 14 Sep 2026 21:40:01 EDT news708611502 A new study of nine nearby galaxies has shown that actively growing supermassive black holes may contribute to, rather than prevent, star formation in their host galaxies. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-black-holes-reveal-star-nearby.html Astronomy Mon, 14 Sep 2026 16:20:10 EDT news708613982 A distant star has captured astronomers' attention over the past decade, teasing them with indications that it will soon explode as a supernova. But new research shows that something else entirely is behind the star's outbursts. Rather than an impending catastrophic explosion, a previously unseen companion may be responsible for the star's behavior. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-astronomers-unmask-supernova-impostor.html Astronomy Sun, 13 Sep 2026 17:00:03 EDT news708248428 We've found more than 5,500 exoplanets so far. Dozens of them are in the habitable zones of their parent stars, where, at least in theory, they could host an ocean. But we've never definitively found a liquid ocean on another planet. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-nasa-great-observatory-oceans-distant.html Space Exploration Sun, 13 Sep 2026 09:00:04 EDT news708336640 An international team, including researchers from the University of Minnesota Twin Cities, has reached a major milestone in "precision cosmology" by measuring the amount of helium created in the universe's first five minutes with unprecedented accuracy. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-key-early-universe-precision.html Astronomy Sun, 13 Sep 2026 08:00:01 EDT news708186473 New observations of the composition of distant galaxies offer insights into the earliest phases of the universe and confirm decades of scientific understanding of the elements and particles produced by the Big Bang, according to a new study. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-helium-conditions-seconds-big.html Astronomy Wed, 09 Sep 2026 14:40:03 EDT news708172561 An international team of astronomers has discovered the most distant progenitor to a galaxy supercluster ever. The discovery supports existing theories of how galaxy clusters evolve and reveals how they are connected to the larger cosmic web. The study relies largely on data from the ODIN survey, conducted with the U.S. Department of Energy-fabricated Dark Energy Camera on the U.S. National Science Foundation Víctor M. Blanco 4-meter Telescope in Chile. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-extremely-massive-galaxy-proto-supercluster.html Astronomy Tue, 08 Sep 2026 18:00:03 EDT news708101641 Active black holes are easy to detect. Their superheated accretion disks emit bright X-rays, and the jets streaming from their poles are easily seen at visible and radio wavelengths. But most stellar-mass black holes are inactive. They either drift through the galaxy alone or orbit a companion star without consuming its material. We can't observe inactive black holes directly. We can only observe their effects on nearby objects. We currently know of three such black holes thanks to the Gaia spacecraft. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-quiet-black-holes-stellar-companion.html Astronomy Tue, 08 Sep 2026 12:20:01 EDT news708080516 Astronomers have detected extreme, never-before-seen behavior from a rare kind of pulsar and stumbled on a surprising link to one of astronomy's biggest current mysteries. Using 174 hours of radio observations, researchers detected PSR J1227-4853, a rapidly spinning neutron star known as a "transitional millisecond pulsar," which unleashes hundreds of ultrashort, ultrapowerful "giant pulses." Their paper was published in The Astrophysical Journal on July 31. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-rare-pulsar-unleashes-giant-pulses.html Astronomy Mon, 07 Sep 2026 09:50:01 EDT news707042987 Star formation in galaxies is closely linked to molecular gas. In the distant past, when galaxy interactions were more common, these encounters compressed molecular gas, causing dense clouds to collapse under their own gravity and form new stars. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-turbulent-star-formation-stephan-quintet.html Astronomy Fri, 04 Sep 2026 13:40:04 EDT news707739181 A Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) study of data from the European Space Agency's (ESA) Solar Orbiter gives the most detailed view of the heliospheric current sheet (HCS) to date. The HCS is a sprawling, undulating surface emanating from the sun to beyond the solar system that serves as the boundary between the sun's north and south magnetic field hemispheres. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-solar-orbiter-ion-magnetic-boundary.html Astronomy Mon, 31 Aug 2026 12:40:04 EDT news707393821