https://phys.org/ en-us Phys.org internet news portal provides the latest news on science including: Physics, Nanotechnology, Life Sciences, Space Science, Earth Science, Environment, Health and Medicine. In this Picture of the Month from the NASA/ESA James Webb Space Telescope, we visit a turbulent cauldron of star formation to see what is brewing inside dense clumps of gas. This is a star-forming region named LHA 120-N 159, or simply N159, located 161,000 light-years away in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), one of the satellite galaxies orbiting the Milky Way galaxy. This image spans about 230 light-years across. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-webb-image-reveals-young-stars.html Astronomy Thu, 22 Oct 2026 13:40:01 EDT news711892283 By analyzing data on around 100,000 quasars, or extremely luminous galactic nuclei, researchers at Eötvös Loránd University (ELTE) have found statistical evidence that some supermassive black holes at the centers of galaxies are ejected from their positions after forming. The relationship now identified in the data was predicted 10 years ago by members of the same research group, Peter Raffai and Zsolt Frei, together with Zoltán Haiman. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-supermassive-black-holes-ejected-galactic.html Astronomy Thu, 22 Oct 2026 12:20:25 EDT news711886019 Technion researchers have presented evidence for the existence of solar-storm-like outbursts near supermassive black holes, which can be a million times larger than the sun or more. The phenomenon was discovered in the vicinity of the black hole in the galaxy NGC 3783, and the researchers' findings were published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-black-hole-uncover-evidence-solar.html Astronomy Thu, 22 Oct 2026 11:03:31 EDT news711885705 Scientific estimates show that there should be between about 100 million and 1 billion stellar-mass black holes in the Milky Way. But they aren't easy to locate. They're not like supermassive black holes (SMBH) at the centers of galaxies. Those are usually easy to spot for different reasons. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-black-holes-neighborhood.html Astronomy Thu, 22 Oct 2026 10:40:07 EDT news711871458 An international team of scientists from the University of Sheffield and the Indian Institute of Astrophysics, led by a postdoctoral research fellow from the University of Newcastle, Australia, has discovered that solar jets called spicules, which are 6–8 Mm long, take the form of warped, denser plasma sheets like pleated drapery. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-curtain-plasma-solar-jets-apparent.html Astronomy Thu, 22 Oct 2026 10:20:06 EDT news711877531 An international team of researchers, including members from the University of Michigan, has revealed surprising results that could rewrite our understanding of a key transition in the early universe. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-hubble-supernova-role-cosmic-reionization.html Astronomy Wed, 21 Oct 2026 13:20:15 EDT news711800461 Researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory have completed two of the largest cosmological simulations ever performed. Each simulation modeled the evolution of 13.4 trillion dark matter particles across a region 28.6 billion light-years wide. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-aurora-supercomputer-powers-largest-cosmological.html Astronomy Tue, 20 Oct 2026 16:00:14 EDT news711713693 Some supermassive black holes rapidly consume surrounding matter while simultaneously firing powerful streams of plasma into space at nearly the speed of light. However, this creates a physical puzzle: rapid feeding is expected to form a cold, flat accretion disk around the black hole, which prevents powerful jets from forming. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-hot-plasma-rapidly-black-holes.html Astronomy Tue, 20 Oct 2026 12:40:01 EDT news711711481 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 The European Space Agency's Euclid space telescope has discovered its first previously unknown comet in images taken between Sept. 16 and 24, 2026. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-euclid-comet-million-miles-earth.html Planetary Sciences Mon, 19 Oct 2026 13:20:01 EDT news711626041 Astronomers using China's FAST radio telescope have discovered a compact cloud of hydrogen with no visible stars or galaxy around it. This could be one of the strongest candidates yet for an isolated "dark galaxy," containing nearly 500,000 times the sun's mass in neutral hydrogen. The discovery paper was posted to the arXiv preprint server on Sept. 24. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-lone-starless-cloud-dark-galaxy.html Astronomy Sat, 17 Oct 2026 09:40:04 EDT news711014768 A University of Missouri astronomer is leading a team of 130 researchers from 62 institutions—including NASA, the California Institute of Technology, Princeton University and Harvard University—on an ambitious mission to capture an unprecedented view of the early universe. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-astronomer-global-team-nasa-mission.html Astronomy Fri, 16 Oct 2026 19:20:01 EDT news711376043 How do young stars reshape the clouds from which they are born? A new high-resolution 3D model developed by an international team led by Dr Brandt Gaches from the University of Duisburg-Essen shows how the uneven structure of stellar nurseries creates shadows that alter their chemistry and influence the infrared emission observed by the James Webb Space Telescope. The model has now been published in Astronomy & Astrophysics. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-3d-reveals-shadows-reshape-chemistry.html Astronomy Fri, 16 Oct 2026 18:40:04 EDT news711374216 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 This NASA Hubble Space Telescope image features the edge-on, intermediate spiral galaxy NGC 1827, located roughly 37 million light-years away in the constellation Columba, the Dove. Hubble captured the image as part of a survey looking at 260 satellite galaxies around 22 Milky Way–like host galaxies within a radius of about 32 million light-years from Earth. Hubble has already observed 111 of these satellite galaxies. The remaining galaxies will take an additional 149 Hubble orbits, one orbit for each galaxy, to observe. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-nasa-hubble-spies-spiral-edge.html Astronomy Fri, 16 Oct 2026 13:40:08 EDT news711366863 Astronomers have discovered a star being torn apart by a massive black hole more than 1,000 parsecs from the center of its host galaxy. The tidal disruption event, TDE 2023mfm, was first discovered by ZTF and then studied with a wide range of telescopes, including Keck, Lick, Hubble, Swift, Chandra, XMM-Newton and the VLA. The discovery paper was posted to the arXiv preprint server on Sept. 28. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-shredded-star-reveals-massive-black.html Astronomy Fri, 16 Oct 2026 09:20:17 EDT news711112932 Astronomers have used NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory to break down the cause of a remarkable formation of radio waves they have nicknamed the "Treble Clef" because its distinct shape strongly resembles the musical symbol. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-chandra-treble-clef-galaxy-cluster.html Astronomy Thu, 15 Oct 2026 12:20:14 EDT news711283870 University of Warwick astronomers have shown that white dwarf stars can glow in a range of colors, including the first star ever found that would appear green to the human eye. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-green-pink-purple-astronomers-reveal.html Astronomy Wed, 14 Oct 2026 20:10:01 EDT news711185462 Astronomers have found two actively feeding supermassive black holes separated by just 175 parsecs (570 light-years) in a galaxy seen when the universe was only about 2 billion years old. The system, MG B2016+112, lies at a redshift of 3.273 and is the most compact dual AGN known at this redshift. The study was posted to the arXiv preprint server on Sept. 25. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-evidence-black-holes-parsecs-lurking.html Astronomy Wed, 14 Oct 2026 09:40:17 EDT news711113832 A research team from the Kyushu Institute of Technology, Kwansei Gakuin University, Tokyo City University, Kanazawa University, the University of Tokyo and other institutions has successfully completed the test operations conducted since the satellite was released into orbit. Having confirmed that the satellite meets its specified performance requirements, the team has begun routine operations for scientific astronomical observations. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-astronomical-nanosatellite-vertecs-scientific.html Astronomy Wed, 14 Oct 2026 08:08:58 EDT news711184102 The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has detected a possible supernova in the early universe just days after the star exploded. Called AT 2026abck, the transient lies in a star-forming galaxy at a redshift of 5.017 and was found without the help of gravitational lensing. JWST observations suggest the event was caught only about four to 10 days after the explosion. The paper was posted to the arXiv preprint server on Sept. 29. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-webb-early-universe-supernova-days.html Astronomy Tue, 13 Oct 2026 10:50:01 EDT news711104454 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 For many years, the simplest view of dark energy has been that it remains unchanged. Throughout cosmic history, the mysterious ingredient believed to drive the universe's accelerated expansion is thought to have behaved in the same way at every epoch. However, an increasing number of observations are challenging this idea. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-alternative-gravity-theory-explanation-dark.html Astronomy Mon, 12 Oct 2026 13:40:14 EDT news711029618 When Belgian American particle physicist Francis Halzen was awarded the 2026 Nobel Prize in physics "for decisive contributions to the IceCube Neutrino Observatory and the discovery of high-energy neutrinos of astrophysical origin," it was a reminder that for more than a century, scientists have treated Antarctica's environments as windows onto worlds beyond Earth. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-physics-nobel-highlights-antarctica-role.html Astronomy Mon, 12 Oct 2026 13:20:01 EDT news711018902 On April 1, 2026, the crew of the Artemis II mission launched into space atop NASA's Space Launch System (SLS). Roughly 3 1/2 hours after launch, the rocket's upper stage separated from the Orion spacecraft (Integrity), and astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen began their nearly 10-day journey around the moon. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-preliminary-lunar-science-artemis-ii.html Space Exploration Mon, 12 Oct 2026 10:20:26 EDT news711015842 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 Astronomers have detected and traced the most distant fast radio burst ever recorded, a powerful flash of radio waves that traveled for more than 10 billion years across the cosmos before reaching Earth. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-astronomers-distant-fast-radio.html Astronomy Thu, 08 Oct 2026 14:00:36 EDT news710612761 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 Francis Halzen, winner of the Nobel Prize in physics, spoke with pride on Wednesday about his early promotion of artificial intelligence in his research on neutrinos. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-nobel-physics-winner-pride-ai.html General Physics Wed, 07 Oct 2026 18:40:01 EDT news710587906 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