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. A popular myth about black holes is that they act like giant cosmic vacuum cleaners, sucking in everything around them. But Wladimir Lyra's research found a new mechanism around supermassive black holes that is more like a cosmic nursery, giving birth to planets more massive than Jupiter. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-supermassive-black-holes-massive-planets.html Astronomy Thu, 13 Aug 2026 09:11:08 EDT news705831033 Overall, star employees tend to create value in different ways as their careers progress. Early on, they create outsized value through their individual performance. Experienced stars, meanwhile, contribute by helping colleagues succeed, sharing expertise and developing future stars. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-star-employees-career.html Economics & Business Thu, 13 Aug 2026 07:20:02 EDT news705821367 It's common to see images of astronauts on the International Space Station exercising, running on special treadmills and pedaling cycles designed for tight quarters. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-space-doesnt-affect-strength-heart.html Space Exploration Wed, 12 Aug 2026 18:20:03 EDT news705759301 Astronomers have captured an unprecedented image of a cosmic recycling project in progress—fragments of a dying star being busted up, stripped and absorbed into interstellar space. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-dying-star-rare-glimpse-universe.html Astronomy Wed, 12 Aug 2026 18:00:07 EDT news705759061 The building blocks of rocky planets may have begun forming just 100 million years after the Big Bang—long before the first galaxies even existed—according to new research from the University of Portsmouth. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-supernovae-seeded-rocky-planet-blocks.html Planetary Sciences Wed, 12 Aug 2026 17:20:03 EDT news705757021 In the image above, a faint trail of stars can be seen stretching across the galaxy. These structures, known as globular cluster stellar streams, are coherent stellar structures that retain a record of their dynamical history and can provide unique insights into the evolution of galaxies and the nature of dark matter. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-stellar-stream-milky-tool-dark.html Astronomy Wed, 12 Aug 2026 16:20:06 EDT news705755275 One of nature's greatest spectacles—a rare total solar eclipse—cast its shadow on Wednesday, briefly turning day into night in Russia's remote Arctic north and western Iceland before heading toward mainland Europe. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-skies-darken-solar-eclipse-south.html Space Exploration Wed, 12 Aug 2026 14:55:47 EDT news705765321 More than 70% of massive stars are born in close binary systems, where gravitational tugs and mass transfer between companions dramatically alter their evolution. Yet once the interaction ends—whether through mass transfer, merger or the supernova explosion of one partner—the surviving star often appears as a solitary object, hiding its turbulent past. For decades, astronomers have struggled to detect these hidden histories. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-chemical-fingerprints-reveal-hidden-binary.html Astronomy Wed, 12 Aug 2026 14:40:03 EDT news705753601 There is a question that often comes up at every public talk I do, and I have never had a good answer to it—well, not an entirely confident one. What's inside a black hole? The textbook reply is a singularity. Cross the event horizon, and everything falls inward to a point of infinite density where our equations return nonsense. It isn't so much an answer as an admission that we've run out of physics. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-star-black-hole.html Astronomy Wed, 12 Aug 2026 14:00:07 EDT news705757321 Little red dots have puzzled astronomers since their discovery in James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) data from the universe's deep past. Their "powering engines" might resemble a newly discovered phenomenon dubbed a "black hole star"—an early, rapidly growing black hole wrapped in dense gas. This object, described in a study published today in Nature by researchers at the Institute of Science and Technology Austria (ISTA) and international collaborators, may help explain how billion-solar-mass black holes formed so soon after the Big Bang. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-mirage-miracle-jwst-earliest-black.html Astronomy Wed, 12 Aug 2026 11:00:08 EDT news705591782 Millions of Europeans will contemplate the sky in awe on Wednesday as a rare total solar eclipse crosses part of the continent and plunges a swath of Spain into eerie daytime darkness. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-total-solar-eclipse-spellbind-europe.html Space Exploration Wed, 12 Aug 2026 04:40:01 EDT news705724806 Invented languages tend to be the stuff of fantasy or science fiction worlds. But as a child, you may have made one up yourself. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-elvish-klingon-pig-latin-languages.html Social Sciences Wed, 12 Aug 2026 03:40:01 EDT news705670809 The habitable zone concept is useful for understanding which worlds might, possibly, maybe, be habitable. It highlights exoplanets at the right distances from their stars for liquid water to potentially exist on their surfaces. But that alone can't determine habitability. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-mission-evolution-exoplanet-atmospheres.html Astrobiology Tue, 11 Aug 2026 21:00:01 EDT news705685681 Like a collage made of layered sheets of colored cellophane, a vibrant new image layers observations of a famous star-forming nebula from NASA's space telescopes. The resulting cosmic "craft" reveals new details about the star-forming region known as 30 Doradus, or the Tarantula Nebula. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-energy-loss-routes-tarantula-nebula.html Astronomy Tue, 11 Aug 2026 16:50:01 EDT news705681362 University of Missouri researchers have uncovered evidence that challenges one of astronomy's most trusted assumptions, a breakthrough that could reshape how scientists measure galaxies and reconstruct the history of the universe. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-star-cluster-discovery-scientists-universe.html Astronomy Tue, 11 Aug 2026 14:40:07 EDT news705668701 Astronomers using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), of which the U.S. National Science Foundation National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NSF NRAO) is a partner, have captured the first direct, high-resolution images of a magnetic field wrapped tightly around the outflow of gas streaming away from a forming star—evidence that solves a decades-old puzzle about how young stars sculpt the powerful jets that form them. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-magnetic-field-newborn-star-decades.html Astronomy Tue, 11 Aug 2026 13:20:07 EDT news705666421 Using the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope, an international team of astronomers has discovered that dust and water can form and survive surprisingly close to the supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way galaxy. The observations reveal that the evolved star IRS 3 continues to enrich its surroundings with newly formed material despite the intense radiation environment around Sagittarius A*. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-webb-reveals-oxygen-rich-surviving.html Astronomy Tue, 11 Aug 2026 13:00:02 EDT news705665284 Scientists exploring seamounts off the coast of Costa Rica have discovered a new coral so genetically and morphologically distinct that it required the creation of an entirely new family for its classification. Bright yellow and tree-like, the coral was found growing some 360 to 529 meters (1,180 to 1,735 feet) beneath the surface of the Pacific. The discovery is described in the open-access journal ZooKeys. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-coral-stars-species-costa-rica.html Ecology Tue, 11 Aug 2026 10:00:01 EDT news705658622 Every day, billions of people scroll through social media posts, online reviews and news feeds filled with emotional content—from glowing five-star reviews to rage-inducing social media rants. Those emotions can quietly shape what people buy, what they believe and how they act. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-framework-emotions-behavior-online.html Social Sciences Tue, 11 Aug 2026 09:20:10 EDT news705657722 Malta might be the last place one would expect a convergence of archeoastronomy and early cosmology. Today, it's better known as a billionaire tax haven and a favorite production location for big-budget Hollywood movies. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-ancient-maltese-seafarers-stars.html Archaeology Mon, 10 Aug 2026 20:20:01 EDT news705601021 Hold on to your telescopes: The DESI Legacy Imaging Surveys team has released the largest-ever 2D color map of the universe. The 5.6-trillion-pixel map contains nearly 4 billion celestial objects, primarily stars and galaxies. The data is available for all to use and publicly view through the Legacy Survey Sky Viewer. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-desi-biggest-2d-universe.html Astronomy Mon, 10 Aug 2026 13:00:05 EDT news705582662 Hundreds of Venus-like planets could soon help determine why some worlds become sweltering greenhouse hellscapes while others remain capable of supporting life. But before answering that question, scientists first need to know how fast those planets are spinning. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-planets-hellish.html Astronomy Mon, 10 Aug 2026 10:00:01 EDT news705573181 The Perseid summer light show is back—and viewing conditions are especially promising for the Northern Hemisphere. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-perseid-meteor-shower-summer-dazzle.html Space Exploration Sun, 09 Aug 2026 14:52:39 EDT news705505929 What shape is an asteroid? For (44) Nysa, the honest answer until now has been that nobody knew. It is one of the brightest and largest E-type asteroids in the main belt, a class with a surface rich in enstatite, and its oddness has made it a favorite target for well over a hundred years. Successive observations hinted that it was elongated, perhaps even two lumps stuck together, but the picture stayed frustratingly blurred. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-asteroid-worlds.html Space Exploration Sun, 09 Aug 2026 06:40:01 EDT news704978242 The origin of spin in spiral and elliptical galaxies has posed a long-standing puzzle for astronomers. One idea, known as tidal torque theory, proposes that galaxies' spins are an imprinted record of the early universe, imparted by gravity long before galaxies first formed and still detectable in galaxies today. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-galactic-fingerprints-primordial-universe.html Astronomy Fri, 07 Aug 2026 13:20:03 EDT news705314778 Astronomers have found evidence that one of the most massive white dwarfs known has an oxygen-neon core instead of the more common carbon-oxygen core. The finding is important because the composition of a white dwarf's core determines how it will evolve. A paper outlining this discovery was published in The Astrophysical Journal. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-ultramassive-white-dwarf-earth-size.html Astronomy Fri, 07 Aug 2026 08:00:01 EDT news705228617 In the sweeping shadow of a satellite dish, staff at the Chilbolton Observatory in southern England track a growing number of objects in Earth's orbit, providing data that underpins Britain's space monitoring efforts. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-uk-observatory-nervously-space-junk.html Space Exploration Fri, 07 Aug 2026 04:40:02 EDT news705288801 The Sloan Digital Sky Survey V (SDSS-V) has announced its 20th public data release (DR20), delivering a dramatic expansion of the Milky Way Mapper (MWM) scientific survey—the most detailed spectroscopic map yet assembled of stars in and around our home galaxy. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-galaxy-milky-mapper-survey-latest.html Astronomy Thu, 06 Aug 2026 18:30:01 EDT news705257521 A team of astronomers using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) has captured a massive stream of gas—one trillion miles, or 0.2 light-years, long—feeding the young triple-star system GW Orionis. These new observations provide the clearest evidence yet for how such "streamers" can tilt and twist the disks where planets are born. The findings are published in The Astronomical Journal. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-trillion-mile-gas-streamer-tilt.html Astronomy Thu, 06 Aug 2026 17:00:07 EDT news705248521 Understanding the formation and evolution of the centers of galaxies is one of the most intriguing challenges in astrophysics. The new study aims to unveil the physical processes that led to the formation of two striking features surrounding the black holes at the centers of most galaxies: nuclear star clusters and nuclear stellar disks. Only in the last decade have such galactic structures been observed in the Milky Way and extragalactic systems. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-milky-simulation-reveals-central-galactic.html Astronomy Thu, 06 Aug 2026 16:40:01 EDT news705248221