https://phys.org/space-news/ en-us The latest science news on astronomy, astrobiology, and space exploration from Phys.org. A team of astronomers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill has observed an extremely rare "wandering" black hole located tens of thousands of light-years from the center of its galaxy. This finding could reshape scientists' understanding of how massive black holes move through the universe after galaxies collide. The findings are published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-astronomers-universe-rarest-black-hole.html Astronomy Mon, 27 Jul 2026 14:20:04 EDT news704376481 Positrons—the antimatter counterpart of electrons—are created in high-energy cosmic processes. When normal matter meets its antimatter counterpart, they annihilate, or vanish, and produce a distinctive 511 keV gamma-ray signal. Scientists use this signal to detect where these annihilations occur. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-extragalactic-positron-annihilation-hotspots-milky.html Astronomy Mon, 27 Jul 2026 12:30:02 EDT news704373911 SpaceX's Starship super-rocket deployed operational next-generation Starlink satellites for the first time during its 13th flight test, which addressed snags that arose in the previous test. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-lucky-starship-deploys-starlink-satellites.html Space Exploration Mon, 27 Jul 2026 10:00:48 EDT news704364001 Black holes represent some of the most extreme environments in the universe. They are the sources of the strongest gravitational fields, allowing us to test Einstein's theory of general relativity to an extent impossible with small objects. But we are also reaching the limit of what we can learn about one remotely. So, various authors have put forward ideas for how we might eventually send a probe directly to a black hole to observe it up close. One of the most vocal of those authors is Cosimo Bambi of Fudan University in Shanghai—and he recently released a paper, available as a preprint on arXiv, about what it would take to send a gram-sized probe to a nearby black hole. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-spacecraft-black-hole.html Astronomy Mon, 27 Jul 2026 08:20:04 EDT news704355842 Searching for extraterrestrial intelligence has so far primarily meant focusing on one particular type of signal—and that signal has normally been based on our own current cutting-edge technology. But what if that's the wrong way to look for signs of alien intelligence? What if a resource-conscious civilization decided it was too complicated to send femtosecond lasers in high-energy bursts across the universe? A new paper, available as a preprint on arXiv, from researchers Dániel Apai, Chia-Lung Lin and Kevin Wagner suggests that might actually be what happens and that we should start looking for long-duration pulsing interstellar beacons. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-alien-lighthouses.html Space Exploration Mon, 27 Jul 2026 08:00:10 EDT news704355482 One of the challenges of searching for technosignatures (i.e., signs that intelligent life somewhere in the universe has created technology) is understanding what to look for. Technology is a very broad area, and different types would show up as different features. One of the most commonly cited is a Dyson sphere, which attempts to encapsulate a star and capture its outgoing light to produce energy. But while we've looked for the mid-infrared waste heat these structures would produce for decades, we haven't found a definitive instance of one. According to a new paper, available as a preprint on arXiv by Turkish high school student Sahin Torlakcik, that might be because we are looking for the wrong type of energy altogether. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-aliens-harvesting-stars.html Astronomy Mon, 27 Jul 2026 07:40:05 EDT news704355242 A U.S.-Russian space crew landed safely in the steppes of Kazakhstan on Sunday after an eight-month stint on the International Space Station. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-russian-space-crew-safely-kazakhstan.html Space Exploration Mon, 27 Jul 2026 03:48:14 EDT news704342869 By analyzing the data from NASA's Fermi gamma-ray space telescope, Chinese astronomers have investigated a recently identified millisecond pulsar known as PSR J0435+3233. As a result, they found that the pulsar exhibits gamma-ray pulsations. The discovery was detailed in a paper published July 17 on the pre-print server arXiv. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-gamma-ray-pulsations-reveal-extreme.html Astronomy Sun, 26 Jul 2026 14:00:01 EDT news704105534 SpaceX's mammoth Starship rocket blasted off Friday on another test flight stretching halfway around the world, this time releasing 20 of the most advanced Starlinks. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-spacex-starship-flight-advanced-starlinks.html Space Exploration Sat, 25 Jul 2026 13:15:07 EDT news704204084 Chinese astronomers report the detection of a peculiar optical transient event that occurred in the center of a dwarf galaxy. The newly discovered event, designated AT2019ijn, is a fast-rising, slow-decaying blue optical transient with exceptionally bright radio emission. The finding was detailed in a paper published July 6 in The Astrophysical Journal Letters. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-rare-blue-optical-transient-class.html Astronomy Sat, 25 Jul 2026 08:40:01 EDT news703824942 Ancient samples from the moon's far side are helping scientists uncover how asteroid impacts shaped the early solar system. The findings challenge decades of thinking about when those impacts occurred and offer new insights into the conditions that influenced Earth's evolution. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-unexplored-side-moon-rewrite-lunar.html Planetary Sciences Fri, 24 Jul 2026 13:20:04 EDT news704112241 Europa, one of Jupiter's icy moons, has long fascinated scientists because of what may lie beneath its frozen shell: a global ocean of liquid water. That hidden ocean has made Europa one of the most compelling places in the solar system to study the conditions that might support life. But new research led by Rutgers scientist Lujendra Ojha suggests one of the most promising shortcuts to Europa's ocean may be far more complicated than previously thought. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-europa-hidden-ocean-difficult-scientists.html Astrobiology Fri, 24 Jul 2026 12:00:03 EDT news704105234 A careful statistical comparison of observations recorded by NASA's Juno mission and the Planetary Science Institute's Io Input Output observatory (IoIO) shows that IoIO observations reliably predict the density of Jupiter's plasma disk, an important part of Jupiter's magnetosphere, according to a new Geophysical Research Letters paper co-authored by Planetary Science Institute Senior Scientist Jeff Morgenthaler. Jian-Zhao Wang of the University of Colorado Boulder is the paper's lead author. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-io-volcanic-output-40day-plasma.html Astronomy Fri, 24 Jul 2026 11:40:03 EDT news704109602 UK astronomers are a step closer to playing a leading role in NASA's search for alien life in the coming decades as they continue developing one of the core instruments of the Habitable Worlds Observatory (HWO). The exciting mission—the U.S. space agency's next flagship space telescope after the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope—is expected to launch in the 2040s. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-uk-pole-position-key-instrument.html Astrobiology Fri, 24 Jul 2026 11:00:09 EDT news704103592 Astronomers have discovered a remarkably tiny group of six young galaxies just 1.2 billion years after the Big Bang. This may be a rare glimpse of how some of the universe's largest galaxies formed. The paper outlining the findings was submitted to the arXiv preprint server on July 13. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-astronomers-massive-galaxy-piece-billion.html Astronomy Fri, 24 Jul 2026 08:40:02 EDT news703844724 The worlds of the solar system are exciting and, so far, mostly pristine places for planetary scientists to study. As space missions continue to travel to Mars, Europa, asteroids and other worlds, questions arise about keeping them safe for continued exploration and observation. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-scientists-reserves-moon.html Astronomy Fri, 24 Jul 2026 07:40:03 EDT news704094121 Venus is an inhospitable place, with temperatures soaring to several hundred degrees Celsius (hundreds of degrees Fahrenheit) and no oceans like those on Earth. Planetary scientists long believed Venus was geologically dormant. However, recent research indicates that Venus remains geologically "alive" and even hosts active volcanoes. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-young-rift-flanks-venus-tectonically.html Astronomy Fri, 24 Jul 2026 05:00:05 EDT news704016001 Astronomers searching for signs of extraterrestrial intelligence may have been missing alien signals in part of the radio spectrum that has not recently been explored. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-alien-radio-channel.html Astronomy Thu, 23 Jul 2026 19:00:03 EDT news703934221 NASA is about to launch a space observatory that could help settle some of the biggest mysteries in modern astronomy. The Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope will study how the universe began, what it is made of and how it has evolved over time. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-nasa-space-telescope-tackle-universe.html Astronomy Thu, 23 Jul 2026 16:20:06 EDT news704028181 NASA MAVEN (Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution) mission scientists have uncovered a key puzzle piece in understanding certain types of auroras on Mars, finding that they form in a similar way to Earth–based auroras. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-mars-auroras-reveal-miniature-version.html Planetary Sciences Thu, 23 Jul 2026 16:20:03 EDT news704032622 The moon is 384,000 kilometers (239,000 miles) away from Earth, but one of the best places to study its surface is much closer to home. Western planetary scientist Catherine Neish and PhD candidate Sashank Vanga traveled to Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park in June to investigate lava flows that could reveal new clues about the moon's volcanic past. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-hawaii-western-moon-volcanic-history.html Planetary Sciences Thu, 23 Jul 2026 14:00:06 EDT news704021942 Millions of people across the UK marveled at the spectacular northern lights that lit up the night sky in May 2024. But while the display captivated skywatchers, the geomagnetic storm behind it also served as the biggest test in a generation of the UK's preparedness for severe space weather. So did it pass? https://phys.org/news/2026-07-powerful-northern-generation-expose-weaknesses.html Planetary Sciences Thu, 23 Jul 2026 11:40:01 EDT news704019301 Astronomers using the James Webb Space Telescope have captured one of the clearest views yet of how an early supermassive black hole may grow within a network of young galaxies. The compact active galaxy, seen just a billion years after the Big Bang, lies beside a 12,000-parsec-long filament containing multiple galaxies that are expected to merge within a few hundred million years. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-jwst-captures-rare-glimpse-early.html Astronomy Thu, 23 Jul 2026 07:40:02 EDT news703843181 A commercial robotic spacecraft called LINK launched on an emergency mission to save NASA's Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory, which has been slowly falling toward Earth, on July 3, 2026. Over the coming weeks, LINK, built by Katalyst Space Technologies, will try to grasp the telescope, then spend months raising it to a safer orbit. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-satellites-harder-space-junk-problem.html Space Exploration Wed, 22 Jul 2026 13:40:01 EDT news703942441 NASA's Juno mission has provided the first measurements of the temperature below the surface of Jupiter's moon Io, revealing significant heating within the shallow subsurface of the most volcanically active world in the solar system. Collected during two close flybys, the data also show that most of Io's surface is remarkably smooth and composed of material with very low density. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-juno-temperature-jupiter-fiery-moon.html Planetary Sciences Wed, 22 Jul 2026 13:07:19 EDT news703943161 Observations made with the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope (ESO's VLT) have revealed evidence for a moon-like object in the CD-35 2722 system. Unlike moons in our solar system, the newly found object does not orbit a planet, raising questions about what to name it. Instead, it circles a brown dwarf, an object larger than a planet, that orbits the CD-35 2722 star. If confirmed, this could be the first "moon" discovered outside our solar system. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-jupiter-mass-exomoon-orbiting-brown.html Astronomy Wed, 22 Jul 2026 11:00:03 EDT news703842182 The Whirlpool galaxy (M51) is a classic grand spiral galaxy. It was the first object identified as a spiral, way back in 1845. At the time, it and other galaxies were considered spiral nebulae, since astronomers didn't know other galaxies existed. Edwin Hubble finally proved that there were other galaxies in the early 1920s. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-astronomers-galaxy-spiral-arms.html Astronomy Wed, 22 Jul 2026 10:20:01 EDT news703930263 Scientists have successfully demonstrated a breakthrough in how sensitive radio telescopes can be used to significantly improve the world's ability to detect, track and characterize satellites and space debris in orbit. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-scientists-radio-telescopes-space-scanners.html Astronomy Wed, 22 Jul 2026 07:20:01 EDT news703917601 A two-armed space robot blasted off on a private salvage operation Tuesday to slap life-extending jetpacks on old satellites running low on fuel thousands of miles up. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-private-mission-life-gas-communication.html Space Exploration Wed, 22 Jul 2026 04:10:06 EDT news703911327 A Southwest Research Institute and University of Texas at San Antonio experiment has passed a critical NASA review, designating it ready for parabolic flight testing. The two institutions will evaluate the performance of a patent-pending electrolyzer, the Mars Atmospheric Reactor for Synthesis of Consumables (MARS-C), in partial-gravity environments. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-electyrolyzer-ready-fly-nasa.html Space Exploration Tue, 21 Jul 2026 22:00:01 EDT news703864012