https://phys.org/space-news/ en-us The latest science news on astronomy, astrobiology, and space exploration from Phys.org. Using observations gathered by the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), an international team of astronomers have revealed that one supermassive black hole in the early universe must have formed before a galaxy developed around it. Publishing their results in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, a team led by Roberto Maiolino at the University of Cambridge hope their results could lead to a better understanding of the origins of these immense objects. https://phys.org/news/2026-04-monster-black-hole-galaxy-began.html Astronomy Wed, 15 Apr 2026 10:20:01 EDT news695463725 Using the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), astronomers from Johns Hopkins University (JHU) and elsewhere have observed a giant exoplanet known as HATS-75 b. Results of the new observations, published April 8 on the arXiv pre-print server, yield important information on the atmosphere of this planet. https://phys.org/news/2026-04-jwst-methane-giant-exoplanet-star.html Astronomy Wed, 15 Apr 2026 08:00:03 EDT news695375088 The Subaru Telescope observed the interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS on January 7, 2026, after it made its closest approach to the sun. By observing colors in the coma around the comet, astronomers could estimate the ratio of carbon dioxide to water. This ratio is much lower than that inferred from earlier observations by space telescopes. These findings suggest that the chemistry of the coma is evolving over time and offers clues to the structure of comet 3I/ATLAS. The work appears in The Astronomical Journal. https://phys.org/news/2026-04-subaru-telescope-captures-comet-3iatlas.html Planetary Sciences Wed, 15 Apr 2026 03:58:42 EDT news695444252 When NASA's Orion capsule splashed down in the Pacific Ocean April 10, completing a successful Artemis II mission milestone, a critical piece of the spacecraft's safe return traced back to research at Rice University. https://phys.org/news/2026-04-power-safe-astronauts-historic-orion.html Space Exploration Tue, 14 Apr 2026 20:40:03 EDT news695404981 Scientists have found that young stellar cousins of our sun are calming down and dimming more quickly in their X-ray output than previously thought, according to a new study using NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory. A paper describing the results is published in The Astrophysical Journal. Unlike in the new movie "Project Hail Mary," this quieting of young stars is a benefit for the prospects for life on orbiting planets around these stars, not a threat. https://phys.org/news/2026-04-young-stars-dim-quickly-ray.html Astrobiology Tue, 14 Apr 2026 19:20:01 EDT news695398382 Gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) rank among the most powerful explosions in the universe, releasing immense energy in intense flashes of gamma rays. The most distant GRBs originate from the era when the first stars and galaxies formed. Detecting them allows astronomers to probe the early universe and understand how the first heavy elements formed and how the earliest stellar populations lived and died. Missions like HiZ-GUNDAM, a satellite planned for launch in the 2030s by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), aim to detect these distant explosions in real time. https://phys.org/news/2026-04-distant-gamma-ray-explosions-precisely.html Astronomy Tue, 14 Apr 2026 18:30:01 EDT news695404202 Research led by Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) has integrated three types of machine learning models to generate solar magnetic patches with physical properties and used those as a query to find matching patches in real observations. This elevates generative artificial intelligence (AI) from a means to produce artificial data to a novel tool for scientific data interrogation, supporting applicability beyond the heliophysics domain. The paper is published in The Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series. https://phys.org/news/2026-04-virtual-sunspots-ai-rare-magnetic.html Astronomy Tue, 14 Apr 2026 18:10:01 EDT news695404022 Alena Tensor is a relatively new mathematical approach that allows for arbitrary curving and straightening of analyzed spacetimes. As it turns out, generalizing this model to all known fields and fully describing matter, spontaneously gives rise to the phenomena known from research on dark matter and dark energy. https://phys.org/news/2026-04-dark-alena-tensor-math-framework.html Astronomy Tue, 14 Apr 2026 18:00:03 EDT news695384357 Planets, like those in our solar system, form in a bottom-up process where small bits of rock and ice clump together and grow larger over time. But the heftier the planet, the harder it is to explain its formation that way. https://phys.org/news/2026-04-webb-redefines-line-planets-stars.html Astronomy Tue, 14 Apr 2026 16:40:06 EDT news695390761 Supermassive black holes are among the most enigmatic objects in the universe. They typically weigh millions or even billions of times the mass of the sun and sit at the centers of most large galaxies. At the heart of the Milky Way lies Sagittarius A*, our galaxy's supermassive black hole, with a mass of about four million suns. But these black holes do not emit light, so astronomers can only detect them indirectly through their effects on nearby stars and gas. https://phys.org/news/2026-04-shredded-stars-reveal-black-holes.html Astronomy Tue, 14 Apr 2026 16:10:01 EDT news695400121 Dark matter is believed to make up a large fraction of the matter in the universe, yet its true nature remains unknown. Most past experiments have focused on heavier dark matter candidates, while much lighter dark matter, with masses closer to the mass of a neutrino, has been difficult to detect directly because its scattering signals are extremely weak. https://phys.org/news/2026-04-torsion-strongest-limits-ultralight-dark.html Astronomy Tue, 14 Apr 2026 15:00:04 EDT news695386501 New research suggests that relic black holes from before the big bang may still shape galaxies today. These black holes could explain dark matter, one of the biggest unsolved questions in cosmology. https://phys.org/news/2026-04-dark-black-holes-universe.html Astronomy Tue, 14 Apr 2026 11:00:01 EDT news695380681 We have been searching for signals from other civilizations for over sixty years. Radio telescopes on Earth have swept the sky, listened patiently, and found nothing but silence. It is a search that demands extraordinary sensitivity and that is the problem. Earth and our very existence itself are getting in the way. https://phys.org/news/2026-04-quietest-weve.html Astronomy Tue, 14 Apr 2026 10:40:02 EDT news695380622 Venus, often called Earth's twin, is in fact a planet of extremes. Beneath its thick carbon dioxide atmosphere are crushing surface temperatures and dense clouds of sulfuric acid. While the planet's main cloud layer sits between 47 and 70 kilometers above the surface, scientists have long been puzzled by a mysterious layer of particles below 47 kilometers, known as the "lower haze." First detected by spacecraft in the 1970s, the origin of this haze remained unexplained for more than half a century. https://phys.org/news/2026-04-cosmic-source-venus-enigmatic-haze.html Planetary Sciences Tue, 14 Apr 2026 09:40:02 EDT news695374801 Using NASA's Chandra X-ray space telescope, astronomers have performed high-resolution X-ray spectroscopic observations of a bright low-mass X-ray binary known as GX 340+0. Results of the observational campaign, published April 3 on the arXiv pre-print server, shed more light on the composition of interstellar medium (ISM) in this system. https://phys.org/news/2026-04-chandra-explores-interstellar-medium-bright.html Astronomy Tue, 14 Apr 2026 08:00:01 EDT news695294944 The IBeA group of the EHU-University of the Basque Country is proposing new measures to safeguard the purity of extraterrestrial samples. Several contaminants, including traces of ink, originating in the preparation of subsamples, have been identified in Martian meteorites by the EHU's research group. The finding highlights the importance of stricter protocols to prevent misinterpretations of the composition of these rocks and to ensure the reliability of future studies and Mars sample-return missions. The research is published in the journal Applied Geochemistry. https://phys.org/news/2026-04-contaminants-ink-meteorites-sample.html Astrobiology Tue, 14 Apr 2026 04:13:21 EDT news695358737 For the first time, new theoretical models, published in Astronomy & Astrophysics, connect the magnetism at the surface of long-dead stellar remnants (white dwarfs) with recent evidence of magnetism at the cores of their dying progenitors (red giants). The team, led by astrophysicists at the Institute of Science and Technology Austria (ISTA), argues that these magnetic fields might originate early in the stars' lives, and survive their entire evolution, emerging as "fossil fields" at the surfaces of older remnants. A better understanding of these processes can also help to better understand our own sun's future. https://phys.org/news/2026-04-starquakes-theoretical-evidence-fossilized-magnetism.html Astronomy Tue, 14 Apr 2026 03:00:02 EDT news695314244 A study led by UC Riverside physicist Hai-Bo Yu suggests that a new type of dark matter could explain three astrophysical puzzles across vastly different environments. Published in Physical Review Letters, the study proposes that dense clumps of self-interacting dark matter (SIDM)—each about a million times the mass of the sun—can account for unusual gravitational effects observed in gravitational lenses, stellar streams, and satellite galaxies. https://phys.org/news/2026-04-interacting-dark-cosmic-puzzles.html Astronomy Mon, 13 Apr 2026 18:50:04 EDT news695317981 At this point in NASA's human spaceflight story, researchers have a substantial amount of material—documents, artifacts and images—with which to tell the stories of past flights to space. But with NASA's Artemis II mission around the moon now in the books, we're getting a refreshed look at space. https://phys.org/news/2026-04-artemis-ii-crew-modern-photography.html Space Exploration Mon, 13 Apr 2026 18:00:03 EDT news695294897 The center of our galaxy is an extreme place. Surrounding the supermassive black hole Sagittarius A*, stars are packed densely into a region where gravity, radiation, and dark matter all interact in complex ways. It is a natural laboratory for testing some of the deepest ideas about astrophysics. https://phys.org/news/2026-04-stars-galactic-center-survive-destroyed.html Astronomy Mon, 13 Apr 2026 17:40:01 EDT news695296276 The moon is Earth's only natural satellite, a rocky celestial body that orbits our planet at an average distance of about 384,000 kilometers. The most widely accepted scientific explanation for the moon's origin is the "giant impact," a high-energy collision between a Mars-sized proto-planet named Theia with the young "proto-Earth" about 4.5 billion years ago. As the newly formed moon cooled down from a hot magma ocean, layers with varying iron-content and mineral compositions crystallized to form the moon's structure that we know today. https://phys.org/news/2026-04-moon-iron-rich-thought.html Planetary Sciences Mon, 13 Apr 2026 15:40:07 EDT news695304925 The most realistic picture yet of how galaxies formed and then evolved from the beginning of time has been revealed in a suite of new and unique audiovisual simulations. These data, accepted for publication in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, show that the standard cosmological model can successfully explain the observed growth of galaxies, from the first billion years after the Big Bang to the present day, when key physics is included. https://phys.org/news/2026-04-galaxies-evolve-dawn-universe.html Astronomy Mon, 13 Apr 2026 14:20:06 EDT news695301782 Since July 2025, the European Space Agency's pair of Proba-3 satellites has already created 57 artificial solar eclipses. So far, the mission has collected more than 250 hours of high-resolution videos of the sun's atmosphere, called the corona. That's the same amount of observing time as about 5,000 total solar eclipse campaigns carried out on Earth. https://phys.org/news/2026-04-proba-science-speedy-solar-corona.html Astronomy Mon, 13 Apr 2026 14:00:11 EDT news695301302 Across Earth, every night, thousands of automated stargazers are waiting to take pictures of shooting stars. I am one of the scientists who study these meteors. https://phys.org/news/2026-04-sun-asteroid-pieces-earth-flying.html Planetary Sciences Mon, 13 Apr 2026 12:40:04 EDT news695298482 Look up at a full moon on a clear night and you are staring at a face that has been punched, gouged, and battered for 4 billion years. Those dark patches are vast basins blasted open by impacts so colossal they reshaped a world. The lighter highlands are pocked and pitted, crater upon crater, each one a frozen record of a collision that happened long before humans walked Earth. Unlike our own planet, the moon has no weather to smooth things over, no rivers to fill the hollows, and no wind to soften the edges. What hits it stays. https://phys.org/news/2026-04-moon-scar.html Planetary Sciences Mon, 13 Apr 2026 11:40:01 EDT news695295632 An international team including the University of Bern (UNIBE) and the University of Geneva (UNIGE), members of the National Center of Competence in Research PlanetS, has succeeded in mapping the climate of rocky exoplanets with masses similar to Earth for the first time. This breakthrough is based on continuous observations using the James Webb Space Telescope. https://phys.org/news/2026-04-eternal-night-day-cousins-earth.html Astrobiology Mon, 13 Apr 2026 11:00:13 EDT news695294959 British scientists have launched a crew of microscopic worms to the International Space Station in a pioneering experiment that could help unlock the secrets of long-duration space travel—and support ambitions to reach the moon and beyond. https://phys.org/news/2026-04-space-worms-microscopic-crew-orbit.html Space Exploration Mon, 13 Apr 2026 10:40:06 EDT news695294943 The successful Artemis II trip around the moon was a historic achievement—the first crewed lunar fly-by in more than 50 years, and the greatest distance yet traveled by humans from our "pale blue dot." https://phys.org/news/2026-04-artemis-ii-celebrated-world-hard.html Space Exploration Mon, 13 Apr 2026 10:40:01 EDT news695293801 Never-before-glimpsed views of the moon's far side. Check. Total solar eclipse gracing the lunar scene. Check. New distance record for humanity. Check. https://phys.org/news/2026-04-nasa-artemis-flight-sights-astronauts.html Space Exploration Mon, 13 Apr 2026 04:28:20 EDT news695273206 As NASA's Artemis II mission completed its lunar flyby, the astronauts sent back a stunning image of the colorful Earth setting behind the moon. This breathtaking photo, called Earthset, draws inevitable comparisons with the original Earthrise photo from the Apollo 8 flight in 1968. https://phys.org/news/2026-04-artemis-ii-earthset-photo-iconic.html Space Exploration Sun, 12 Apr 2026 18:00:01 EDT news694861589