https://phys.org/space-news/astronomy/ en-us The latest science news on astronomy, space, and astrophysics. When NASA scientists first observed a particular radio burst from the sun in August 2025, there was nothing unusual about it. But then the radio burst kept going. Typically, solar radio bursts like these last a few hours to days. But this one was different. By the time it was over, the radio burst had lasted 19 days—far exceeding scientists' expectations and the previous record, which lasted just five days. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-nasa-missions-track-radio-sun.html Astronomy Fri, 15 May 2026 08:50:27 EDT news698053801 We may be more in the dark about dark matter than previously thought, according to a new analysis of distant galaxy clusters. Yale astrophysicist Priyamvada Natarajan, a leading theorist on the nature of black holes and dark matter, says new observational data conflicts with certain assumptions about cold dark matter (CDM)—unseen, slow-moving particles that are inferred by their effect on gravity—and may prompt a fundamental rethinking of dark matter by scientists. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-qa-dark.html Astronomy Thu, 14 May 2026 16:55:12 EDT news697996441 An international team of researchers has developed new stellar and supernova models to explain the mysterious elemental abundance patterns left by billions of supernova explosions around the Perseus constellation, which have been difficult to explain with conventional theoretical models, reports three recent studies published in The Astrophysical Journal. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-uncover-chemical-perseus-cluster-galaxies.html Astronomy Thu, 14 May 2026 16:51:31 EDT news697996262 Scientists have discovered a galaxy as it was 13 billion years ago, 800 million years after the Big Bang. It contains possible evidence of the universe's first stars and is one of the most chemically primitive galaxies observed to date. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-webb-universe-galaxies.html Astronomy Thu, 14 May 2026 14:20:02 EDT news697984547 Billions of years ago, a young spiral galaxy began to grow in a crowded part of the universe. It pulled in gas and small companion galaxies, slowly building up the bright central region and sweeping spiral arms we see today. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-astrophysicists-space-archaeology-history-spiral.html Astronomy Thu, 14 May 2026 12:28:51 EDT news697980481 The US Government has released a new trove of documents on cases of "unidentified anomalous phenomena" (UAPs)—many of which would have been described in the past as unidentified flying objects or UFOs—including photos, videos and reports of unexplained events sighted in the sky and in space. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-ufo-skies.html Astronomy Wed, 13 May 2026 23:00:01 EDT news697886684 The twinkling stars in the night sky are not just beautiful to look at. Their flickering reveals something about the varying temperatures and densities in the layers of Earth's atmosphere, which refract the light as it travels toward us. Certain stellar remnants that emit radio waves can exhibit a very similar effect. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-twinkling-pulsar-reveals-invisible-space.html Astronomy Wed, 13 May 2026 16:21:29 EDT news697908061 Researchers have developed a technique to analyze how black holes "ring" when they collide and merge: one of the universe's most dramatic events. When black holes merge, the collision produces a new, larger black hole that "rings" like a plucked guitar string or a bell while it settles into its final, stable shape. But instead of sound waves, the new black hole rings with gravitational waves: ripples in spacetime first predicted by Albert Einstein. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-statistical-technique-uncover-secrets-black.html Astronomy Wed, 13 May 2026 16:07:01 EDT news697907161 Astronomers led by the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian (CfA) have made the first direct detection of turbulence distorting light in the interstellar medium. The findings will help scientists achieve clearer imaging of the supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way galaxy. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-astronomers-turbulence-stars-distorts.html Astronomy Wed, 13 May 2026 15:27:45 EDT news697904339 NASA's TESS (Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite) has released its most complete view of the starry sky to date, filling in gaps from previous observations. Nearly 6,000 colored dots scattered across the image show the locations of either confirmed or candidate exoplanets—worlds beyond our solar system—identified by the mission as of September 2025 at the end of TESS's second extended mission. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-tess-reveals-fullest-night-sky.html Astronomy Wed, 13 May 2026 15:13:43 EDT news697903806 Silicon carbide (SiC) dust is one of the most important ingredients in cosmic dust, the tiny particles floating throughout the cosmos that eventually give rise to new planets and stars. This compound of silicon and carbon is forged in the atmospheres of dying stars, especially carbon-rich ones, but exactly how has long remained a mystery. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-recreating-dying-stars-reveals-hydrogen.html Astronomy Wed, 13 May 2026 13:40:01 EDT news697890922 When you think of outer space, you're likely picturing stars, planets and moons. But much of space is filled with clouds of gas, plasma and stardust—known as interstellar clouds. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-stardust-antarctic-ice-reveals-tens.html Astronomy Wed, 13 May 2026 10:00:50 EDT news697885201 Gravitational wave researchers working on the world's most sensitive scientific instruments have found a way to tune their detectors using a process akin to the pitch-correction used in music production. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-gravitational-detectors-autotune-harmonize-heavens.html Astronomy Tue, 12 May 2026 20:00:02 EDT news697800651 If you've ever taken an introductory astronomy class, you've probably seen the Hertzsprung-Russell (HR) diagram. This graph maps out the life cycle of stars by plotting their temperature against their luminosity, and has been a "cheat sheet" for stellar astrophysics for over a century. But the universe is full of more than just stars, and a new paper in the journal Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific by Gabriel Steward and Matthew Hedman of the University of Idaho, attempts to do for the density and mass of all objects what the HR diagram did for the lifecycle of stars—provide a coherent, visual map to represent them. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-graph-universe.html Astronomy Tue, 12 May 2026 18:20:03 EDT news697810264 Cornell astronomers are deploying a new instrument that grants them, for the first time, a better view of the universe's earliest galaxies, which can't be observed individually with traditional ground- or space-based telescopes. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-instrument-faint-early-galaxies-vast.html Astronomy Tue, 12 May 2026 17:00:10 EDT news697815721 The galaxy cluster Abell 2029 is sometimes described as "the most relaxed cluster in the universe." This moniker does not arise from some sort of mellow vibe, but rather because of how calm and undisturbed the superheated gas that pervades the cluster appears to be. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-calm-galaxy-cluster-violent-cosmic.html Astronomy Tue, 12 May 2026 16:20:04 EDT news697810382 Dark matter is thought to make up most of the matter in the universe, but the only way it interacts with its surroundings is through gravity. If two colliding black holes spiral through a dense region of dark matter and merge, gravitational waves rippling across space and time could carry an imprint of that dark matter. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-gravitational-colliding-black-holes-dark.html Astronomy Tue, 12 May 2026 15:40:10 EDT news697809782 A new AI-based approach that can "hear" inside the sun could give vital signs of the solar disturbances that have significant effects in near-Earth space and on human activities. The solar cycle is an approximate 11-year period during which the sun's magnetic activity rises and falls. The cycle begins relatively calmly. However, as it progresses, the magnetic field becomes more aggressive, leading to a surge in sunspot numbers, solar flares, and coronal mass ejections. These eruptions can disrupt satellites and power grids and thus have a direct impact on our communication technology. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-scientists-ai-sun-acoustic-heartbeat.html Astronomy Tue, 12 May 2026 11:20:09 EDT news697798921 By analyzing the data from the Whole Earth Blazar Telescope (WEBT), an international team of astronomers has discovered optical quasi-periodic oscillation (QPO) in a bright quasar known as 3C 454.3. It is so far one of the most persistent QPOs detected in the optical band. The finding was reported in a paper published April 30 on the arXiv pre-print server. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-bright-blazar-reveals-day-optical.html Astronomy Tue, 12 May 2026 10:40:06 EDT news697797306 Using data from NASA's James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), astronomers led by researchers at the University of California, Riverside have produced the most detailed map of the cosmic web ever made, tracing the network of galaxies all the way back to when the universe was one billion years old. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-jwst-cosmic-web-universe-billion.html Astronomy Tue, 12 May 2026 09:49:18 EDT news697797890 For decades, the search for life beyond Earth has revolved around a key question: What molecules should scientists be looking for on other planets or moons? A new study, published in Nature Astronomy, suggests that the more revealing clue may not be the molecules themselves, but the hidden order connecting them. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-alien-life-mars-europa-missions.html Astronomy Mon, 11 May 2026 17:00:05 EDT news697733705 The Department of Defense has released a fresh batch of images and transcripts relating to reports of unidentified anomalous phenomena, formerly known as UFOs, including pictures and descriptions from NASA's Apollo missions to the moon. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-pentagon-ufo-apollo-moon-missions.html Astronomy Mon, 11 May 2026 16:00:06 EDT news697717891 The Milky Way's galactic bulge, the bulbous region that surrounds the galactic center, contains a dense collection of stars, planets, and other free-floating objects. This region has been studied for decades with numerous ground-based and space-based telescopes, including NASA's Hubble and James Webb space telescopes. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-hubble-survey-roman-future-milky.html Astronomy Mon, 11 May 2026 15:20:01 EDT news697723621 Astronomers have discovered two early-universe galaxies where the central black holes appear to have grown far faster than their host galaxies. Observations with the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) reveal that the black holes in these galaxies, seen just 800 million years after the Big Bang, are significantly more massive relative to their host galaxies, as opposed to what astronomers see in the nearby universe. The study is published on the arXiv preprint server. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-jwst-early-black-holes-faster.html Astronomy Mon, 11 May 2026 14:40:12 EDT news697720862 Astronomers who simulate galaxies do not always get the same result, even when they start from identical conditions. New research from Leiden University shows that this is not a flaw, but a consequence of how galaxies behave—and how they are modeled. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-star-reshape-entire-galaxy.html Astronomy Mon, 11 May 2026 14:20:03 EDT news697723501 Black holes live forever, at least according to general relativity. Once material crosses a black hole's event horizon, it is trapped forever, until the last day of cosmic time. But we know that isn't true. General relativity is a classical model. It doesn't take into account the fuzzy, indeterminate nature of the quantum. We don't have a complete and consistent theory of quantum gravity, but we do have some understanding of quantum black holes. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-black-holes-dont-white.html Astronomy Mon, 11 May 2026 11:40:05 EDT news697714622 There's so little we know about circumbinary planets—planets that orbit two stars instead of one—that they can feel like the stuff of fantasy. And for good reason: to date, we've only confirmed the existence of 18 circumbinary planets, compared to the more than 6000 planets we know about in single star systems. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-star-wars-worlds-emerge-planet.html Astronomy Mon, 11 May 2026 10:20:01 EDT news697712282 Astronomers have employed the upgraded Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope (uGMRT) and the MeerKAT radio telescope to observe a galaxy cluster known as RXCJ0232–4420. Results of the new observations, published April 29 on the arXiv pre-print server, deliver important insights into the nature of this cluster. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-radio-telescopes-million-year-halo.html Astronomy Sun, 10 May 2026 14:00:02 EDT news697448337 The comet that rambled past us from another star last year likely originated in a cold, isolated corner of the galaxy that had yet to gel into its own solar system, astronomers reported Thursday. https://phys.org/news/2026-04-scientists-latest-interstellar-comet-home.html Astronomy Sat, 09 May 2026 13:50:01 EDT news696170704 Astronomers using the James Webb Space Telescope have made a surprising discovery about a galaxy long, long ago and far, far away: It isn't rotating. That's something only seen in the most massive, mature galaxies that are closer to us in space and time, said Ben Forrest, a research scientist in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of California, Davis, and first author on the paper published May 4 in Nature Astronomy. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-rotating-early-galaxy-astronomers.html Astronomy Sat, 09 May 2026 11:00:02 EDT news697113449