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. Under the leadership of the University of Bonn, a research team led by Prof. Dr. Pavel Kroupa from the Helmholtz Institute for Radiation and Nuclear Physics has discovered that galaxy clusters are about twice as heavy as previously assumed. The additional mass comes mainly from neutron stars and stellar black holes and also explains the observed quantities of heavy elements. https://phys.org/news/2026-02-stellar-remnants-mystery-mass-galaxy.html Astronomy Mon, 09 Feb 2026 18:00:04 EST news689860535 Using HARPS and HARPS-N spectrographs, astronomers have observed a nearby K-type star designated HD 176986, known to host two super-Earth exoplanets. The observations resulted in the discovery of another planet in the system at least several times more massive than Earth. The finding was detailed in a paper published January 28 in the Astronomy & Astrophysics journal. https://phys.org/news/2026-02-exoplanet-planetary-hd.html Astronomy Mon, 09 Feb 2026 09:40:01 EST news689851003 Gas giants are large planets mostly composed of helium and/or hydrogen. Although these planets have dense cores, they don't have hard surfaces. Jupiter and Saturn are the gas giants in our solar system, but there are many other gas giant exoplanets in our galaxy and some are many times larger than Jupiter. https://phys.org/news/2026-02-big-planet-large-gas-giants.html Astronomy Mon, 09 Feb 2026 09:39:51 EST news689852341 The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) was designed to look back in time and study galaxies that existed shortly after the Big Bang. In so doing, scientists hoped to gain a better understanding of how the universe has evolved from the earliest cosmological epoch to the present. When Webb first trained its advanced optics and instruments on the early universe, it discovered a new class of astrophysical objects: bright red sources that were dubbed "Little Red Dots" (LRDs). Initially, astronomers hypothesized that they could be massive star-forming regions, but this was inconsistent with established cosmological models. https://phys.org/news/2026-02-red-dots-webb-collapse-black.html Astronomy Sun, 08 Feb 2026 13:00:01 EST news689583900 For decades, astronomers have been watching WOH G64, an enormous heavyweight star in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a galaxy visible with the naked eye from the Southern Hemisphere. This star is more than 1,500 times larger than the sun and emitting over 100,000 times more energy. For a long time, red supergiant WOH G64 looked like a star steadily reaching the end of its life, shedding material and swelling in size as it began to run out of fuel. https://phys.org/news/2026-02-giant-star-eyes-astronomers-real.html Astronomy Sat, 07 Feb 2026 14:10:01 EST news689519205 Astronomers from the University of Tokyo in Japan and elsewhere have employed the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) to observe a distant ultraviolet-luminous galaxy known as CEERS2-588. Results of the observational campaign, published January 29 on the arXiv preprint server, shed more light on the nature and properties of this galaxy. https://phys.org/news/2026-02-webb-unveils-nature-distant-ultraviolet.html Astronomy Sat, 07 Feb 2026 11:50:01 EST news689502965 A group of US astronomers may have uncovered the first evidence for a dark matter sub-halo lurking just beyond our stellar neighborhood. Reporting their findings in Physical Review Letters, a team led by Sukanya Chakrabarti at the University of Alabama in Huntsville suggests that an unseen clump of dark matter could be subtly tugging on nearby pulsars. If confirmed, the result could shed new light on the elusive nature of dark matter and how it is distributed throughout our galaxy. https://phys.org/news/2026-02-pulsar-hints-nearby-dark-halo.html Astronomy Sat, 07 Feb 2026 11:00:01 EST news689419922 Aging stars can completely destroy their planets. When a star reaches the end of its life on the main sequence, it goes through dramatic changes. And those changes don't just dictate the star's fate; they can also dictate what happens to any planets that are orbiting these stars. They face a bleak future as the star's tidal force rips them apart and the intense heat vaporizes them. https://phys.org/news/2026-02-red-giant-stars-destroy-gas.html Astronomy Wed, 04 Feb 2026 18:50:01 EST news689420966 Astronomers have strengthened long-standing predictions that massive runaway stars could have originated in binary pairs, and were dramatically ejected into space when their companion stars underwent supernova explosions. Through a combination of observations and stellar models, a team led by Baha Dinçel at the University of Jena in Germany revealed that the star HD 254577 likely did just this—and that its origins can be tied back to a companion whose remnants now form the Jellyfish nebula. The research is published in Astronomy & Astrophysics. https://phys.org/news/2026-02-astronomers-runaway-star-companion-supernova.html Astronomy Wed, 04 Feb 2026 10:20:04 EST news689420154 Using the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), astronomers have discovered a new dwarf galaxy, which received designation CAPERS-39810. Further investigation of CAPERS-39810 revealed that it is an extremely metal-poor galaxy. The discovery was detailed in a paper published January 24 on the arXiv pre-print server. https://phys.org/news/2026-02-jwst-extremely-metal-poor-dwarf.html Astronomy Tue, 03 Feb 2026 07:50:03 EST news689324681 This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image features an uncommon galaxy with a striking appearance. NGC 7722 is a lenticular galaxy located about 187 million light-years away in the constellation Pegasus. https://phys.org/news/2026-02-hubble-galaxy-dark.html Astronomy Mon, 02 Feb 2026 12:36:28 EST news689257981 Using NASA's Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS), an international team of astronomers has discovered a new extrasolar planet transiting a distant star. The newfound alien world, designated TOI-6692 b, is the size of Jupiter and has an orbital period of about 130 days. The discovery was presented in a paper published January 22 on the arXiv pre-print server. https://phys.org/news/2026-02-period-jupiter-exoplanet-tess.html Astronomy Mon, 02 Feb 2026 10:20:02 EST news689247957 Cosmic radio pulses repeating every few minutes or hours, known as long-period transients, have puzzled astronomers since their discovery in 2022. Our new study, published in Nature Astronomy today, might finally add some clarity. https://phys.org/news/2026-01-puzzling-radio-pulses-space.html Astronomy Fri, 30 Jan 2026 15:30:05 EST news688994760 Astronomers have found thousands of exoplanets around single stars, but few around binary stars—even though both types of stars are equally common. Physicists can now explain the dearth. https://phys.org/news/2026-01-tatooine-planets-rare-general-binary.html Astronomy Fri, 30 Jan 2026 12:27:18 EST news688998421 It's been 54 years since the last Apollo mission, and since then, humans have not ventured beyond low-Earth orbit. But that's all about to change with next week's launch of the Artemis II mission from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. https://phys.org/news/2026-01-artemis-ii-human-mission-moon.html Space Exploration Thu, 29 Jan 2026 22:20:01 EST news688911606 New simulations performed on a NASA supercomputer are providing scientists with the most comprehensive look yet into the maelstrom of interacting magnetic structures around city-sized neutron stars in the moments before they crash. The team identified potential signals emitted during the stars' final moments that may be detectable by future observatories. https://phys.org/news/2026-01-nasa-probe-tangled-magnetospheres-merging.html Astronomy Thu, 29 Jan 2026 15:22:43 EST news688922521 Researchers from the Institute of Cosmos Sciences of the University of Barcelona (ICCUB) and the Institute of Space Studies of Catalonia (IEEC), in collaboration with the Institute of Astrophysics of the Canary Islands (IAC), have led the most extensive observational study to date of runaway massive stars, which includes an analysis of the rotation and binarity of these stars in our galaxy. https://phys.org/news/2026-01-massive-runaway-stars-milky-explores.html Astronomy Wed, 28 Jan 2026 16:51:41 EST news688841461 An international team including Cornell researcher Jake Turner has developed a novel analysis method capable of uncovering previously undetectable stellar and exoplanetary signals hidden within archival radio-astronomical data. Thanks to this innovation, scientists have discovered new radio bursts originating from dwarf stars and possibly from exoplanets. The analysis method, Multiplexed Interferometric Radio Spectroscopy (RIMS), found that some of the signals detected are consistent with star-planet interactions. https://phys.org/news/2026-01-radio-method-uncovers-hidden-dwarf.html Astronomy Wed, 28 Jan 2026 12:16:31 EST news688824961 An international team of astronomers has analyzed the data from long-term multiwavelength monitoring of a distant blazar known as OP 313. Results of the new study, published January 18 on the arXiv preprint server, shed more light on the peculiar behavior of this object. https://phys.org/news/2026-01-multiwavelength-reveals-distant-blazar-op.html Astronomy Wed, 28 Jan 2026 08:10:05 EST news688797171 Lately we've been reporting about a series of studies on the Habitable Worlds Observatory (HWO), NASA's flagship telescope mission for the 2040s. These studies have looked at the type of data they need to collect, and what the types of worlds they would expect to find would look like. https://phys.org/news/2026-01-hwo-picometer-earth.html Planetary Sciences Tue, 27 Jan 2026 17:50:06 EST news688743673 Using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), an international team of astronomers has mapped a magnetic highway driving a powerful galactic wind into the nearby galaxy merger of Arp 220, revealing for the first time that its fast, molecular outflows are strongly magnetized and likely helping to drive metals, dust, and cosmic rays into the space around the galaxy. https://phys.org/news/2026-01-magnetic-superhighways-starburst-galaxy.html Astronomy Tue, 27 Jan 2026 14:38:27 EST news688747081 New theoretical models have strengthened the case that immense, energy-harvesting structures orbiting their host stars could exist in principle in distant stellar systems. With the right engineering precautions, calculations published in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, carried out by Colin McInnes at the University of Glasgow, show that both stellar engines and Dyson bubbles can become gravitationally stable, allowing them to tap into the vast amounts of energy emitted by their host stars. https://phys.org/news/2026-01-stellar-dyson-alien-megastructures-conditions.html Astronomy Tue, 27 Jan 2026 10:51:43 EST news688733370 Some galaxies in the early universe were absolute powerhouses, churning out stars at rates that would dwarf the Milky Way's modest stellar production. These "monster galaxies," buried deep in dust between 10 and 12 billion years ago, are thought to be the ancestors of today's giant elliptical galaxies. But what drove them to grow so violently has remained frustratingly unclear. https://phys.org/news/2026-01-monster-galaxies.html Astronomy Mon, 26 Jan 2026 19:20:01 EST news688655597 At the heart of our own galaxy, there is a dense thicket of stars with a supermassive black hole at the very center. NASA's Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope will provide the deepest-ever view of this zone, revealing stars, planets, and unique objects that resist definition. https://phys.org/news/2026-01-journey-center-milky-upcoming-nasa.html Astronomy Mon, 26 Jan 2026 12:30:33 EST news688653002 Some stars appear to defy time itself. Nestled within ancient star clusters, they shine bluer and brighter than their neighbors, looking far younger than their true age. Known as blue straggler stars, these stellar oddities have puzzled astronomers for more than 70 years. Now, new results using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope are finally revealing how these "forever young" stars come to be and why they thrive in quieter cosmic neighborhoods. https://phys.org/news/2026-01-hubble-uncovers-secret-blue-straggler.html Astronomy Thu, 22 Jan 2026 16:53:40 EST news688323181 This NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope Picture of the Month brings us a scene from the distant universe. Pictured here is the galaxy cluster MACS J1149.5+2223, or MACS J1149 for short, which is located about 5 billion light-years away in the constellation Leo. https://phys.org/news/2026-01-webb-telescope-reveals-galaxy-cluster.html Astronomy Thu, 22 Jan 2026 11:31:46 EST news688303800 Sweeping winds of vaporized metals have been found in a massive cloud that dimmed the light of a star for nearly nine months. This discovery, made with the Gemini South telescope in Chile, one half of the International Gemini Observatory, offers a rare glimpse into the chaotic and dynamic processes still shaping planetary systems long after their formation. https://phys.org/news/2026-01-massive-cloud-metallic-orbiting-mystery.html Astronomy Wed, 21 Jan 2026 17:17:20 EST news688238221 Astronomers have long sought evidence to explain why comets at the outskirts of our own solar system contain crystalline silicates, since crystals require intense heat to form and these "dirty snowballs" spend most of their time in the ultracold Kuiper Belt and Oort Cloud. Now, looking outside our solar system, NASA's James Webb Space Telescope has returned the first conclusive evidence that links how those conditions are possible. https://phys.org/news/2026-01-webb-young-sun-star-forging.html Astronomy Wed, 21 Jan 2026 14:55:41 EST news688229701 Baby pictures are some of a family's most cherished artifacts. The same thing can be said of the Hubble Space Telescope and the infant stars it immortalizes in its scientific portraits. But while we know how babies are conceived and how they form in great detail, the same can't be said for star formation. https://phys.org/news/2026-01-massive-mysterious-young-protostars-hubble.html Astronomy Wed, 21 Jan 2026 13:01:49 EST news688222861 All celestial bodies—planets, suns, even entire galaxies—produce magnetic fields, affecting such cosmic processes as the solar wind, high-energy particle transport, and galaxy formation. Small-scale magnetic fields are generally turbulent and chaotic, yet large-scale fields are organized, a phenomenon that plasma astrophysicists have tried explaining for decades, unsuccessfully. https://phys.org/news/2026-01-velocity-gradients-key-large-scale.html General Physics Wed, 21 Jan 2026 11:00:14 EST news688062781