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Astronomy news
Ultra-precise coatings help power the next generation of gravitational wave detectors
Researchers from The Australian National University (ANU) have engineered new optical coatings for LIGO, the global collaboration hunting gravitational waves from colliding black holes and neutron stars.
Astronomy
9 hours ago
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A cleaner X-ray view of our galactic center's hot mess
The center of the Milky Way galaxy is a chaotic place. In addition to the 4-million-solar-mass black hole known as Sagittarius A* (Sgr A*), the region is full of gas, dust, strong magnetic fields and stars in various stages ...
Astronomy
14 hours ago
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Citizen science project recruits volunteers to search for undiscovered black holes
Cosmic detectives are being called on for an interstellar mission to hunt down thousands of invisible black holes lurking in our own backyard. Space scientists from the University of Southampton need amateur astronomers to ...
Astronomy
14 hours ago
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Stratospheric observatory Sunrise-III reveals intricate solar magnetic structures
A team of researchers led by the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan discovered unexpectedly intricate magnetic structures above quiet-sun regions by observing the sun with the balloon-borne solar observatory Sunrise-III ...
Astronomy
Sep 30, 2026
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Astronomers link mysterious cosmic flashes to collisions of dead stars
For decades, astronomers have identified collisions between two neutron stars through bursts of gamma rays that can disappear in less than two seconds. But some of these violent encounters may also reveal themselves through ...
Astronomy
Sep 30, 2026
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Hidden star cluster discovered in Milky Way's crowded disk defies easy classification
Astronomers have discovered a stellar cluster hidden in the crowded disk of the Milky Way. The object, named Garro 04, was first identified as an unusual collection of stars in observations from the VVVX survey and was later ...
New simulations connect the first stars to cosmic fingerprints still visible today
Researchers have used some of the most detailed simulations yet of the early universe to investigate how the first stars and galaxies formed. Led by researchers at the University of Bath in the U.K., alongside collaborators ...
Astronomy
Sep 30, 2026
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How NASA's Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope will open a window into the Milky Way
Look up at the night sky with the naked eye and it may seem like it rarely changes. Yet the universe is in constant flux. Stars drift through space, orbiting the center of the Milky Way as planets orbit them. They rotate, ...
Astronomy
Sep 29, 2026
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Diving into an out-of-sync galaxy
Galaxies are like snowflakes: No two are exactly alike, even the spirals. The Hubble Space Telescope took a close look at the distant spiral NGC 4693 and found intriguing hints about its past. For one thing, this member of ...
Astronomy
Sep 29, 2026
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Hydrogen's distant glow opens new way to investigate dark energy
The Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment (CHIME) has shown for the first time that it can detect the faint glow of hydrogen gas from deep in the universe's past using only its own data.
Astronomy
Sep 28, 2026
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Testing tiny telescope robots reveals design changes that could improve galaxy maps
Astronomers have cataloged billions of stars and hundreds of billions of galaxies. We have found thousands of planets orbiting stars. We can also map where galaxies sit and trace how the universe changes over time.
Astronomy
Sep 28, 2026
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A tiny stellar system may be a 'satellite of a satellite'
Astronomers using data from the Euclid space telescope have discovered an exceptionally faint stellar system near the Fornax dwarf galaxy. Called Fornax-7, it appears to contain only about 170 times the mass of the sun in ...
Astronomers discover a radio galaxy with evidence of four separate jet outbursts
Astronomers have identified what may be the first example of a new class of radio galaxy, one whose central black hole appears to have launched powerful jets on four separate occasions. High-resolution observations with the ...
Black hole jets reach far beyond galaxies' visible edges, potentially deciding their fate
Galaxies are enormous and hold hundreds of billions of stars. These stars form from cold, dense gas. Every large galaxy, including the Milky Way, is wrapped in a huge envelope of gas called the circumgalactic medium, or CGM. ...
Astronomy
Sep 26, 2026
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An overlooked era of cosmology is stealing the show in the quest to understand the cosmos
Could you imagine if pagers made a comeback? Sure, your smartphone would still be your notepad-flashlight-camera-personal assistant-MP3 player-wallet-social media browser. But imagine if pagers made it so easy to do that ...
Astronomy
Sep 25, 2026
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Testing an antenna layout for the SKA-Low telescope
SKA-Low is a radio telescope under construction in Western Australia. It will operate across a wide frequency range, from 50 to 350 MHz, and will be the most sensitive telescope of its kind ever built. The completed instrument ...
Astronomy
Sep 25, 2026
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Webb detects ammonia and unexpected chill on a distant giant planet
Using the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), a team of astronomers led by the University of Maryland identified water, methane and ammonia in the atmosphere of HATS-6 b, a giant planet 500 light-years from Earth. The observations ...
Astronomy
Sep 25, 2026
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Is the universe twisted? A new check on a possible twist in the universe's oldest light
The cosmic microwave background (CMB) is the universe's oldest light, leftover thermal radiation from about 380,000 years after the big bang. Maps of the CMB offer a picture of the "baby universe" as it was 13.8 billion years ...
Astronomy
Sep 24, 2026
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Supernova or black hole: Neutrino 'flavor' may determine the fate of dying stars
As a star nears the end of its life, it faces two very different fates: It can explode as a supernova, leaving behind a neutron star, or collapse and become a black hole. What determines the outcome remains one of astrophysics' ...
Astronomy
Sep 24, 2026
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Faint young stars reveal spiral galaxy Messier 74 may be twice as large as thought
Astronomers have discovered a faint population of young stars extending far beyond the known edge of the nearby spiral galaxy Messier 74. The finding suggests the galaxy is nearly twice as large as previously measured. The ...
More news
Hubble spots an out-of-sync galaxy
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