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Astronomy & Space news
'Fingerprints' inside the sun could reveal if it once swallowed a planet
It is thought the sun may have engulfed a super-Earth-sized planet early in its history. Now, a new study has gone a step further, suggesting that such an event may have left behind detectable clues inside the sun that could ...
Planetary Sciences
52 minutes ago
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A galaxy with almost no stars? New Cloud-9 observations strengthen the case
Astronomers have taken one of the deepest looks yet at Cloud-9, a candidate "dark galaxy," and found no trace of stars. The paper outlining this discovery was posted to the arXiv preprint server on Aug. 21.
Mercury is shrinking more than we thought
Mercury's surface is riddled with wrinkles, evidence of a once-larger planet that has shrunk over time. A new study finds that Mercury may have contracted 10% to 30% more than previously thought—a loss of nearly 12 miles ...
Planetary Sciences
1 hour ago
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JWST discovers that Chariklo's invisible rings are changing
Until just over a decade ago, ring systems were thought to be exclusive to the giant planets of the solar system, such as Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. However, in 2013, a small body barely 250 kilometers (155 miles) ...
Planetary Sciences
20 hours ago
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Helium measurements clarify conditions seconds after the Big Bang
New observations of the composition of distant galaxies offer insights into the earliest phases of the universe and confirm decades of scientific understanding of the elements and particles produced by the Big Bang, according ...
Astronomy
19 hours ago
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Beryllium signal identifies stars that have swallowed rocky planets
An international team led by researchers from the University of São Paulo (USP) in Brazil has developed an innovative method to identify stars that have consumed the planets around them. The technique detects variations in ...
Astronomy
16 hours ago
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Chandra uncovers 'hypersoft X-ray sources' that may solve two astrophysical puzzles
Using NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory, scientists have discovered a new class of objects behaving unlike any they have seen before. Astronomers suggest these newly spotted objects in other galaxies may help solve not one, ...
Astronomy
16 hours ago
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Discontinuity and disorder: Explaining the luminosity bump in evolved stars
Toward the end of their lives, low-mass stars undergo an abrupt dip in brightness, also known as the luminosity bump. While the endpoint of this bump is well understood, its onset has remained elusive. Now, in a paper published ...
Astronomy
19 hours ago
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Tiny salt crevices could act as miniature 'Greenhouses' for Martian microbes
We've been searching for life on Mars for a long time, but so far we've come up empty. The fundamental problem is a Catch-22 involving two of the key ingredients for life. Life as we know it needs liquid water and reasonable ...
Astrobiology
15 hours ago
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Artemis II moonshot commander and pilot are hanging up their astronaut suits at NASA
The two NASA astronauts who led the Artemis II moonshot earlier this year are stepping away from spaceflight.
Space Exploration
18 hours ago
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If alien civilizations use hyper-efficient computers, they will have a distinct energy signal we can detect
Love it or hate it, artificial intelligence is likely here to stay. Its ravenous need for computational power has overwhelmed chip manufacturers and power companies alike. While our current AI obsession is likely a bubble ...
Astronomy
16 hours ago
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What to know about Europe's push to compete in space
Key figures from Europe's space industry and other international players have converged on Paris to discuss how to advance the continent's ambitions in a global market dominated by the United States.
Space Exploration
18 hours ago
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Next-gen gravitational wave detectors could spot the first black holes
A few hundred million years after the Big Bang, the first stars ignited—literally the "let there be light" moment for the universe. Now known to astronomers as Population III, or Pop III, stars, these giants were very different ...
Astronomy
23 hours ago
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As African space race heats up, Senegal pursues homemade satellites
Senegalese engineers in hairnets and white gloves are carefully assembling a nanosatellite at a French lab—another step toward fostering their own space industry back home.
Space Exploration
23 hours ago
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A wandering black hole caught feeding on the run
Astronomers have found the first direct evidence that a wandering black hole can feed itself by dragging gas along in its wake as it moves through its galaxy. It's the first direct evidence of an accretion channel long predicted ...
Big supernova dataset challenges dark energy theory
The most comprehensive catalog of exploding white dwarf stars ever assembled has revealed new clues about dark energy, the mysterious force driving the universe's accelerating expansion. Researchers at The University of Queensland's ...
Astronomy
Sep 8, 2026
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Do black holes grow along with the universe? A new study says yes
We know the universe is constantly expanding. We also know that gravitationally bound objects, such as solar systems and black holes, seem to be immune to that expansion. But a new paper by theoretical physicists Valerio ...
Astronomy
Sep 8, 2026
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JWST finds extreme star-forming galaxies masquerading as faint quasars
A new study finds that two early-universe objects thought to be faint quasars are actually extraordinarily luminous galaxies powered by bursts of star formation. James Webb Space Telescope observations of the galaxies, seen ...
Hubble and Webb find that far-out solar system objects 'remember' the past
For the first time, scientists used the combined power of NASA's Hubble and James Webb Space Telescopes to study some of the most far-flung bodies in our solar system, trans-Neptunian objects (TNOs). Some are the smallest ...
Astronomy
Sep 8, 2026
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Eggshells-inspired aluminum material offers significant protection from space debris
There are nearly 1 million pieces of debris larger than 1 centimeter (0.4 inch) in near-Earth orbit. As we continue launching spacecraft and telescopes to explore the universe, this debris poses a significant threat of high-speed ...
Space Exploration
Sep 8, 2026
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Canada's last epishelf lake is gone for good, study confirms
Spacecraft bound for Mercury begins 'tricky' arrival
How Mercury formed its graphite crust and core
Why doesn't Venus have a moon? A new study may have the answer
Decades-old DNA mystery solved after strands are captured zipping together for the first time
These bacteria can change their diet to survive inside the body
