Thousands of scientists from around the world are gathered in Maryland this week to discuss new discoveries about the universe and the latest astronomical advancements during the so-called “Super Bowl of astronomy.” The 245th Meeting of the American Astronomical Society, running Jan. 12 to Jan. 16, will feature many of the remarkable findings from the…

Astronomers studying elusive supermassive black holes at the hearts of galaxies are intrigued not only by the cosmic behemoths themselves but also by the colossal jets they launch into space at near-light speeds, the biggest of which are known to span millions of light-years. In particular, the physics of what creates and accelerates these jets…

What it is: Spiral galaxy UGC 10043 Where it is: 150 million light-years away in the constellation Serpens When it was shared: December 12, 2024 Why it’s so special: This image of a spiral galaxy taken by the Hubble Space Telescope is a portrait more than two decades in the making. Like most full-color images…

Dr John Coxon, esteemed member of Northumbria University’s world-leading Solar and Space Physics research group, has been recognised by the Royal Astronomical Society for his work. Dr Coxon is a Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) Ernest Rutherford Fellow at Northumbria University who has garnered international recognition for his research into understanding the Sun’s influence…

Scientists and amateur astronomers have teamed up to upend a long-held assumption that Jupiter’s iconic swirling clouds are made of frozen ammonia — a pretty foundational revelation about the gas giant we thought we knew well. Using commercially available telescopes and spectral filters, an amateur astronomer named Steve Hill collected data to map the abundance…

How can liquid water exist on ocean worlds enclosed by icy shells? This is what a recent study published in Nature Communications hopes to address as a team of researchers led by Texas A&M University investigated how liquid water could remain stable on ocean worlds like Jupiter’s moon, Europa. This study has the potential to…

Superflare: Artist’s impression of a superflaring Sun-like star as seen in visible light. (© MPS/Alexey Chizhik) Stars like our own Sun produce “superflares” around once every 100 years, surprising astronomers who had previously estimated that such events occurred only every 3000 to 6000 years. The result, from a team of astronomers in Europe, the US…

Astronomers have used a trick of gravity and the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) to picture 44 individual stars in a galaxy 6.5 billion light-years away. The galaxy, dubbed the Dragon Arc, hails from a time when the Universe was half its current age. The observation, which uses a technique called gravitational lensing, marks the…

New year, new milestone: A cosmic quirk of nature has allowed the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) to capture images of 44 individual stars in a galaxy halfway across the observable universe — this region is so distant that astronomers once deemed identifying individual stars in it impossible, like using binoculars to spot dust grains…

What is the official process of planetary formation and evolution and is this process uniform for all planetary bodies throughout the universe? This is what a recent study published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters hopes to address as a team of researchers investigated a young exoplanet still forming within its protoplanetary disk that could offer…