Astronomy
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Astronomers Confirm First Atmosphere on a Rocky Exoplanet in a Star's Habitable Zone, LHS 1140 b
A Harvard-led team detects escaping helium around super-Earth LHS 1140 b, the first confirmed atmosphere found on a rocky world in a habitable zone.
JWST Detects Hidden Giant Planet in Beta Pictoris System Through Spectroscopy, Not Direct Imaging
Webb found Beta Pictoris d by reading its atmosphere's chemical fingerprint, a first for exoplanet discovery, while a separate imaging study independently confirmed it.
Astronomers Capture Clearest-Ever Image of Betelgeuse's Elusive Companion Star
ESO's Very Large Telescope captured the clearest-ever image of Betelgeuse B, showing the long-sought companion is 2.6 to 3.1 times the sun's mass.
UK Slashes Astronomy Funding, Putting Jodrell Bank's Lovell Telescope and e-MERLIN at Risk of Closure
STFC's 2.7% PPAN budget cut fully withdraws e-MERLIN funding, threatening Jodrell Bank's Lovell Telescope with closure.
Astronomers Identify AT2019ijn as a Possible New Class of Relativistic Cosmic Explosion With Record Radio Afterglow
A dwarf-galaxy transient first spotted in 2019 developed radio emission so bright, years later, that a Chinese-led team says it may define a new class of relativistic explosion.
Hubble and Webb Find Omega Centauri's First Stellar-Mass Black Hole, One of an Estimated 10,000 Missing From the Cluster
oMEGACat BH-2, a 4.46-solar-mass black hole orbited by a main-sequence star once every 94 years, is the first stellar-mass black hole detected in the globular cluster Omega Centauri.
Hubble Uncovers Four Hidden White Dwarfs Lurking Beside Nearby Red Dwarf Stars
Ultraviolet spectroscopy from Hubble confirmed four white dwarfs hiding behind red dwarf companions within 65 light-years of Earth, one first suspected 27 years ago.
Astronomers Catch a Nearby Black Hole in a Years-Long Radio Outburst Never Seen Before, Offering a Window Into the Early Universe
A low-mass black hole in a spiral galaxy 1.8 billion light-years away has stayed radio-bright for at least eight years, a transition astronomers say has never been observed before.
UC Irvine-Led Team Revises Nearby Exoplanet GJ 3378b to a Lighter, More Earth-Like Mass Inside the Habitable Zone
A UC Irvine-led study cut GJ 3378b's estimated mass and orbital period, placing the nearby super-Earth more solidly within its star's habitable zone.
Euclid Discovers 31 Ancient Quasars, Setting a New Redshift Record for the Most Distant Quasar Ever Reported
ESA's Euclid telescope has found 31 quasars from the universe's first billion years. EUCL J172902.75+641018.1, at redshift 7.77, breaks a record that stood since 2021, and the haul more than doubles the known quasars at redshift 7 or above.
Webb Finds Interstellar Comet 3I/ATLAS May Be 10 to 12 Billion Years Old, With 30 Times the Deuterium of Solar System Comets
James Webb's NIRSpec spectrograph measured isotopic ratios in interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS as it left the inner solar system, pointing to an origin during the universe's 'cosmic noon.'
NASA's Lucy Reveals Asteroid Donaldjohanson Is a Wobbling, Peanut-Shaped Relic of a 155-Million-Year-Old Collision With Traces of Past Water
Science paper details the bilobate asteroid Lucy flew past in 2025: a slow end-over-end tumble, a 26.5-day wobble, and iron-rich clays that hint at ancient liquid water.