Astronomers have made a groundbreaking discovery of a colossal bridge of neutral hydrogen gas linking two dwarf galaxies. Scientists at The University of Western Australia’s node of the International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research (ICRAR) have made a remarkable discovery: a massive structure stretching about 185,000 light-years between two galaxies, NGC 4532 and DDO 137, located some 53 million light-years from Earth.
Researchers have developed a new technology that can shape the spectrum of light emitted from a laser frequency comb across the visible and near-infrared wavelengths with more precision than previously possible. This advance could provide an important new tool in the hunt for Earth-like planets outside our solar system.
When searching for exoplanets, astronomers use high-precision spectroscopy to detect tiny shifts in starlight that reveal a star’s subtle “wobble” due to an orbiting planet. But for Earth-sized planets, these wavelength changes are smaller than the spectrograph’s natural instabilities, so laser frequency combs—lasers that emit thousands of evenly spaced spectral lines —are needed to provide a reference, acting like precise wavelength rulers.
“For astronomers, the big prize would be to find a planet with a mass similar to Earth and orbiting a star similar to our sun,” said research team leader Derryck T. Reid, from Heriot-Watt University in the U.K. “Our spectral shaper can make the lines on a laser frequency comb more uniform, which allows the spectrograph to detect smaller stellar motions, such as those from Earth-like planets, that would otherwise be hidden in the noise.”
A research team led by Prof. Liu Xiaodi from the Hefei Institute of Physical Science of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, together with researchers from Jilin University and Sun Yat-sen University, has achieved simultaneous detection of zero electrical resistance and the Meissner effect in lanthanum nickelate (La3Ni2O7−δ) single crystals under high pressure.
The researchers combined diamond nitrogen-vacancy (NV) center quantum sensing with electronic transport measurements to provide unambiguous evidence of high-temperature superconductivity in this nickelate system. The results are published in Physical Review Letters.
Superconductivity in La3Ni2O7−δ was first reported in 2023 through transport measurements, which revealed zero resistance around 80 K. However, confirming superconductivity requires detecting diamagnetism, or the expulsion of magnetic fields—the Meissner effect—which had remained elusive due to technical challenges associated with high-pressure environments and small superconducting volume fractions.
Scientists have finally observed long-sought twisting magnetic waves, known as torsional Alfvén waves, in the Sun’s corona—ending an eight-decade search that began in the 1940s.
Using the powerful Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope in Hawaii, researchers captured the first direct evidence of these small, constant waves, which may be responsible for heating the Sun’s outer atmosphere to millions of degrees.
Hidden Solar Magnetic Waves Revealed
Scientists have developed a groundbreaking tool called Effort.jl that lets them simulate the structure of the universe using just a laptop. The team created a system that dramatically speeds up how researchers study cosmic data, turning what once took days of supercomputer time into just a few hours. This new approach helps scientists explore massive datasets, test models, and fine-tune their understanding of how galaxies form and evolve.
“Eclipse mapping allows us to image exoplanets that we can’t see directly, because their host stars are too bright,” said Dr. Ryan Challener.
What can a 3D map of an exoplanet’s atmosphere teach astronomers about the planet’s formation, evolution, and composition? This is what a recent study published in Nature Astronomy hopes to address as a team of scientists presented a first-time 3D map of an exoplanet’s atmosphere based on temperature. This study has the potential to help scientists better understand the formation and evolution of exoplanet atmospheres while opening the doors for developing better methods of studying them.
For the study, the researchers used data obtained from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope to develop a new method called 3D eclipse mapping on WASP-18b, which is located just over 400 light-years from Earth and whose radius is slightly more than Jupiter’s while have ten times its mass. WASP-18b is known as an “ultra-hot” Jupiter, as it orbits extremely close to its star at 0.02024 astronomical units (AU) while completing one orbit in only 0.9 days. For context, the planet Mercury orbits our Sun at 0.387 AU and completes one orbit in 88 days. WASP-18b is also tidally locked to its star like our Moon is tidally locked to Earth.
In the end, the researchers found that WASP-18b’s “dayside” features variations in temperature and chemical composition while also exhibiting a circular “hotspot” where the largest amount of starlight hits the atmosphere. Additionally, the team found this hotspot is surrounded by a colder “ring” closer to the limbs of the planet, or the outer edges where the shape of the planet is visible.
“This discovery challenges our understanding of planetary system evolution,” said Érika Le Bourdais. “Ongoing accretion at this stage suggests white dwarfs may also retain planetary remnants still undergoing dynamical changes.”
What can white dwarf stars eating their own planets teach astronomers about planetary and solar system formation and evolution? This is what a recent study published in The Astrophysical Journal hopes to address as a team of scientists investigated an old planetary system whose planets are still actively being consumed by their white dwarf star. This study has the potential to help scientists better understand the formation and evolution of planetary systems and what our solar system could look like billions of years from now.
For the study, the researchers observed and analyzed the white dwarf star, LSPM J0207+3331, which is located approximately 145 light-years from Earth and hosts one of the oldest known planetary systems to date. Additionally, this system contains the most extensive metal-rich debris disk orbiting a hydrogen-rich white dwarf star ever discovered, which could challenge longstanding notions regarding the fate of solar systems after Sun-like stars expire and become white dwarfs.
The hydrogen-rich aspect of the white dwarf is intriguing since these types of stars typically hide successful observations of certain elements within the dust and gas of the aged solar system. Potentially the most intriguing finding from this study is the researchers discovered the remnants of a planetary body that was originally about 120 miles (200 kilometers) in diameter that got shredded by its host white dwarf star.
A new study into how spaceflight impacts the human brain and eyes revealed notable sex differences in brain fluid shifts, with female astronauts showing a greater reduction in fluid around the uppermost part of the brain than their male counterparts.
Led by Rachael D. Seidler, Ph.D., director of the University of Florida’s Astraeus Space Institute and professor of applied physiology and kinesiology, the study analyzed data from astronauts to determine how factors such as sex, age and body metrics relate to structural brain and eye changes after space travel.
The findings, published in npj Microgravity, provide key information for protecting astronaut health on long-duration missions to the moon and Mars.
Astronomers from the International Centre of Radio Astronomy Research (ICRAR) have created the largest low-frequency radio color image of the Milky Way ever assembled. This spectacular new image captures the Southern Hemisphere view of our Milky Way galaxy, revealing it across a wide range of radio wavelengths, the colors of radio light.
A paper describing this work appears in Publications of the Astronomical Society of Australia.
It provides astronomers with new ways to explore the birth, evolution, and death of stars in our galaxy.
This new NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope Picture of the Month features a cosmic creepy-crawly called NGC 6537—the Red Spider Nebula. Using its Near-InfraRed Camera (NIRCam), Webb has revealed never-before-seen details in this picturesque planetary nebula with a rich backdrop of thousands of stars.
Planetary nebulae like the Red Spider Nebula form when ordinary stars like the sun reach the end of their lives. After ballooning into cool red giants, these stars shed their outer layers and cast them into space, exposing their white-hot cores. Ultraviolet light from the central star ionizes the cast-off material, causing it to glow. The planetary nebula phase of a star’s life is as fleeting as it is beautiful, lasting only a few tens of thousands of years.
The central star of the Red Spider Nebula is visible in this image, glowing just brighter than the webs of dusty gas that surround it. The surprising nature of the nebula’s tremendously hot and luminous central star has been revealed by Webb’s NIRCam.