Space News & Blog Articles

In 2017, astronomers using the TRAnsiting Planets and PlanetesImals Small Telescope (TRAPPIST) in Chile and NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope confirmed the presence of seven rocky planets orbiting TRAPPIST-1, an M-type red dwarf star located about 39 light-years from Earth. What made the system especially intriguing was that three of these planets orbited within (or straddled) the system's habitable zone (HZ): TRAPPIST-1d, e, and f. Since then, scientists have been busy conducting follow-up observations of this system to learn as much as possible about its seven planets and whether they could be habitable.

Astronomers have found a unique blast coming from a distant supermassive black hole (SMBH). The SMBH is in a barred spiral galaxy about 135 million light-years away named NGC 3783. The Hubble recently imaged this face-on galaxy, showing its beautiful spiral arms and its center, tightly-packed with shining stars.

Supernovae aren't one of the JWST's main science themes, but the perceptive telescope is full of surprises. Recently, it pinpointed a single star in a galaxy when the Universe was only about 730 million years old. It wasn't just any random star; this one was a supernovae responsible for a gamma-ray burst (GRB) detected back in March, 2025.

(This is Part 3 of a series on primordial black holes. Check out Part 1 and Part 2!)

The UK is actively trying to support the infrastructure to make it a significant player in the coming age of the space economy. It recently received 560 proposals to it’s National Space Innovation Program, and handed out £17M in grants to 17 different organizations following five main themes. One of those is an effort by the University of Leicester and The Welding Institute (TWI) to develop a robotic welder for use in repairing and manufacturing in space, as described by a new press release from the university.

Cosmic filaments are the largest known structures in the universe, vast thread like formations of galaxies and dark matter that form a scaffolding upon which all smaller structures hang. These immense channels propel matter across hundreds of millions of light years, feeding gas into galaxies and shaping their evolution. Now, astronomers have caught one of these giant structures spinning.

Earth's climate has swung between ice ages and warmer periods for millions of years, driven by subtle changes in our planet's orbit and axial tilt. These variations, known as Milankovitch cycles, occur because Earth doesn't orbit the Sun in isolation. The gravitational pull of other planets constantly tugs at Earth, slowly altering its orbital path, the tilt of its axis, and the direction its poles point. While astronomers have long known that Jupiter and Venus play important roles in these cycles, a detailed new analysis reveals that Mars too, despite being much smaller than the gas giants, exerts a surprisingly strong influence on Earth's climate rhythms.

Almost every massive galaxy is has a supermassive black hole at its core, an object containing millions or even billions of times the mass of our Sun. Most of these giants simply lurk in the darkness, quietly consuming material from their surroundings while emitting barely a hint of radiation. But a small fraction shine brilliantly, pumping out enormous amounts of energy as active galactic nuclei (AGN). For decades, astronomers have debated what triggers this dramatic awakening. Now, a new dataset from the Euclid space telescope provides evidence that violent collisions between galaxies are the primary culprit.

If you feel a thrill every time we discover something new about the cosmos, then November 25th may have been a noteworthy day to you. That's the day that NASA completed assembly of the Nancy Grace Roman Telescope. The two main segments of the powerful space telescope were joined together in the large clean room at Goddard Space Flight Center that day. This means that the telescope is on track for launch as early as Fall 2026.