Space News & Blog Articles

Supernovae play a central role in the birth of new stars. They provide a rich source of gas and dust to form stellar nurseries, and their explosions can trigger shockwaves that trigger the birth of new stars. But it all depends on where supernovae occur. A supernova that happens within a dense cloud of gas will have a very different effect than one that occurs in a large void. Understanding these effects is a challenge. It is much easier to observe a supernova while it happens rather than long before or after. But a new radio study of the Andromeda Galaxy explores these interactions.

Stars are known for their stellar winds, streams of gas and charged particles from their upper atmospheres that collide with the interstellar medium. These winds can create bow shocks in the surrounding gas. But astronomers were surprised to find a bow shock near a white dwarf star, which are sometimes called dead stars or zombie stars.

All across the Universe, black holes devour stars that stray too close. Often it's a supermassive black hole that tears a star apart in what's known as a tidal disruption event. But sometimes, it's a stellar mass black hole, and its victim is its binary star partner.

The Vera C. Rubin Observatory has discovered the fastest-spinning asteroid ever over 500 meters in size.

Combining data from different telescopes is one of the best ways to get a fuller picture of far-off objects. Because telescopes such as Hubble (visible light), the James Webb Space Telescope (infrared), and the Atacama Large Millimeter Array (radio) each collect data in different wavelengths, they are able to capture distinct features of objects like galaxies that other telescopes cannot observe. A new paper by a large group of authors, headed by Andreas Faisst of Caltech, presented at the American Astronomical Society Meeting last week and published in The Astrophysical Journal Supplement tracks eighteen early galaxies in as broad of a spectrum as those instruments can collect, and most significantly found that they seem to “grow up” faster than expected.

This is Part 3 in a series on the mathematical universe hypothesis. Check out Parts 1 and 2.

On Jan. 8th, 2026, NASA announced its decision to return the SpaceX Crew-11 mission to Earth from the International Space Station earlier than originally planned. This unprecedented move came after one of the crew members reportedly experienced a health-related issue that required full medical services. While the crew member (who has not been identified for privacy reasons) was reported to be in stable condition, NASA will go ahead with the early return mission. According to the latest updates, the Crew-11 mission team will splash down in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of California on Thursday, Jan.15th. at approximately 3:40 a.m. EST (Jan. 14th, 12:40 pm PST).

Scientists continue to push the boundaries of astronomy and cosmology, thanks to next-generation instruments that can see farther and clearer than ever before. Through these efforts, astronomers have observed some of the earliest galaxies in the Universe. In turn, this has led to refined theories and timelines of galactic formation and evolution. In a recent study, a team of astronomers led by the University of Pittsburgh (UPitt) uncovered what could be the earliest barred spiral galaxy ever observed. This finding helps constrain the timeframe in which bars first emerged in the Universe.